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Events

2007

Seminar Series

Time: 12pm
Location: Social Science Building, SRR205a

Guest Speaker: Kerrie Schaefer and David Watt, School of Drama, Fine Art and Music, University of Newcastle
Title: Performing places: site-specific and community-based performance
Date: 1 March 2007

Guest Speaker: Jeff McGee, Macquarie University
Title: The Asia Pacific Partnership and the rise of Greenhouse Intensity in International Climate Change Policy
Date: 22 March 2007

Guest Speaker: Nathaniel Bavinton, University of Western Sydney
Title: The Interpretation of Lived Space as an Assemblage of Spatialised Discourses
Date: 29 March 2007

Guest Speaker: Phil McManus, University of Sydney
Title: Greening the city: trees, sustainability and urban consolidation
Date: 26th April 2007

Guest Speaker: Emma Power, Macquarie University
Title: Furry families: making a human * dog family
Date: 24th May 2007

2006

Workshops and Conferences

Centre for Urban and Regional Studies GIS Policy Training Workshops Date: 5 day training course. 11 & 12 May / 16 June / 26 July / 2 August 2006 Location: Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, University of Newcastle The workshop series provided hands-on training and policy development using GIS software.  The course was targetted at users new to GIS software.  Participants were taught to use the GIS software capabilities, data manipulation and spatial analysis techniques through a combination of presentations and hands-on exercises.  Exercises were modelled on current data sets and based on the Hunter Region.  This enabled users to apply their skills quickly and efficiently taking full advantage of the software display and comprehensive analysis capabilities.  These skills were then applied to policy development, decision making and analysis scenarios.   Information flyer

International Geographical Union (IGU) 2006
Regional responses to global changes: a view from the Antipodes
Date: 3rd - 7th July 2006
Location: Brisbane, Australia

Sessions convened and papers presented

Australian Research Council Research Network
Making SISS Research Relevant to Society
Date: 21 - 23 May 2006
Venue: Ian Potter Art Museum, University of Melbourne
National Conference in Theory, Methods and Applications in Spatially Integrated Social Science.  Funded by the Australia Research Council Research Network

Institute of Australian Geographers (IAG) Workshop
Postcolonial Geographies
Date: 6 - 7 April 2006
Time: 09:00 to 17:00
Venue: RAIA Building (Tusculum Villa), Manning St, Points Point, Sydney
Combined economic geography study group and postgraduate event IAG-sponsored workshop

Workshop program and flyer

Seminar Series

Time: 12pm
Location:  Social Science Building, SRR205a

Guest Speaker: Kevin Markwell, University of Newcastle
Title: A dinosaur in the car park: a cultural history of the Australian reptile park
Date: 19 October 2006

Guest Speaker: Glenn Albrecht, University of Newcastle
Title: Megafauna ethics and ecohealth dreaming in Northern Australia
Date: 28 September 2006

Guest Speaker: Lesley Instone, University of Newcastle
Title: Walking towards Woomera: touring the boundaries of 'unAustralian' geographies
Date: 7 September 2006

Guest Speaker: Lukas Smas
Title: Geographies of Urban Consumption: Transactions and Consumer Service Spaces in Stockholm CBD
Date: 31 August 2006

Guest Speaker: Melissa Butcher, Macquarie University
Title: The Redefining of Place: Transnational Relationships among Australian Expatriates
Date: 10 August 2006

Guest Speaker: Andy Jonas, University of Hull
Title: Greening the entrepreneurial city? New spaces of urban sustainability politics
Date: 27 July 2006

Guest Speaker: Rowland Atkinson, University of Tasmania
Title: Urban policy as catharsis: the shameful joy of contemporary metropolitan renewal
Date:  25th May 2006

Guest Speaker: Grahame O'Leary, Political Advisor SBS
Title: Digital convergence: regulation and the impact on public broadcasting
Date:  11th May 2006

Guest Speaker: Proinnsais Breathnach, National University of Ireland
Title: Sustaining the Celtic Tiger: the shift of services - led growth
Date:  30th March 2006

Guest Speaker: Susan Roberts, University of Kentucky
Title: Constructing globalisation's geographies: the case of maritime container traffic
Date:  23rd March 2006

Guest Speaker: Richard Schein, University of Kentucky
Title:  Race and the American cultural landscape
Date:  9th March 2006

Guest Speaker: Researchers from the South Pacific project
Title: South Pacific seminar: CURS' work in progress
Date:  9th March 2006

