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This paper discusses the meanings and practices of multiculturalism among young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds in one of Australia's most multicultural cities. It is based on a three-year ethnographic study exploring refugee and migrant youth engaged in sports and arts in the suburbs of Melbourne known as "migrant", "ethnic" and "multicultural" areas. The result of the study indicates that multiculturalism from below can happen differently from the "place making" strategy or "ethnic enclave" idea in which ethnic minorities are viewed as creating their own ethnic colonies in isolation from the mainstream society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Life So Full of Promise: Further Biographies of Australia's Lost Generation" by Ross McMullin is a sequel to his acclaimed book "Farewell Dear People." The book focuses on the lives of three young Australians who were part of the 'lost generation' of World War I. Captain Brian Pockley, Norman Callaway, and Murdoch Mackay are profiled in the book, highlighting their pre-war potential, their war experiences, and the impact of their deaths on their families and communities. McMullin's writing is sympathetic and well-researched, providing insight into the emotional connections between the soldiers and their loved ones. The book raises questions about the worth of the war and the loss of talented young men. [Extracted from the article]

Participation in organized sports can provide a wide range of health and social benefits and, for young people from migrant and minority ethnic groups, can act as a critical mediator of inclusion and belonging. These population groups have relatively low participation rates however, with recognized barriers including costs, transport, culturally determined gender norms, culturally inappropriate club environments, a lack of knowledge and understanding of sports 'systems' and competing family priorities. Count Me In (CMI) was a mixed-methods, participatory action research project designed and implemented in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia between 2017–2019 to address these barriers. Key elements of the intervention included employment of bicultural community support coordinators, partnerships with clubs and community-based organisations, encouragement of volunteering and development of resources. This paper reports the qualitative results of the study and discusses the effectiveness and impacts of the Count Me In model for addressing participation barriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decade, there have been several efforts in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia to increase the opportunities and improve the experiences of women cyclists in recreational and racing contexts. However, cycling in Victoria and Australia more broadly continues to be a male dominated sport. This study incorporates a digital ethnography of two Melbourne-based women's cycling Facebook groups including 11 interviews with stakeholders over the period of 2017–2018 to analyse how women and girls are harnessing social media to create counter sports spaces to enhance women's cycling. The paper explores the emergence of the "virtual clubhouse" which operates as a digitally networked counterpublic, providing a space for women and gender diverse cyclists to connect, coproduce and engage in knowledge sharing practices, and build a more inclusive culture for cycling that challenges dominant, mainstream narratives of women's sport. The "virtual clubhouse" addresses a gap in the physical bicycle landscape in which cycling and cycling knowledge (including bicycle maintenance) is largely mediated by men and cycling clubs are configured as masculine spaces within Australia. This research adds further depth into a specific localised network of women cyclists to consider how physical and online sports cultures and communities are intertwined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research on older migrants' digital media use has primarily focused on understanding issues related to the 'digital divide', 'transnational capital', and '(im)mobility'. Few studies have investigated how these issues interplay and how they affect older migrants' construction of selfhood, which informs their modalities of digital engagement. This article will address this gap, by drawing on the concept of 'geographical scale', to examine older Chinese migrants' digital media use and their sense of self and belonging during COVID-19 lockdowns in Melbourne Australia. To achieve this, I analysed 31 interviews, which were collected from two sequential studies conducted in 2020 and 2021. The interview data revealed that older Chinese migrants' diverse media practices and imaginaries are embedded in and informed by multiple sets of scales of the physical body, the family and domestic realm, the community sphere, and transnational network. It is found that digital media allow participants to navigate, negotiate with and even reconfigure these scales to cope with the challenges of ageing, migration and a global pandemic. However, digital media also produce new scales that differentiate older migrants from the rest of the population to sustain the structural inequality and social unevenness in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments and other agencies seeking to tackle racism have been calling for better empirical evidence, including complaint data based on reports by people who have experienced racism. This approach requires much of those who face racism, often while offering little effective support or redress for them. There is a need to understand reporting or not reporting experiences of racism as a result of a complex interplay between different factors – as a (non-) reporting journey, rather than as a singular moment of decision. Reporting is at risk of remaining an ineffective strategy for responding to racism where the reporting pathways and support services are not sufficiently aligned with the expectations and needs of those who experience racism. This article discusses the findings of three place-based community engagement and research projects across four local municipalities in Melbourne. The projects examined locally specific community perspectives and expectations in relation to reporting pathways and support services for those experiencing racism. The analysis of this community input resulted in anti-racism roadmaps specific for each local area, which were co-developed with local communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on Ethiopian women in Melbourne Australia, in this article, we address the under-researched yet significant issue of navigating the division of domestic labour in the context of migration. We analyse data derived from a larger project based on 40 interviews with Ethiopian immigrant women to explore their perspectives on housework and how they seek to negotiate this in their households in a social context that differs from that in their sending nation. Arguing that migration to Australia has presented Ethiopian