ANU Urban Research Unit/Program

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/1885/113308

The Australian National University's Urban Research Unit was established in 1965. In July 1990 the Unit changed its name to the Urban Research Program. Its Working Paper series (1987-1999) covered national, state and local issues surrounding housing, the environmental quality of urban areas, social indicators, land policy, transport, infrastructure investment and planning and employment towards the end of the 20th century in Australia.

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Open Access
Advanced coal-based power generation: technical developments and outlook
(Canberra : Urban Research Program, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, 1993, 1993) Bharucha, N. S. (Noshir S.); Singh, Ranjit
Open Access
The benefits of owner occupation
(Urban Research Program. Research School of Social Science. Australian National University., 1999) Troy, Patrick; Coles, Rita C
In discussing owner occupation in Australia this paper attempts to explain why the level is as high as it is and poses the question of whether it is desirable. The paper starts with a brief history of owner occupation then moves on to discuss the benefits of owner occupation accruing to individuals, the individuals who benefit and the costs they bear. It proceeds to discuss the community benefits and costs flowing from owner occupation followed by consideration of the way in which owner occupation is related to citizenship, the types of dwellings owners have and the factors affecting owner occupation. The paper concludes with a discussion of the prospects for owner occupation and the policy options open to government.
Open Access
The structure and organisation of housing production : a background paper and literature review
(Urban Research Program. Research School of Social Science. Australian National University., 1999) Greig, Alastair Whyte; Coles, Rita C
In early-1991 the National Housing Strategy, established by the Department of Community Services and Health, commissioned Alastair Greig and Patrick Troy to undertake the research project "Structure, Organisation and Skill Formation in the Australian Housing Industry: Factors Affecting Production Costs". This paper provides a background on the focus and nature of the project . The paper will also review Australian and overseas literature relating to the subject. This will be done by providing: - an outline of the aims and objectives of the project as established by the National Housing Strategy, and an outline of the relevance of the project to the issue of housing costs; - a description of the methodology to be adopted and the theoretical framework informing the project; - a description of the structure of housing provision and its agents; - a discussion of Australian housing production activity and the changing market environment which agents confront; and - a preliminary discussion of new technology and new managerial strategies, and their possible effect on efficiency, innovation and skill formation within the housing industry. Throughout 1991 the researchers will be approaching a wide range of people in order to discuss the structure of housing provision, to examine problems facing the agents within the industry, and to understand how corporate strategies evolve to meet changing circumstances. Discussions will focus on issues of efficiency, innovation, skill formation and inter-firm linkages. It is hoped that this paper will help to clarify the issues, contribute to a better understanding of housing industry policy reform options and address the issues of accessibility, affordability and lower housing costs.
Open Access
Rhetoric and reality in the clothing industry : the case of post-Fordism
(Urban Research Program. Research School of Social Science. Australian National University., 1999) Greig, Alastair Whyte; Coles, Rita C
This paper is the second in a series on technological and organisational change within the Australian clothing industry, and forms part of the research project entitled 'A Local Division of Production : Technological Change and Productive lnterlinkages in Australian Manufacturing'. The purpose of this second paper is to examine in greater detail how new production concepts have been translated at the clothing manufacturing enterprise level. These changing production techniques are empirically explored through the 'lens' of the post-fordist paradigm. The study concludes that although most companies have had to introduce varying degrees of flexibilty into their operations, this flexibility cannot legitimately be described as post-fordist. A cautionary note is also raised : when examining technological and organisational change in the clothing industry it is not enough to look at individual firms as self-contained units; any useful analysis must also take account of the practice of subco nt ra ct i ng and strategic interlinkages between companies.
Open Access
To market, to market! : the changing role of the Australian timber merchant, 1945-1965
(Urban Research Program. Research School of Social Science. Australian National University., 1998) Harris, Richard; Coles, Rita C
Australian timber merchants have long played a vital role in providing building materials, credit, and product information to builders. A variety of sources, notably the merchant's national trade journal, indicate that after the Second World War they slowly responded to the growing demand from owner-builders and Do-It-Yourself enthusiasts, many of whom were women. They began to stock a wider variety of lines, built and improved showroom displays, adopted new marketing techniques, and offered consumer credit. By comparison with their North American counterparts, the lumber dealers, timber merchants were slow to meet the needs of new consumers. For several years, close financial ties with small mills encouraged them to identify with the timber trade and discouraged them from stocking timber 'substitutes'. When, after the mid-1950s, they offered new materials and services, they helped not only DIY-ers but also small builders who were facing increasing competition from large builder-developers.