Presentations

Business Network Breakfast
Lake Macquarie City Council
Date: 3 May 2006
Venue: Club Macquarie
Presenter: Phillip O'Neill

Written Presentation,PowerPoint Presentation

2005

Workshops and Conferences

Australian Research Council Research Network (ARCRN)
Spatially Integrated Social Science (SISS) June Conference
Date:  15 - 17 June 2005
Venue: University of Newcastle
The Centre of Full Employment and Equity and Centre of Urban and Regional Studies at the University of Newcastle  jointly hosted the annual workshop for the Methodology, Tools and Techniques Paradigm Forum and the Socio-Spatial Theory Paradigm Forum on behalf of ARCRNSISS. The conveners of the two forums (Bill Mitchell and Scott Baum for the Methodology, Tools and Techniques Paradigm; and Phillip O'Neill and Pauline McGuirk for the Socio-Spatial Theory Paradigm) have agreed to develop a joint format, location and calendar entry for their two respective workshops as the major annual event of these Forums over the life of the Network.

The Hunter in 25 Years forum
Date: 24 May 2005
Venue: Club Panthers, Newcastle
Inquiries to Asha Ramzan at HCOSS on 4926 3344

Phillip O'Neill's presentation and Newcastle Herald article

Seminar Series

Time:  12 pm
Location: Social Science Building, SRR205a

Guest Speaker: Gordon Clark, Oxford University
Title: Trustees, attitudes and behaviour: what we can expect from those that act on our behalf
Date: 11 August 2005

Guest Speaker: Richard G Smith, University of Leicester
Title: Placing world cities: a relational account of globalisation and the restructuring of Singapore's legal services
Date: 28 July 2005

Guest Speaker: Lesley Head, University of Wollongong
Title: tba
Date: 26 May 2005

Guest Speaker: Joe Painter, University of Durham
Title: Prosaic States
Date: 17 March 2005

Download final program

2004

Centre for Urban and Regional Studies
Social Indicators and GIS Workshop
Date: 17th November 2004
Venue: University of Newcastle
The Centre for Urban and Regional Studies (CURS) at The University of Newcastle, NSW, in conjunction with the Economic Geography and GIS Study Groups of the IAG to be held on Wednesday 17th November at The University of Newcastle, Callaghan Campus

The Workshop will feature esteemed scholar PAUL LONGLEY.

Centre for Urban and Regional Studies
State Theory Workshop 
Date: 28 June 2005
Venue: University of Newcastle

Program

2003

Centre for Urban and Regional Studies
Neoliberalism and Australia's Regions
Date: 11 & 12 November 2004
Venue: University of Newcastle
The state of Australia's regions bears attention. While there is substantial evidence of growing inequality across the nation's regions with many regions experiencing chronic economic, social and demographic problems, there has been a dramatic political shift in ownership of the regional problem. This is most obvious at the federal level where there have been concerted attempts at both political and departmental levels to shift responsibility for regional issues downwards, at least to the states and more often to the level of the regions themselves.

At the same time, Australia is experiencing its longest period of uninterrupted economic growth since economic recording commenced. It is now apparent that the configurations of Australia's political economy and the nation's experiences of economic growth are exacerbating, rather than alleviating, regional inequality.

Political and economic directions such as these in Australia can be seen to be driven by the penetration of the global ideology of neoliberalism into and across spheres of governance in Australia. Neoliberalism demands the ascendancy of markets as society's prime distributional tool; the allocation of resources on the basis of competition; and the responsibility for well-being to be on the shoulders of the individual. Consequences of a commitment to neoliberalism have been a winding back of Keynesian-welfare state institutions; erosion of spatial distribution devices constructed under 20th century Australian political economy; and an aggressive dismantling of social arrangements organised under collective agreements and aspirations (especially working conditions and social services). In aggregate, neoliberalism has produced a dramatic re-scaling of the Australian political economy with important consequences for cities and regions.

Keynote speaker: Dr Wendy Larner, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Auckland.

While Australian geographers have been at the forefront of regional analysis and policy development (including through some high impact recent publications), much more needs to be done. This Joint Workshop of the Rural Studies Group and Economic Geography Study Group of the Institute of Australian Geography presents an important opportunity to address some of the issues raised by the growing influence of neoliberalism on Australian regional policy and practice.

The three main goals of the workshop were to:
- Explore the links between neoliberalism and the re-scaling of Australia's political economy
- Investigate the ways in which neoliberalism as an ideology has affected the conduct of regional policy and development practice
- Critically assess the nature and direction of regional policy in Australia.