immigrant women with the opportunity to seek greater equality in the domestic sphere, we nevertheless note that their efforts to alter the unequal division of domestic labour are to a degree constrained by socioeconomic factors and gender norms as shaped within their cultures of origin. Our findings also elucidate the ways in which participants' husbands selectively adhere to notions of culture in order to perform less housework. Our article contributes to the scant research that addresses how migrant women seek to renegotiate the division of labour in destination countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia is experiencing an accelerated rate of climate-related extreme weather events, and many of the solutions to reduce the exposure to climate-risk are nature-based, governing urban forests, waterways, and stormwater. However, the governance of nature-based solutions in Australian cities is still fragmented and piecemeal, generally lacking a coherent narrative and widespread support. What is needed are institutional spaces that mainstream such solutions. In this paper, we draw on a case study of urban forestry implementation across metropolitan Melbourne, as a lens to examine the creation and evolution of such institutional spaces. We explain the functions and design characteristics of institutional spaces from the perspective of the requirements for establishing and maintaining institutional spaces and what is produced or the outcomes from institutional spaces. The mobilisation and evolution of institutional spaces are important to understand for the impact on the planning and governance of individual cities as well as the metropolitan region. Our key findings frame institutional spaces as relational, learning-oriented, collaborative, and empowering spaces that facilitate transformative agendas and actions for the mainstreaming of nature-based solutions in cities. From these findings, we identify seven recommendations for how practitioners can make the most of institutional spaces. Practitioner pointers Creating space to bridge silos, foster experimentation, and develop evidence-based policy is critical to mainstream nature-based solutions. Collaborative approaches are essential for effective institutional spaces, to participate in networking and knowledge co-production opportunities. Actors in institutional spaces facilitate mainstreaming by learning from and building on policy and practice legacies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Urban Policy & Research is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Urban Policy & Research is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper analyses the role that migrant women leaders play in sustaining precarious spaces of community-led volunteering. The voluntary sector has been theorised as an interstitial yet connective space that nourishes unmet needs of migrant women in the context of familial demands, labour market marginalisation, and a diminishing welfare state. While state-funded initiatives are often intended to address these gendered asymmetries, less is known about the dynamics of precarious spaces of community-led volunteering, and in particular about the leaders who appreciate and navigate the complexities of these spaces. Grounding our analysis in feminist geographies of volunteering literature, and employing the concept of institutional work, we interview multiple stakeholders in a network of Local Migrant Women's Clubs (LMWCs) in Australia. In this precarious space, migrant women leaders are required to bridge contradictory logics of migrant women's vulnerabilities and escalating administrative expectations under poorly-resourced conditions. Our analysis advances institutional work as a productive frame to trace linkages between divergent institutional agendas at the macro-level, and the distributed agency and invisible labour of migrant women leaders at the level of lived experience. Overall, the lens of institutional work foregrounds the tacit and intensive investments required on the part of poorly resourced migrant women leaders to maintain required circulations of care in their local communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across the world, cities are growing, blurring lines between urban and rural. In Australia, peri-urban areas are undergoing demographic shifts and extensive development. In the literature, these shifts are characterised by differences in the risk perceptions and hazard experiences between established and incoming residents. In this paper, we illustrate how some of these differences are perceived by focusing on house and contents insurance in the bushfire-prone City of Whittlesea on the fringes of Greater Melbourne. This location captures the complex relationship between growing population and high bushfire risk, and is the site of the country's deadliest bushfire event, Black Saturday, in 2009. Through in-depth interviews, we observe that residents perceive insurance as playing a role in peri-urban change. Specifically, underinsurance is understood to be a challenge faced by many impacted by the Black Saturday fires, and contributes to feelings of uncertainty regarding the capacities of changing communities to work together to prepare for and recover from future fires. Our focus on insurance is informed by the need to better understand the social qualities of this dimension of disaster preparedness and recovery, and how perceptions of insurance amid peri-urban change may help produce social patterns and trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participating, learning music and performing are key factors to joining music ensembles. This paper situates itself in Melbourne (Australia) and forms part of my research project Promoting relationships through sound in formal and informal settings where I investigated why members of an instrumental group met to share their music making and practice and how it contributes to their quality of life. I draw on a phenomenological viewpoint from questionnaire and interview data undertaken in May 2018 with the ensemble players. Data were analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis that is reported thematically under three broad headings: Music learning for self as a community, wellbeing and spirituality, and sharing music for the community. The findings show that staying active as older adults (50+) contributed to members sense of wellbeing as they continued to engage with music learning and performance. Playing for personal growth contributed positively to members quality of life as a serious leisure activity. Generalization to other instrumental community groups in Australia cannot be made. Further research is required to support the perceived meanings and benefits of planning, preparing, practicing and performing as older musicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to educational opportunities is instrumental for social integration of refugee youth. This paper reports on a qualitative case study of educational aspirations and experiences of refugee-background African youth (RAY) in Melbourne, Australia. Guided