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In confronting the emerging shocks and stresses triggered by neoliberal urbanism and climate change impacts, global efforts toward ‘urban resilience’ building have proliferated. The current discourse has conceived ‘urban resilience’, the capacity of urban systems to adapt and withstand disturbances, as a complex, contradictory, and context-specific concept. Drawing on ‘urban resilience planning’, this thesis focuses on the strategic approach and performance in urban resilience building in the context of a developing country, Cambodia, where the aims of both building modernity and promoting the resilience of its urban areas have been formulated. To realise these long-term goals, the Cambodian government has introduced many institutional reforms along with the development of various urban development policies and plans. Despite these reforms, urban challenges and vulnerabilities of urban poor communities remain unsolved, in a context where many urban renewal projects have been undertaken. It is argued that the effective implementation of a participatory approach reflects a radical change in urban planning and can potentially underpin the effectiveness of urban resilience building in the modern development process. While the participatory planning approach is not entirely new to Cambodia, it has been inadequately and ineffectively applied in the process of promoting the resilience of its urban areas. The thesis is developed within the paradigm of postmodernism. Three main concepts were integrated to frame the analysis of the contemporary process of urban resilience building in the context of neoliberal urbanisation: the participatory planning approach; the sustainable livelihood framework; and sustainable development. Using a Phnom Penh city case study, this thesis adopted a mixed methods approach to the data collection. This thesis will argue that controversial approaches to contemporary urban upgrading are influenced by modernisation and an adherence to the ‘growth m

Public spaces in cities offer a diversity of experiences, as well as the possibility to produce a variety of spaces. In the pursuit of the increased liveability of cities, these spaces are subject to targeted design interventions that are often based on instrumental functions. However, non-instrumental and informal encounters among strangers in urban life account for the dominant type of human social interactions. Arguably, play, as a type of informal and non-instrumental activity, can reveal the potential held by public spaces. Stevens’ (2007) research on ‘The Ludic City’ provides the theoretical foundation for the urban analysis of public space through play as an activity in comparison to established public life studies. This thesis fills a gap around the empirical application of play in public spaces to facilitate the understanding of public spaces through an activity as a form of spatial practice that makes up part of people’s everyday lives in urban core areas. The aim of the thesis is to develop and test a novel framework, labelled as PLAY framework, which allows researchers to comprehensively understand public spaces in a different way. Thus, the present thesis argues that the PLAY framework reveals certain qualities and dynamics in public spaces that are produced by play activities. The thesis uses two case study sites: Canberra, Australia and Potsdam, Germany. After testing and refinement of the PLAY framework, it will be compared to another public space study in Canberra, which uses established methods without an articulated focus on play. The case study in Potsdam functions as a validation case of the PLAY framework, allowing its potential for replicability in an intercultural context to be investigated. The thesis interrogates three sets of data: 1) data obtained through observational research in Garema Place, Canberra, derived from established methods; 2) data collected via mixed methods relating to the PLAY framework in the same loc

Urban Agendas are important guiding tools that frame thinking and point to major directions and changes needed. The dominant planning and city development practices in the 20th century resulted in the proliferation of modern cities that brought numerous problems that urban planners and designers are still dealing with. Do we have the capacity and appropriate tools to change the cities of tomorrow to make them more liveable places? The challenges may seem overwhelming. However, there are advantages in strategies that combine acting locally and synergising with other places. Using insights from the Urban Synergies Group this paper represents a summary of initial pathways that may effectively implement the NUA (New Urban Agenda) – a collective vision for sustainable and healthy cities. To address the main issues of the NUA we discuss five key themes. First, we consider the level of commitment to achieve healthier cities for all during the 9th World Urban Forum (WUF 9). Second, we narrow our focus to examine child health and well-being. Third, we introduce an exemplary collaboration that harnesses collective wisdom through empowerment of participants. Fourth, we provide the rationale for the focus on public space. Within the fifth point we summarise tangible actions within the nexus of child health and public space that help to implement the NUA on the ground.