Four workshop sessions directly addressed the themes sketched above.

Session 1: 'Neoliberalism in (regional) theory and practice' was based on Dr Wendy Larner's keynote paper. Wendy Larner (University of Auckland), is a leading international writer and researcher on neoliberalism and its application in contemporary politics and praxis.

Session 2: 'Neoliberalism and institutional/planning responses', was led by Associate Professor Andrew Beer, who discussed the main arguments and findings of his co-authored book, "Developing Locally: Lessons in Economic Development from Four Nations" (Policy Press, Bristol, released November 2003).

Session 3: 'Rural Development in the Neoliberal Frame'. The third major session concentrated upon the problems and opportunities faced by rural, primary industry dependent regions, and debates the extent to which the new policy and ideological context offers a solution to their particular circumstances.

Session 4: 'Blurring the Great Divide: a place for metropolitan regions under neoliberalism', will be led by Professor Bob Fagan (Macquarie University) and examined the pressures on, and responses of those metropolitan regions cast neither as global nor regional.

Final Program Flyer

2002

Centre for Urban and Regional Studies
Action Research Workshop
Date: 10 December 2002
Venue: University of Newcastle
Motivations and Methodologies Action research is a participatory, democratic process designed to produce practical and empowering solutions to issues of pressing concern to people. Action research methodologies are employed across a range of disciplines. This workshop was designed to explore action research methodologies in university-based research

Flyer and Program

2001

Centre for Urban and Regional Studies
November Conference: Dealing with the new prosperity: an interdisciplinary examination of urban and regional issues on the Eastern Seaboard.
Date: 9 November 2001
Venue: University of Newcastle
For the last decade, the Sydney economy has experienced sustained growth and expansion, bringing with it unprecedented prosperity. Across the Greater Metropolitan Region and elsewhere, the impacts of this prosperity have been geographically and sectorally uneven.

While frameworks for analysing the variable urban and regional impacts of economic restructuring are finely tuned, it can be argued that frameworks for analysing the impacts of prosperity are poorly developed.

The aim of the conference, therefore, was to bring together academics from a range of disciplinary backgrounds with leading practitioners in key realms of urban and regional policy with a threefold task.

To trace the scope, dimensions and vectors of urban and regional change driven by 'the new prosperity'; to identify the associated planning, management and governance challenges; and to develop analytical frameworks within which the means to address these challenges might be developed.

See Australian Geographer, Special Issue: A contemporary geography of prosperity along Australia's eastern seaboard Vol 33 (3).  Guest Editors: Phillip O'Neill and Pauline McGuirk.

Conference Programme

Centre for Urban and Regional Studies
November Symposium
Date: 14 November 2001
Venue: University of Newcastle
The Cultural Industries and Practices Research Centre, in association with The Centre for Urban and Regional Studies held a one day symposium on Wednesday 14 November 2001 entitled: Contemporary Challenges for Global Cities.  The guest speaker was Professor Mike Berry from RMIT and admission was by invitation. Further information and contact details are contained in the Symposium flyer below.

Symposium Flyer

Centre for Urban and Regional Studies
December Conference Cultural Turn or Cultural Down Turn?
Date: 3 - 4 December 2001
Venue:  University of Newcastle
The IAG Cultural Geography Study Group, in association with the journal Social and Cultural Geography and the Centre for Urban Regional Studies at the University of Newcastle, held a study group meeting at the University of Newcastle, School of Environmental and Life Sciences, on Monday the 3rd and Tuesday the 4th of December.

The objective of this study group meeting was to provide an opportunity for cultural geographers to address recent criticisms levelled at the sub discipline. In particular, papers were invited that addressed one or more of the following general criticisms of cultural geographies: that the social has been eclipsed by the cultural turn in human geography; that the material world has been superseded by a concern solely for the meaning and representation in cultural geography; that cultural geography lacks a political dimension; and cultural geography has no relevance

In addition papers demonstrating the efficacy of cultural geography in examining issues of contemporary relevance were particularly welcome.

The conference brought together academics and post-graduate students in geography from a range of institutions. The papers presented included reflections on the relationship between the interconnectedness of the cultural and the material, as well as papers of an applied nature.

All papers presented at the conference were published as part of the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies working paper series for 2001.

The editorial board of the Social and Cultural Geography Journal has agreed to consider for publication a selection of the papers presented at this study group meeting.

Program,   Abstracts