by a capability approach to social justice, in-depth interviews were conducted with two groups of RAY: those who have transitioned to higher education (HE), and those who have not transitioned to HE after completing high school. The findings show that: (a) RAY share a firm belief in the value of HE; (b) but they are differently positioned to convert opportunities into achievements – e.g. only the refugee youth with high levels of navigational capacity take advantage of the available flexible pathways to HE; (c) the stress of racism pervades the educational experiences of both groups; and (d) some African refugee youth have shown a considerable level of resilience in that, despite the challenges of racism, a history of disrupted educational trajectories and a lack of scholarly resources at home, they have transitioned to and thrived in HE. In light of these findings, the paper draws some implications for equity policies and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Urban Policy & Research is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

How might notions of what is cosmopolitan be geographically reinterpreted through the diverse settlement of recent migrants and refugees in Australia? This article brings this question to bear on Springvale, a suburb in the Australian city of Melbourne, discussing the area's geographical circulation of people, businesses and products as a means of understanding the interstices between marginalised cultures or traditions and the role of architecture and the built environment in this context. Discussion of these questions involves the description of the physical and spatial environment of Springvale, concentrating on its commercial and industrial centres. In part, this illustrates the marginalisation of certain buildings and uses, but also how the process of establishing new kinds of activity and identity alters the nature of environments. The result is that these perceptually and geographically peripheral zones are paradoxically becoming centres in a diversifying metropolis, affording new nodes of usage and inhabitation that are arguably becoming sites of "local cosmopolitanism." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared to their non-Chinese peers in Australia, Chinese international students have very low rates of effective contraceptive use and this combined with other factors impacts unintended pregnancy rates. There is limited research exploring Chinese international students in Australia's decision-making with respect to contraceptive choices. In early 2020, 26 individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18-25-year-old Chinese international students to explore factors influencing their contraceptive choices. Using both deductive and inductive analysis, seven primary themes were identified. Of note was the identification of the strongly expressed cultural value of 爱惜 (ài xī, cherishing). Cherishing was used to describe the promotion of self-protection and the protection of loved ones from any negative outcomes related to contraceptive methods. Findings suggest that cherishing has an important role to play in Chinese students' decision-making around contraception. In particular, notions of cherishing may make it difficult for Chinese international students to accept and trust the advantages of hormonal contraceptives. Moreover, the confusing and inconsistent terminology students use to describe contraceptive options may hamper their ability to access effective forms of contraception in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outbreak of COVID-19 exacerbated the structural vulnerabilities of marginalised populations globally. In Australia, international students experienced various forms of hardship due to state-mandated public health restrictions. In this exploratory study, we discuss the impacts of hard restrictions on South Asian international students studying at universities in Melbourne. Visa temporality, limited work rights, concentration into precarious and low-paid work, obligations to pay costly higher education fees, and exclusion from social security and universal healthcare contribute to the long-term structural vulnerabilities of international students in Australia. With restrictions in Melbourne leading to widespread job loss in the hospitality and accommodation services sectors during 2020-2021, the state response to pandemic caused further marginalisation of internaitonal students. We show how the public health response to the COVID-19 worsened, rather than protected or improved, self-reported health and wellbeing outcomes for our participants. By centring the lived experiences of South Asian international students, our research contributes to a growing body of evidence detailing how the public health response to pandemic has further subordinated temporary visa holders in Australia. In the future, we recommend inclusive, equitable public health responses which universalise key protective measures such as social security support, regardless of citizenship or visa status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper adds to the existing insights into the occurrence, explanations for and experience of Islamophobia in Australia by focusing on contact with the 'other' in suburbs with high concentrations of Muslims. The study was conducted in two diverse and socio-economically disadvantaged localities with high Muslim concentrations in metropolitan Melbourne. A mixed method approach was used: a quantitative analysis of 2016–2017 survey data in two suburbs (N = 301), Broadmeadows and Fawkner in Melbourne's north, followed by local experiences of Islamophobia, drawing from 36 semi-structured follow-up interviews with local residents, while keeping in mind specific local circumstances. It was found that positive contact with diverse neighbours makes people less Islamophobic, but negative experiences makes them more Islamophobic. These findings provide evidence for the 'contact theory' as well as the 'threat theory' in explaining local variations in the levels of Islamophobia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia's concentrated population presents particular challenges for touring music acts. The country's capital cities are few, and the distance between these cities is not dotted with the type of vibrant regional music scene commonly found abroad. Yet due to an array of state and federal arts grants – all aiming to subsidisze music touring – many Australian inner-city acts venture out to these destinations hoping to find conductive performance environments. In this paper, we map the experiences of a number of Melbourne and Brisbane bands – via interviews and case study – as they tour outside of their local/city scenes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper designs a refueling system for battery electric buses (BEBs) by applying battery-swapping technologies together with a local charging system. The service capability of battery-swapping stations (BSSs) is restricted by the number of installed swapping robots. Depleted batteries are charged at BSSs which is equipped with a local