Full Text, Thesis (PhD Doctorate), Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Grifffith School of Environment, Science, Environment, Engineering and Technology, School students’ travel forms an integral component of the overall transport demand in Australian cities. Students’ travel mode selection plays a vital role in their physical, social and mental well-being. Utilitarian bike riding is increasingly recognised as being important, giving children an economical, healthy and environmentally friendly travel option. An added advantage is that they can travel for relatively longer distances using an active travel mode that they are in control of. In spite of the numerous and multifaceted benefits of cycling, very few Australian school students use the bicycle for transport. Australian parents and guardians, bound by the ethos surrounding good parenting and conventional travel norms, may feel obliged to drive their children to school, with consequential negative implications for their children’s health and well-being or the development of life-long attitudes towards the use of varied travel modes.

Countries such as Australia are failing to provide contexts in which children can be sufficiently active in outdoor play (Little & Wyver, 2008; Schranz et al., 2014). The decline in opportunities for outdoor play has been identified as a contributing factor to overweight/obesity and other chronic conditions (McCurdy, Winterbottom, Mehta, & Roberts, 2010). In this chapter we start from the premise that all children have the right to play and recognise that almost all the countries of the world, including Australia, are signatories to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Hart, 2013).

Floods in populated areas expose humans to serious threats to life. In light of this fact, evacuation of flood-affected populations is considered the most appropriate protective measure to minimize the negative impacts of floods. Yet, unplanned or spontaneous evacuations during flood disasters can cause severe traffic congestion that makes evacuees more vulnerable and exposes them to further risk. Therefore, efficient and effective planning of flood disaster evacuation operations is important for minimising the devastating consequences of flood disasters. In Australia, flooding caused by rainfall is the costliest natural disaster. Flood hazards range in scale and intensity from regular, planned-for events to manageable emergencies, and sometimes even to devastating disasters. Similarly, affected population evacuation modelling methods might range from simple, certain models to complicated, uncertain models, hence, not every evacuation model is appropriate for every flood hazard event. Riverine flood-related risks are usually manageable due to the gradual development of the flood and the predictability of the factors causing them, such as rainfall, floodplain locations, and flooding’s spatial and temporal distributions. Safer evacuations are possible when the evacuation is pre-warned, and evacuation can therefore be used as a protective measure for riverine flood disasters. Therefore, the planning of evacuation operations for a riverine flood disaster is vital for minimising their negative impacts on human lives. This research’s ultimate objective is to develop a systematic method to simulate, model and optimise riverine flood evacuation trip distribution between flood-affected areas and disaster relocation shelters. To achieve this ultimate objective, three stages of this research have been devised. Stage 1 describes how to utilise the theoretical contributions that have been identified from the analysis of flood-related resources outlined in the literature review.

This chapter explores the notion of risk as it is managed in the context of the facilitation of learning disabled children’s access to outdoor green space. This context is argued to be particularly fascinating in terms of the governance of risk to children as it draws a spotlight on a particularly “vulnerable” population interacting with a particularly “dangerous” space. The discussion in this chapter focuses on the concept of stigma, a central theme in the disability studies discourse. This chapter suggests that it is through stigmatized institutional and familial practices that learning disabled young people are prevented from engaging with urban green spaces, as a result of both intimidation and overprotection.

This thesis investigates military simulation environments, in order to shed light on the productive ways in which digital and non-digital realities inform and transform each other. Cultural geographers and cultural theorists have done much in recent decades to challenge the naive naturalism that relegates digital technologies to a secondary representation of reality. Non-representational geographers have challenged the very distinction between an essential, pre-given reality and its representations, while post-structuralist theories have theorised the role of technologies in the production of reality. This thesis contributes to these debates by analysing the development of habit in the context of military simulation and military-themed videogames. The military context has provided significant impetus for the development of these novel technologies and is highly instructive when seeking to understand human-technological relations and the development of embodied habits. Through interviews with tank operators and military-themed videogamers, the thesis seeks to understand the relationship between digital and non-digital realities, without predetermining and judging them on the basis of their conformity with a narrowed understanding of the real. At a time when technology evokes both promise and angst, the thesis returns to Martin Heidegger's work, not in order to pursue his critique of technology, but to understand the distinct modalities through which humans grant intelligibility to non-human reality. Ultimately, however, Heidegger's thought can only take us so far in terms of understanding the complex reality that provides the context of our relation with the technological. It is through Gilles Deleuze's more virtual and radically differential ontology that I am able to open up the problem of our encounter with the digital more fully. A Deleuzian reading of the recently translated work of Felix Ravaisson on habit directs the more abstract problem of the human/technolo