Open Access
A 'most pressing problem' : housing and the National Capital Development Commission.
(Urban Research Program. Research School of Social Science. Australian National University., 1998) Cannon, Christine; Coles, Rita C
When the National Capital Development Commission (NCDC) began operations in early 1958 its responsibilities were clear: to develop Canberra as the National Capital by constructing buildings and memorials which befitted this role, and to provide the infrastructure necessary to support the planned transfer of several thousand public servants and their families. Development priorities, however, were determined by necessity rather than a set of official guidelines: ‘[w]hile building the lake was critical to the success of Canberra, the most pressing problem facing the NCDC in 1959 was housing”. A shortage of housing and services, caused directly by a shortage of building materials and labour, had helped to hamper Canberra's growth for many years and was a contributing factor to the Commission's establishment. However, as Alastair Greig has stated: 'by the time the NCDC was established, the worst years of the national housing shortage had passed, more labour could be tapped from the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Scheme, and the NCDC was not faced with the competition for scarce resources which had contributed to many ot the difficulties of the earlier post-war years.' Canberra’s housing in the late 1950s was a complex web of issues: subsidised rents; scarce sources of housing finance, with individual loans limited to a ceiling sadly inadequate in a construction environment characterised by higher building costs than in the state capitals; a greater than anticipated rate of population growth; and a construction industry made cautious by a series of boom and bust scenarios. By examining these threads in this paper it is hoped to reveal how Commission operations, and the changing government attitudes and policies which directed those operations, affected the lives of the residents who were the essential components of developing the national capital.
Open Access
The (im)possibility of sustainable lifestyles: can we trust the public opinion and plan for reduced consumption?
(Urban Research Program. Research School of Social Science. Australian National University., 1998) Sanne, Christer; Coles, Rita C
Environmentalists hold that in order to achieve sustainability, the Western lifestyle must change - all the more so since it is also a model for people in other countries aspiring to a fast economic growth. But others claim that Westerners are so materialistic that reduced consumption is ruled out. To escape this impasse, we need a better understanding of consumption: the attitudes to it, its cultural meaning in the rich Western countries and the role of consumption in the political and economic fields. This paper starts with a model of three principal actors which are crucial for future changes towards sustainability: people, business and the political class. It is noted that the demand to reduce consumption challenges fundamental interests. But there are, on the other hand, attitude surveys from rich countries which seem to contradict the materialistic attitude. They rather indicate a composed attitude to material consumption and a corresponding preference for shorter hours and more leisure. The relevance of these surveys is discussed, including some objections which can be raised against them. One point made is that such objections are part of the problem if they serve to explain away findings that do not fit into the ruling paradigm. All of this implies that political infeasibility to change lifestyle and reduce consumption may not be due to failing public response as much as to structural factors in society. Planning may have to shift focus from assumed citizen resistance to the institutions which thrive on present consumption patterns. The last section hints at some perspectives of overconsumption which lead to various demands on the political decision process. A conclusion is that a sustainable development in the end would best be served by a continued reduction of the working hours.
Open Access
Housing and infrastructure for indigenous Australians
(Urban Research Program. Research School of Social Science. Australian National University., 1998) Neutze, Max; Coles, Rita C
If Australia had carried out a quinquennial census in 1776 or a survey of Australian housing in 1777 it is almost certain that all of the dwellings would have been classified as ‘improvised’ (Ross, 1987, especially Chapter 3), and any inventory of physical infrastructure would have shown it to be absent. By 1994, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Survey (NATSIS), the most careful inventory of Indigenous households1 ever conducted, recorded only 2 per cent of their dwellings as improvised, though some of the 6 per cent ‘other’ and ‘not stated’ dwellings may have been of the same kind. But not many, because 95 per cent of dwellings had a bathroom or shower, 96 per cent running water, 96 per cent electricity or gas, 96 per cent at least one toilet and 82 per cent were on a sealed road (ABS, 1996). On the face of it this is a remarkable improvement in the housing of Indigenous Australians, but it has brought problems as well as benefits. Even after a more detailed investigation, it represents a remarkable transformation. Some of the change has occurred as a result of Indigenous people moving into conventional housing in towns and cities. This paper concentrates on the period since the 1960s and on the northern parts of Australia where many people lived traditional lifestyles until recent decades. Especially in the past twenty years there has been a transformation in the living conditions of Indigenous people in the north, including those in rural and remote areas. None of which is to deny that severe problems remain with Indigenous housing.