charging system having a number of standby batteries and chargers in various types. This study intends to answer four fundamental questions: How many BSSs should be installed? Where should they be? How to assign the depleted electric buses to BSSs? What is the service capability of the BSS? An integer linear program is first formulated to represent the problem with deterministic demand. A two-stage stochastic programing model is then formulated to handle the demand uncertainties, which is then solved by a customized gradient algorithm. The test on a real network of the southeast region of Melbourne in Australia verifies the feasibility of the proposed model and draws managerial insights for the location and configuration of BSSs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates end-of-life decisions, ethnic influences and memorialisaton of Chinese immigrants in Melbourne, Australia. Drawing on interviews with 41 participants including 25 individuals and 16 community or industry stake holders, we present insights into what this group experiences and how they negotiate end-of-life choices to accommodate their hybrid circumstances as immigrants. We find evidence of merging cultures that suggests a new Chineseness played out in diverse ways. We also found this group of Chinese had acquired a sense of belonging relating to being together with family and friends that they wished to continue beyond their lived experience. Their adopted new home in Australia provided an opportunity to be together now and forever. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban greening can enhance sustainability and liveability, through conserving biodiversity, mitigating urban heat and enhancing people's health and wellbeing. However, urban greening is complex, as it occurs in unique ecological settings, with social, cultural and economic factors shaping the forms it takes. This raises questions about the governance of urban greening, including what counts as 'good governance'. In this paper, we first outline principles of good governance drawn from the natural resource management context. We then present four urban greening initiatives from Melbourne Australia representing different scales, land tenures and organising structures. Following this, we analyse how governance of the four initiatives addresses good governance principles. Our analysis shows that there are diverse ways in which urban greening can be practiced and governed. The importance of more 'informal' initiatives should not be discounted relative to formalised initiatives, as a spectrum of approaches can be seen as strength. Further, in determining what constitutes good governance, the standards against which initiatives are assessed should be tailored to their specific circumstances, and consider impacts to the environment itself. These findings point to good urban greening governance being both situated and principled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the challenges of using feminist pedagogies in the development of school-based interventions to address Violence Against Women in Sexuality and Relationships Education in Australia. The focus of the paper is a feminist-based classroom program developed by a group of teachers, which was piloted in three secondary schools in Melbourne. The paper uses interview data from the teachers who taught in the program as well as the students who completed it to explore the feminist discourses embedded in the key program resources. The analysis shows that the program draws heavily on liberal and radical feminist approaches, both perceived by many gender scholars as having limited understandings of gender by comparison with post-modern approaches. The data also indicate that these approaches have the potential to elicit powerful responses from students, raising their awareness of sexism, objectification and sexual safety. The paper concludes by arguing that, while many scholars see post-modern approaches as conceptually superior, they are in practice extremely difficult to operationalize and therefore of limited practical use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As urban planners focus on creating more sustainable cities, there is an increasing need to plan for other species. Found in around 40% of Australian households, dogs have a growing, legitimate presence in urban culture and society. Dogs however remain a neglected subject of urban planning scholarship and practice. This paper critically examines the practice of strategic planning as it applies to dogs in the urban context of Melbourne, Australia. Through a narrative of the institutional voices of practising strategic planners and other institutional discourse of local government, this paper provides a critical examination of how strategic planners shape – and limit – the concern of urban planning. This paper provides a deeply critical glimpse into the modus operandi of the strategic planner negotiating controversy on planning’s frontier. Institutional ontology is shown to dominate any efforts of strategic planners to effect change to urban planning’s field of concern.ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHERCopyright of Australian Planner is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pre-stressed unbonded retrofit (PUR) CFRP strengthening of steel structures is becoming a common method of strengthening metallic structures. This paper presents a comprehensive study on the use of the PUR CFRP-strengthening method for strengthening a steel bridge in Melbourne, Australia. Finite element analysis is performed in this study to model the entire bridge and the strengthened element, and the model is validated using actual on-site measurements which showed the stress developments of two girders before and after strengthening when a fully loaded truck passed over the bridge. A parametric study is performed to investigate the stress development of steel girders strengthened with the PUR system under different girder-deck levels of rigidity. The results showed a perfect match between the finite element modelling and actual measurements, and the effectiveness of the PUR system under critical conditions such as different girder-deck stiffness connection levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an approach to earthworks design and construction for residential, industrial and commercial developments in the eastern states of Australia, mostly for Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. This approach has been implemented successfully over a range of projects and development types, for various ground conditions, over a period of 15 years. The approach has benefited from the Authors' experience with claims and disputes arising from earthworks. It is acknowledged that there are many possible approaches to earthworks projects, and the intention of the paper is to raise awareness of the importance of a unified approach to earthworks design, construction, testing and documentation, auditing and certification consistent with AS3798-2007. The paper argues that whilst the 'earthworks specification' is a major component of