This paper reports the results of risk reframing, an intervention to offer parents and educators a context for building new and complex perceptions of risk in children's outdoor free play. Our objective was to alter these adults' perceptions of risk to increase the sustainability of an innovative child-centred playground intervention. Qualitative data in the form of audio-recordings of risk-reframing sessions, brief participant evaluations and field notes kept by project staff were collected and either transcribed in their entirety or summarised in brief written reports. These data were subjected to constant comparative analysis to identify emergent themes. Results suggest that educators and parents benefit from opportunities to share risk perceptions and discuss the costs and benefits for offering outdoor free play to children to achieve their common goals for children: health, happiness and resilience.

Objective To explore the effects of an innovative school-based intervention for increasing physical activity. Methods 226 children (5-7 years old) randomly selected from 12 Australian primary schools were recruited to a cluster randomised trial with schools randomly allocated to intervention or control conditions. The 13-week intervention comprised: (1) altering the school playground by introducing loose materials and (2) a teacher-parent intervention exploring perceptions of risk associated with children's free play. The primary outcomes were total accelerometer counts and moderate-vigorous physical activity during break times. Testing took place in Sydney, 2009-2010. Results 221 participants were tested at baseline. Mixed-effect multilevel regression revealed a small but significant increase from the intervention on total counts (9400 counts, 95% CI 3.5 − 15.2, p = 0.002) and minutes of MVPA (1.8 min, 95% CI 0.5-3.1, p = 0.006); and a decrease in sedentary activity (2.1 min, 95% CI 0.5-3.8, p = 0.01) during break times. We retested children in one intervention school after 2 years; they maintained the gains. Conclusions Capturing children's intrinsic motivations to play while simultaneously helping adults reconsider views of free play as risky provided increases in physical activity during break times. Using accelerometry as the sole measure of physical activity may underestimate the effect.

By the first decade of the 21st century, human migration had increased to an unprecedented volume and has now become a common experience. Although numerous studies have theorized migration, two changing societal contexts – energy stress and technological advances – increasingly challenge the adequacy of existing understandings of migration. The majority of current migration research is based on classical models, which abstract migration as a decision-then-move process. This abstraction can be traced to a commonly accepted assumption in social sciences: humans are primarily rational beings and thus usually consciously plan their behaviour. However, using in-depth interviews with academic and student migrants, this thesis argues that migration is not always a “decision”. The empirical evidence encourages the consideration of embodiment into migration studies; i.e., the body and the mind are not two separated faculties but different expressions of the same being. Thus, besides exploring activities of the mind, such as “decisions”, we can also understand migration through bodies. Through embodiment, this thesis argues that the philosophical foundation of classical migration models should be reconsidered. Among classical models, the push-pull model offers the most accurate description for the empirical evidence of this research. In the push-pull model, migrants are “pushed” by negative factors in their origins and “pulled” by positive factors in their destinations. The passivity of human behaviour, which is ignored by many models, is innately addressed in the push-pull model. However, the push-pull model, both in its original form and later versions, is constrained by some assumptions, particularly relating to rational choice, which must be challenged from the perspective of embodiment. Building on the push-pull framework, this thesis scrutinizes such assumptions and re-interprets them through embodiment. The embodied push-pull theory argues that “push” and “pull” factor