Open Access
Backrooms, wards and backlanes : the landscape of disability in nineteenth-century Melbourne
(Urban Research Program. Research School of Social Science. Australian National University., 1998) Gleeson, Brendan; Coles, Rita C
The spatial and the historical dimensions of disability have both been poorly documented and analysed in Western social sciences. The spatial social sciences — geography, urban planning and architecture — have either largely ignored or trivialised the issue of disability. The discipline of history has also paid scant attention to the question of disability. This paper contributes to the historical-geographical understanding of disability by exploring the spatial context ofphysical impairment in nineteenth-century? Melbourne. The paper has two specific objectives (i) to ‘locate'disabled people in nineteenth-century Melbourne by showing where and how they lived; and (ii) to illustrate the socio-spatial relations that shaped their lives. The analysis focuses on three key sites of everyday life for disabled people: home, workplace and institution. It is argued that the sociospatial relations which cohered around and between these pivotal locations played an important role in shaping the everyday life patterns ofdisabled people.
Open Access
How the Canberra camel got its hump : the departmental board's plan, its origins and consequences
(Urban Research Program. Research School of Social Science. Australian National University., 1996) Reid, Paul; Coles, Rita C
When the first peg was driven by King O’Malley on 20 February 1913 to start construction of Australia’s capital the work was based, not on the thoroughbred design of Griffin, but on a camel designed by a committee. This was the Board’s plan drawn up by David Miller, Percy Owen and Charles Scrivener assisted by George Oakshott, John Murdoch and Thomas Hill. It is comforting to think the camel was a short lived aberration but that is not the case.
Open Access
Do public choice and public transport mix? An Australian-Canadian comparison
(Urban Research Program. Research School of Social Science. Australian National University., 1996) Mees, Paul; Coles, Rita C
This paper explores the causes of, and evaluates possible remedies for, the decline of public transport in Melbourne. Travel patterns in urban areas are characterised by diversity: origins and destinations are dispersed and travel occurs throughout the day. Traditional forms of public transport, oriented to peak period, central city commuters, have had difficulty coping with this diversity. The currently popular response to this problem in Australia is based on the 'economic rationalists' remedies of privatisation and deregulation. But other cities have responded with the opposite policies, planning and coordination of services. This exploration of the two approaches is carried out through a comparison of public transport policy in Melbourne, where patronage has declined at world-beating rates in the last four decades, with Toronto, which has been much more successful. The reason for the contrasting patronage performances is found to lie in the different policies pursued in the two cities. These differences date from decisions taken in both cities in response to crises in public transport policy following the first world war and again in the 1950s. In Toronto, services have been planned and integrated by a public monopoly; policy in Melbourne has been market-driven, and based around competition and extensive private sector involvement. Toronto's centrally planned system has proven the more flexible in car ownership. While public transport operators in Melbourne have competed with one another, Toronto's single operator has competed with the car.
Open Access
A history of Australian capital city centres since 1945
(Urban Research Program. Research School of Social Science. Australian National University., 1997) Marsden, Susan; Coles, Rita C
The working paper is divided into two main parts. Historical development of Australia's capital city centres provides a brief overview setting the city centre in its historical context. This section considers the whole city not just the centre, but also refers to developments which have shaped and are still evident in city centres. It should also be noted that the cities and their centres were one and the same to begin with and that the centre retained most of the urban population and services for many years, in Darwin’s case until well after World War II. City centres since World War II comprises the longest section of the paper. This discusses the postwar city centre in terms of major historical themes chosen from the thematic framework developed in the heritage report. These headings are arranged so that the first themes in each thematic section are the most general and set the context for those following.
Open Access
Back to the future : the networked household in the global economy
(Urban Research Program. Research School of Social Science. Australian National University., 1996) Little, Stephen; Coles, Rita C
Developed nations have promoted a modernist view of the nuclear family functioning in spatially separate public and private spheres of production and consumption. However, in these countries, the coalescence of communications and information technologies has given rise to ‘office automation' and ‘business process re-engineering’ which have destablilised employment. These technologies have also problematised the concept of organisational boundaries by enabling networked alternatives to conventional forms, and have challenged established relationships between size and performance. Currently emergent technologies are allowing small homebased businesses to confront much larger competitors beyond their immediate vicinity, while the same technologies are allowing the state to relocate functions such as hospital care and confinement to the home. Economic globalisation is opening communities in both ‘under' and ‘over' developed economies to direct competition from across national and cultural boundaries and making access to appropriate information and communication technologies as significant as physical location.