the earthworks approach, it is only part of the approach. Far too often a few notes on a civil drawing represent the entire thinking regarding the earthworks component of a project/development. Often drawings and specifications are prepared with little evidence that the works have been designed for particular end use. Included in this paper is an example earthworks specification, and discussion of various clauses in these, in light of usual practice and the Authors' experience with earthworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the stories of eleven middle-class professionals from Bogotá, Colombia living in Melbourne, Australia. They reflect on class and status while trying to navigate the Australian social structure and position themselves and others in it. Drawing on theories of migration and class, we argue that the participants position themselves in Australian society not only in relation to the local social structure but also through beliefs they have about Colombian social structures, particularly the socioeconomic stratification system. This involves reinterpretation and adaptation of pre-conceptions and beliefs according to the new reality. Further unexpected findings included that English proficiency is crucial to the social mobility and integration of Colombian migrants in Australia. Most respondents perceived education as their best asset, but felt that their chances of success depended on English skills. This research contributes to knowledge of Latin American migrants in Australia and the Colombian socioeconomic stratification system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, contestation over the use of water resources remains fierce and these contests extends into regional cities and urban capitals. The 2008 Echuca Declaration by the Murray Lower Darling Indigenous Nations called for a share of these water entitlements to be legally and beneficially owned by First Nations with an associated right to use such resources for economic liberation – termed as 'Cultural Flows'. This was necessary because of the inadequacies First Nations of the Murray–Darling Basin encountered when seeking legal recognition of their cultural rights to water; but as the literature has shown these difficulties are not unique to just First Nations of the Murray–Darling Basin. Similar problems confront First Nations throughout Australia, especially so in urban Australia. There is limited research into how Cultural Flows can be procured in cities, or how recycled water and treated urban stormwater runoff might have a part to play in the achievement of cultural water management objectives set by Indigenous communities. Centred on the Victorian planning scheme, this research aims to bridge this gap through a policy analysis of recycled water and urban stormwater runoff governance. From here, how this approach might be implemented is discussed.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the first of a pair of articles examining the discourse in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand regarding Stanislavsky. Moving from a brief description of my own encounter with Stanislavsky in student and fringe theatre of 1990s Melbourne, I provide a series of descriptive snapshots gathered through an informal survey of how Stanislavsky is invoked in teaching and practice in the region. I conclude that although theatre and training have evolved over the last forty years, the symbolic capital associated with Stanislavskian realism remains relatively unchanged. Ian Maxwell's contention that Australasian practitioners are "bowerbirds" who scavenge detritus to adorn idiosyncratic theatrical assemblages holds true. One clear irony emerges, namely that although Stanislavsky considered his focus to be the practice of acting, his methods are most often taught as an aid in analysing written playscripts – perpetuating a distinction between historical "outside in" psychological approaches, versus allegedly more innovative "inside out" methods. Stanislavskian concepts are, in essence both remembered and forgotten when navigating acting in the region today. These tensions within Stanislavskian discourse complicate his reputation even as his link with realist dramaturgy ensures his relevance. The rhetorical, ideological and political implications of these associations are further developed in the second article to follow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is growing recognition of the importance of local governance, for both self-determination and the quality of decision-making. While many authors acknowledge the potential of local governments in providing opportunities for democratic engagement, there is the need for more research into the conditions under which this takes place. The objective of this research is to investigate why, or under what circumstances, local governments enhance participation in and deliberation about major projects in Australia. It does so by analysing two case studies where local governments were highly engaged in advocacy with their communities against large development projects; the East West Link tunnel in Melbourne and the Coal Seam Gas projects of Northern NSW. It finds local governments engaged in these projects due to institutional culture, practices and values, formed after demographic changes in the 1960s and 70s, and associated changes in the place-attachment qualities of residents and the nature and content of their social capital. Through historical instances of community mobilisation, these values became embedded in local governments, enabling them to respond pro-actively to subsequent threats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global city literature is largely economic-centric and pays insufficient attention to the important issue of migration. Underpinned by a theoretical cross-fertilization of the global city and the knowledge city theses, this study investigates migrant knowledge workers (MKWs) in Melbourne, which has multiple identities as a global city, a knowledge city and a migration city. By doing so, this study aims to use migration as an alternative indicator of a global city and unpack the association between MKWs and the formation of a global knowledge city. It analyses Melbourne's knowledge economy, and socio-economic attributes and spatial patterns of MKWs compared with other demographic groups. The results show that Melbourne has a higher concentration and stronger growth of knowledge intensive industries than Australia's national average, for which MKWs provide the substantial workforce. Further, the MKWs demonstrate a different set of socio-economic attributes and settlement patterns that have profound impacts on local communities. This paper concludes with a discussion linking the global city, the knowledge city and migration theories through the nexus of MKWs, to provide a better understanding of associated urban transformations and inform policy implications for a contemporary global knowledge city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last 20 years has seen a great increase in Pacific Islander migration to Australia