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"Temporary" and "tactical" (T/T) urbanism is argued to herald a more agile future for urban design and planning, enhancing urban intensity, community engagement, innovation, resilience and local identity. Drawing on interviews with expert practitioners, this paper explores the distinctive character of Australian "T/T" urbanism approaches. It examines their diverse, dynamic assemblages of actors and interests, and their links to neoliberal deregulation, austerity, gentrification, and to long-term state planning and investment. While Australian T/T urbanism follows overseas precedents, it is seen less as a"DIY" or "guerrilla" response to neoliberal regimes, and more focussed on enhancing citizen engagement and collaboration within planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children's poverty has long been a central concern for policy makers and policy researchers. The body of extant research conducted and the range of programmatic interventions undertaken by successive governments in this and other countries is extraordinary. Nevertheless, children remain in poverty. Clearly there are many reasons for this, not least of which is the maintenance and intensification of market capitalism with its attendant blatant inequalities. Even so, the moral, political, social and economic imperatives for developing workable responses to children's poverty remain. This paper argues that we, in Australia, should adopt an approach increasingly taken in the UK. Drawing on, among other things, the new sociology of childhood, this approach begins not with the expertise of adult researchers and policy makers, but with that of children. In doing so, the case is made for why children's perceptions and experiences of poverty are key concerns for policy. The paper outlines in theoretical terms why children's voices matter. Invoking the new sociology of childhood and the sociology of identity, a conceptual framework for understanding why policy scholars and makers should carefully attend to the voices of their subjects is sketched - in this case, the subjects are children. Finally, some methodological implications of this for undertaking policy research informed by this approach are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws upon the 2001 census to examine the impact of national economic reform on the growth of regional cities. The paper argues that regional cities in Australia have taken on new roles within both their region and the national economy. It argues that deregulation of the economy has contributed to the growth of some regional cities and especially those that have been able to deepen their economies. Through the use of regression analysis, the paper suggests that regional centres that have witnessed an increase in the level of specialisation within their economy have, on average, grown more quickly than other cities. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for our understanding of the evolution of urban systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Funding of local government systems in Australia has been falling relative to other tiers of government for the past 30 years with various adverse consequences, especially the decline of local government infrastructure. This paper seeks to explain this phenomenon by drawing on two relatively new theoretical strands in the political economy literature; the Australian theory of local government failure and the Wittman model of democratic efficiency. Three explanations are assessed: a traditional public finance perspective, Australian local government failure, and the institutional efficiency of democratic preference revelation. A secondary aim of the paper is to evaluate the implications of the Wittman model for the local government failure paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines discourses and developments of the knowledge economy and learning society in Australia and New Zealand. It outlines the international context of the rise of the knowledge‐based economy and sets the New Zealand and Australian debates against this backdrop. A current heightened emphasis on education and learning in both countries is closely aligned with the key imperatives of economic development and competitiveness. Older models of the learning society based more on cultural and humanistic aspirations remain evident and competitive with economic models. Prospects for further innovative development in education and learning across the life course, and across a broader population in democratic societies are considered. The paper concludes that notwithstanding the current influence of singularly economic discourses shaping conceptions of the learning economy and society there is no definitive or triumphant model of the learning society prevailing in Australia and New Zealand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clear-cut definitions of strategic spatial planning are rather exceptional. Therefore in this paper I use building blocks from literature (planning and business) and my experience in practice to construct a workable normative definition of the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of strategic spatial planning. Five main characteristics (selective, relational annex inclusive, integrative, visioning, and action orientated) that constitute the hard core of the ‘strategic’ in the normative view are confronted, in a first broad scan, with nine so-called strategic plans from different planning traditions in Europe (Italy, France, Spain, the Czech Republic, Belgium, and the Netherlands) and in Australia (Perth). The confrontation highlights some hesitant shifts towards the normative view but also makes it clear that there is still a long way to go. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]