Australian minor parties have played an important role in the Australian electoral landscape, yet have received sporadic coverage in Australian electoral geography literature. The dearth of coverage of minor parties has been evident in the contemporary context. This thesis seeks to broaden knowledge of geographies of minor partiesthrough an investigation of Australian state and federal elections conducted between 1997 and 2006. Six minor parties are investigated in this thesis: Australians Against Further Immigration, Australian Democrats, Family First, The Greens, One Nation and Unity. To conduct this investigation, a conceptual framework that combines anassessment of geographies of electoral performance, presence and participation was developed. A mixed methods approach incorporating qualitative and quantitative methodologies and assessments of three case study elections were adopted.This thesis has been informed by an interest in the contemporary experiences of minor parties as participants in Australian electoral settings. Exploring the six selected minor parties enables the evaluation of notions that minor parties provide a vehicle for electoral change and offer an alternative to the major parties to be made. The ability ofminor parties to engage with the electorate through information dissemination and exploiting electoral landscape conditions to build a constituency is crucial for sustaining an electoral presence. Besides electoral performance, this thesis suggests that there are other barometers focused on electoral presence and participation that shouldbe considered when assessing minor parties. A main finding of this thesis is that candidate standings are an important indicator of how minor parties sustain an electoral presence and their visibility at an election. This thesis also recognises that minor parties face handicaps as electoral participants, confronting challenges such as attracting publicity, utilising limited resources, fluctuating electoral fo

For more than a decade there has been growing concern about global reductions in physical activity and increases in sedentary behaviours. Initially, it was unclear whether children would be protected from this trend. Perhaps children's playfulness and associated activity levels would act as a protective factor. There is now compelling evidence that children's activity levels are quite sensitive to environmental factors. For example, a recent US study of activity levels in preschoolers concluded that "...the characteristics of the school have a much greater influence on a child's activity level while in school than do the child's personal demographic characteristics" (Pate et al. 2004). There is also clear evidence that children's freedom to engage in active play, particularly outdoors, has diminished over the last generation (Clements, 2004). In this chapter, we examine some of the factors in young children's environments that influence levels of physical activity. Our main focus is on the physical characteristics of formal child care environments and to a lesser extent, school playgrounds. We examine the role of time, space, loose objects, risk-taking/safety and outdoor pedagogy in the context of children's play environments.

Background In the Westernised world, numerous children are overweight and have problems with bullying and mental health. One of the underlying causes for all three is postulated to be a decrease in outdoor free play. The aim of the Sydney Playground Project is to demonstrate the effectiveness of two simple interventions aimed to increase children's physical activity and social skills. Methods/Design This study protocol describes the design of a 3-year cluster randomised controlled trial (CRCT), in which schools are the clusters. The study consists of a 13-week intervention and 1 week each of pre-and post-testing. We are recruiting 12 schools (6 control; 6 intervention), with 18 randomly chosen participants aged 5 to 7 years in each school. The two intervention strategies are: (1) Child-based intervention: Unstructured materials with no obvious play value introduced to the playground; and (2) Adult-based intervention: Risk reframing sessions held with parents and teachers with the aim of exploring the benefits of allowing children to engage in activities with uncertain outcomes. The primary outcome of the study, physical activity as measured by accelerometer counts, is assessed at baseline and post-intervention. Additional assessments include social skills and interactions, self-concept, after school time use and anthropometric data. Qualitative data (i.e., transcriptions of audio recordings from the risk reframing sessions and of interviews with selected teacher and parent volunteers) are analysed to understand their perceptions of risk in play. The control schools have recess as usual. In addition to outcome evaluation, regular process evaluation sessions are held to monitor fidelity to the treatment. Discussion These simple interventions, which could be adopted in every primary school, have the potential of initiating a self-sustaining cycle of prevention for childhood obesity, bullying and mental ill health.

The authors take a reflective journey to explore the research methodology utilised in a multi-method, multi-site research study of children’s environmental learning in schoolgrounds in Australia. Informed by an extensive literature review and dialogue with researchers around the world, the study constructed a research design and procedure that could be utilized by practitioner researchers and academic researchers as the foundation for further research on children’s learning in schoolgrounds. This paper has the specific task of sharing our research story and lessons learnt as a conversation to those who intend to conduct future research with children on schoolground greening projects.