and also a subsequent rise in the number of Australians from Pacific island backgrounds. Perhaps one of the most visible spheres where this migratory phenomenon can be witnessed is in the massive over-representation of Pacific Islanders in both rugby codes. This paper examines the effects of professionalisation and the Super Rugby expansion into a ‘non-rugby’ state and subsequent efforts of the Victorian Rugby Union (VRU) to develop ‘home-grown’ talent, namely through its Pacific Island Programme. Whilst a minority sport in Australian Rules football centric Melbourne, rugby has grown considerably over the past decade, primarily because of the influx of players, especially junior ones, from Pacific Island backgrounds. The VRU has recognised this by developing a variety of rugby programmes focusing on the outer suburbs of Melbourne (away from its traditional base in the private schools) in response to the settling patterns of Pacific Islanders and their involvement in the game. This paper considers how such focus on Pacific Islander talent facilitates pathways to elite and professional rugby opportunities and thus contributes to the creation of the rugby labour migrant. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper looks comparatively at the process of social change and its impact on local community cohesion in two Melbourne suburbs, ‘Northburb’ and ‘Greenburb’. The two localities are geographically close, part of the same local government area and both highly ethnically diverse, but considerably different in terms of their socio-economic and ethnic profiles. Based on ethnographic data collected through individual interviews, focus groups and participant observation in 2012–2013, the paper shows how the process of deindustrialization and the switch to service economy over the past decades took distinctly different turns in the two localities. Our data suggest that the processes of social change seem to have diminished local community cohesion in both localities. In Northburb, gentrification has contributed to socio-economic polarization, while Greenburb has lagged behind in socio-economic indicators and experienced ethnic fragmentation due to a considerable influx of new immigrant groups. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper argues that a recent resurgence in Australian spatial planning has been superseded by a resort to infrastructure to address urban problems. The paper uses case studies of the Melbourne and South East Queensland (Brisbane) metropolitan regions to chart the renewal of new spatial planning, after a period of neglect. This paper then shows this spatial planning renewal has given way to a new emphasis on urban infrastructure planning as the primary mode of intervention in these cities. The infrastructure turn raises important questions about the spatial planning and infrastructure of cities within a new era of global strategic challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper uses a social selection and social adaptation framework to investigate whether problematic substance use normally precedes or follows homelessness. Clarifying temporal order is important for policy and program design. The paper uses information from a large dataset (n=4,291) gathered at two services in Melbourne, supplemented by 65 indepth interviews. We found that 43% of the sample had substance abuse problems. Of these people, one-third had substance abuse problems before they became homeless and two-thirds developed these problems after they became homeless. We also found that young people were more at risk of developing substance abuse problems after becoming homeless than older people and that most people with substance abuse issues remain homeless for 12 months or longer. The paper concludes with three policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An improved understanding of both community attitudes toward tourism and host–guest interaction is vital for the sustainable development of tourism. However, there are significant research deficiencies and gaps in these two related research areas. This conceptual paper looks into these glaring research gaps through a review of literature and attempts to provide solutions suggested by an ongoing research project being conducted in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. In particular, while this paper addresses the impacts of personality and ethnicity on community attitudes toward tourism and points to the urgent need for a well-established theoretical framework in order to understand and predict host–guest interaction, it also highlights the above issues in the context of the urban–rural fringe, the bordering region connecting neat ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the main components of Grassland Fire Danger Index, grassland curing degree provides crucial information for determining grassland fire danger. Accurate estimates of grassland curing are critical for determining grassland fire risk. This research focuses on the use of Landsat 8 to estimate grassland curing. Results demonstrate that Landsat 8 observations can be used to estimate curing percentages as assessed by visual and ground sampling measurements. Grassland interannual variability for the Greater Melbourne region using Landsat 8 imagery from 2013 to 2019 is examined. Slight differences in curing times and degree are observed for sample sites surrounding Greater Melbourne due to climatic differences across the region. Precipitation is regarded as an essential variable affecting curing degree and this relationship is evident for all five sample sites. Landsat 8 curing results are compared to both visual observations and destructive sampling, the most accurate method, for accuracy assessment. At 95% confidence level, Landsat 8 estimations are no different from destructive ground sampling estimations. Overall, this study validates the use of Landsat 8 data as an effective and accurate way for grassland curing monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epidemic thunderstorm asthma (ETSA) is due to a complex interaction of environmental and individual susceptibility factors, with outbreaks reported globally over the last four decades. Australia has been particularly susceptible with nearly half of episodes reported internationally, culminating in the catastrophic Melbourne 2016 event. Reported ETSA episodes are reviewed for common environmental and meteorological risk factors. Allergen aerobiology interaction with thunderstorm activity and rapid weather condition changes is examined. Assessment of the clinical and immunological data highlights risk factors for ETSA presentation, hospital admission, and intensive care admission. Risk factors associated with ETSA deaths are evaluated. Public health strategies, as well as pharmacological and immunological management approaches to reduce individual susceptibility and prevent ETSA are discussed. Improved understanding of the specific meteorological factors predisposing to the greatest risk of ETSA to improve forecasting is required. Better monitoring of aeroallergen levels in areas of greatest geographic risk, with further research into allergen aerobiology underpinning mechanisms of allergen exposure is needed. The role of climate change in increasing the risk of ETSA outbreaks requires further research. Public awareness and education are required to reduce exposure, and to improve uptake of pharmacological and immunological risk reduction and preventive strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the advertising industries in both Sydney and Melbourne and the development of a truly national industry from the 1920s to the 1980s. The relationship between the two cities has been largely complementary rather than confrontational, with Sydney's business acumen complemented by Melbourne's creativity. However, the growing concentration of business in Sydney would see its agencies and their client-focused culture emerge as the dominant partner in the two-city relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates the spatial frames that are mobilised in the discourse and practice of border policing in the Australian context and the ideological content in which those frames are embedded. On the one hand, a deterritorialised frame positions unwanted migrants as a global threat from beyond. On the other, a territorialised frame enables the possibility of sovereign territorial defence. Neither of these frames, I contend, adequately captures contemporary techniques of border policing which increasingly open borders to global market ideology in the very act of their defence. Nor do they capture the strategic opportunities that exist across different places and scales to resist sovereign logics of control. The paper drills down to the level of the city and the experience of asylum seekers in Melbourne in order to further highlight the limits of simplistic spatial frames. I show that both in local sites and at territory's edges, border policing is indicative of a new terrain of sovereign practice. Accordingly, I present an analytical and normative case for a multidimensional approach to spatial framing. I argue for theoretical openness to spatial metaphors that assist in the tasks of empirically investigating and politically unsettling technologies of contemporary border control. Este articulo investiga los marcos espaciales que se han puesto en marcha en el planteamiento y la practica de vigilancia de la frontera en el contexto australiano y contenido ideologico, en los que se han incluido aquellos marcos. Por un lado, un marco de desterritorializacion situa a los migrantes indeseados mas alla de una amenaza global. Por el otro, un marco territorializado habilita la posibilidad de una defensa de soberania territorial. Ninguno de esos marcos, yo sostengo, capta adecuadamente las tecnicas contemporaneas de la vigilancia de frontera, que progresivamente abre fronteras a la ideologia del mercado global al mismo momento de su defensa. Tampoco captan las oportunidades estrategicas que existen a traves de lugares y escalas diferentes, para resistir las logicas soberanas de control. El articulo va hasta el nivel de la ciudad y la experiencia de los buscadores de asilo en Melbourne, para resaltar mas aun los limites de los marcos espaciales simplistas. Demuestro que tanto en los sitios locales, como en los bordes del territorio, la vigilancia de frontera es un indicativo de una practica soberana de un nuevo terreno. Por consiguiente, presento un caso analitico y normativo para un enfoque multidimensional, a una enmarcacion espacial. Yo sostengo una apertura teorica, a las metaforas espaciales que colaboran con las tareas de la investigacion empirica y las tecnologias politicamente desestabilizantes del control de frontera contemporaneo. [image omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the data from a sample of women converts to Islam residing in Melbourne, Australia, and the difficulty they face in accessing mosques. Although conversion requires structure and support through the performance of religious rituals, Muslim women converts are hindered in their ability to freely access and enjoy mosques. This is despite historical freedom for women to access the Prophet's mosque. It appears that the trend to exclude women from mosques has been imported into the Australian context due to the strong ethnic identification of mosques with immigrant communities that are used to greater degrees of sex segregation than is generally practiced in Australia. The paper briefly reviews the role of the mosque in Muslim community life and its importance for new converts in facilitating their transition as a source of support after conversion. After examining the pattern of attendance at the various mosques in the greater metropolitan area, the paper reviews the historical debate over women's presence in the mosques; analyses the challenges of gender discrimination posed by culture, ethnicity and exclusion; and relates it to the hardship for new women converts to Islam in Australia, prompting some of them to a passive boycott. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Master planned estates have grown in number Australia and internationally as a favoured form of development in new and infill estates. This paper explores the use of legal entities known in the state of Victoria as owners' corporations to hold communal assets in private ownership for the exclusive use of those living in master planned estates. The privatization of assets that would normally be held by municipal government has been associated by some with heightened conflict in estates, greater costs for residents and increased separation from the larger community. This paper seeks to investigate the motivations and attitudes of both local government planners and developers in utilizing forms of private collective ownership in residential estates in a major city of Australia, Melbourne. This empirical investigation demonstrates that developers generally utilize these ownership structures in order to provide a different, but not necessarily better, standard of facilities as a means of market differentiation. Planners, on the other hand, are more diffident in their endorsement of privatized community ownership and demonstrate a degree of concern about their changed relationship to residents in such estates. The research suggests that issues relating to this choice of ownership of community assets have not been fully considered by local government, particularly in terms of protecting the long-term interests of residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Privileged' Jews include those prisoners in the camps and ghettos who held positions which gave them access to material and other benefits. Subject to extreme levels of coercion, these victims were compelled to act in ways that have been judged as both self-serving and harmful to fellow inmates. Such situations, which exemplify what influential theorist Lawrence Langer terms 'choiceless choices', are the chief concern of Primo Levi's paradigmatic essay on the 'grey zone'. In light of these key conceptualizations of the ethical dilemmas of Holocaust victims, the paper analyses the representation of 'privileged' Jews in several videotestimonies recorded at the Jewish Holocaust Museum and Research Centre (JHMRC) in Melbourne, Australia. It will be shown that judgements of victims in extremis cause considerable problems for attempts to testify to the complex situations and experiences of 'privileged' Jews. The role of the interviewer is a crucial factor in this, particularly when interviewers are themselves Holocaust survivors. The paper reveals that while it might be argued that moral evaluations of 'privileged' Jews should be suspended, judgements are often imposed on Holocaust testimonies in various ways and have a significant impact on their content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The appearance in inner Melbourne in the past decade of high-rise residential buildings for middle- and upper-income households has been contrasted with previous periods when such buildings were for public housing tenants. Drawing on the narratives of high-rise developers and planners about these new buildings, the paper demonstrates an inconsistency between their claims that the housing is socially innovative and their expectations that the choices of housing consumers to live in high-rise housing will conform to longstanding stereotypes. Whilst they claim to be identifying a new group of housing consumers - 'empty nesters' - and to be satisfying their needs, in fact the high-rise developers' views of this group are premised on conventional and taken-for-granted views of the relationship between certain life-stages and certain housing forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reports the findings of survey research recently completed in Melbourne, Australia, among a sample of 455 club and rave festival patrons. This research aims to provide a clearer account of the prevalence of drug driving within such settings in Melbourne, as well as identifying relevant ‘predictors’ of this drug driving. Just under half of the sample (48%) indicated that they had driven a motor vehicle within four hours of consuming an illicit substance at least once in the past year; 22% of respondents reported driving while ‘knowingly intoxicated’ in the previous year. Fifteen percent reported such behaviour ‘several times’ or more in this time. Relatively permissive attitudes towards drug driving, coupled with higher than average prevalence of drug driving in one's peer group, were found to be significant predictors of drug driving. So too was the reported frequency of the use of cannabis and ecstasy, and the propensity to use these substances in ‘rave’ and ‘party’ settings. Given the levels of drug driving revealed in this study, the paper closes with a series of recommendations regarding the design and delivery of more effective anti-drug-driving strategies within rave and club settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aimed to explore the family planning perspectives and experiences of Afghan women and men living in Melbourne. A total of 57 Afghan women and men participated in six focus groups and 20 semi-structured interviews. The majority of participants indicated a preference for two or three children and were open to using modern contraception. However, many women described experiencing negative side effects when using hormone-based contraception and expressed difficulty negotiating condom use with their husbands as an alternative. Some women described how these difficulties resulted in inconsistent contraceptive practices and, at times, unintended pregnancy. Participants recognised that health professionals have an important role in addressing their family planning needs. This study highlights the ways in which Afghan women and men are changing in relation to their family planning beliefs and practices, and the opportunities, challenges and transcultural tensions they experience as they navigate these issues in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the dynamic and asymmetric responses of house prices to changes in mortgage interest rates in Australia from January 1995 to November 2017. We propose a threshold intervention model to distinguish between the effects of positive versus negative changes in the standard variable interest rate. The results indicate that rising interest rates decrease house prices more than falling interest rates increase them. For example, a 1% decrease in interest rates increases Sydney's house prices by 0.7%, whereas a 1% increase leads to a 1.5% fall. The findings also support the view that when interest rates are on the rise, house prices in larger capital cities such as Sydney and Melbourne fall faster than in their smaller counterparts. Our findings imply that a rise in interest rates may thus lead to sharp, fast and significant falls in house prices, a phenomenon which will not simply be a symmetric unwinding of earlier price increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geographic information systems (GIS) are a rapidly evolving technology that has recently been integrated into undergraduate and postgraduate learning. GIS is also a multidisciplinary technology that has important relevance beyond its traditional disciplinary homes. This paper describes an initiative developed by the Department of Geomatics at the University of Melbourne, Australia, to create multimedia-based self-learning modules for teaching GIS to undergraduate and postgraduate students. The modules are designed to complement rather than replace existing approaches to learning such as formal lectures, practical laboratory assignments and major project requirements. The learning modules have been developed using Macromedia Director and are delivered interactively via the Internet. This paper examines the pedagogical issues of learning that accompany technological advancement and practical issues of module development. It discusses results from preliminary student evaluations and examines the broader learning opportunities associated with flexible delivery mechanisms such as the Internet. Further details and access to all modules are available at http:// www.geom.unimelb.edu.au/gisweb/. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of Gross and Rutland's paper is to analyse the problem of antisemitic bullying in contemporary Australian state schools by investigating the case of Jewish children in those schools. The study is interdisciplinary, drawing on historical data and educational methodology, and employs a qualitative approach through semi-structured interviews conducted in Sydney and Melbourne with all the major actors: students (55), teachers (10), principals (4), parents (13) and Jewish communal leaders (10). Gross and Rutland argue that classical anti-Jewish stereotypes are perpetuated in the school playground, transmitted by children from one generation to the next. This finding provides an additional perspective to the general literature, which argues that racial prejudice and stereotypes are acquired primarily through home socialization, religious institutions and the media, and neglects the role of the school playground. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]