Open Access
The federal capital of Australia : a virtual planning history
(Urban Research Program. Research School of Social Science. Australian National University., 1997) Freestone, Robert; Coles, Rita C
Canberra is one of the most significant products of twentieth century planning. The conventional historiography of its origins divides into three successive phases: a 'battle of ideas' over the very notion of a federal capital, the 'battle of the sites', and a 'battle of the pkms' defined by the international design competition of 1911-12 won by Walter Burley Griffin. A less well chartered strand through the decade leading up to this competition was popular, professional and governmental debate and discussion about the desired look and layout of the new federal city. The aim of this paper is to recover this 'prehistory' of planning to give some insight into the state of early modern planning theory in Australia. The paper charts the evolution of the generalised notion of a federal 'city beautiful', its hardening into planning concepts for a 'practical twentieth century town', and the maturation of an integrated set of planning ideas and images that helped set the scene for the ways in which the competition entries would be assessed.
Open Access
The activation of environmental norms : an illustrated model
(Urban Research Program. Research School of Social Science. Australian National University., 1996) Blamey, Russell; Coles, Rita C
A theoretical model with which to consider the activation of personal norms associated with contributions to public goods is presented. The model is based on a well known psychological model of helping behaviour, Schwartz ’s norm-activation model. In its most basic form, this model holds that the activation of norms of helping is most likely when an actor is aware of the positive consequences her helping behaviour would have for an object in need, and ascribes responsibility to herself for helping. The paper considers how the Schwartz model can be extended to encompass situations where individuals have the opportunity to cooperate with others, and contribute to the provision of public goods. Particular attention is given to environmental goods. A review of literature in political economy and psychology suggests that the translation ofSchwartz’s model from situations of isolated individual helping to the public goods context requires the role of organisations, policy initiatives and notions of justice to be explicitly incorporated within the model. Existing elements of Schwartz’s model also need to be broadened to encompass some of the unique characteristics of public good contributions, such as shared responsibility, and lower levels of individual decisiveness. The key beliefs driving the model are illustrated in the context of individual reactions to a questionnaire in which they are asked if they are prepared to make a $50 contribution to help preserve the Australian Coorong in its current state. Qualitative data was obtainedfrom 9 focus groups.
Open Access
Globalisation and cities : an Australian political-economic perspective
(Urban Research Program. Research School of Social Science. Australian National University., 1997) Stillwell, Frank; Coles, Rita C
This paper discusses the forces generating social-spatial change in Australian metropolitan areas. The external forces associated with the internationalisation of capital need to be disentangled from the internal policy changes associated with the adoption of ‘economic rationalist' policies. The former are intensifying various forms of spatial competition while the latter exacerbate tendencies to urban ‘market failure The manifestations of these structural political-economic changes are increasingly evident in Australian cities, including greater social-spatial inequalities. Effective urban planning is increasingly difficult in these conditions, compounded by the fiscal crisis of the state, the political pressures arising from the proliferation of urban social movements and the effect of international regulatory influences. The paper posits an alternative which shifts from beggar-thy-neighbour spatial competition to a more balanced economic, social and environmental strategy suited to Australian conditions and having potentially more widespread application.
Open Access
The accommodation of growth : Canberra's growing pains 1945-1955
(Urban Research Program. Research School of Social Science. Australian National University., 1996) Greig, Alastair Whyte; Coles, Rita C
This paper highlights the economic and demographic constraints which were placed on the Commonwealth Government in its role as the planner and developer of Canberra during the first decade after the Second World War. These constraints place the establishment of the National Capital Development Commission in perspective, by qualifying the role attributed to various individuals (such as Prime Minister Robert Menzies). In this more structural light, the 1955 Senate Inquiry into the Future Development of Canberra is an important event, not simply for the rejuvenation of the Canberra vision and the recognition of the need for a National Capital, but for the preparatory framework of the organisational form which Canberra’s planning and development body would assume in the future. However, the timing of the establishment of this body — the NCDC — was fortuitous, in the sense that the constraints which previously had held back Canberra’s development during the first post-war decade were beginning to disappear. In the paper, these claims are supported by examining the housing crisis which Canberra faced during this period. This crisis assumed a number of guises, from the housing shortage to discontent over rentals, and from the form housing took to participation in local decision-making. These issues are explored from the perspective of local builders, workers and residents. Indeed, a close examination of the evidence before the 1955 Senate Inquiry reveals the important contribution which Canberran residents made to the final recommendations. However, most commentators have tended to focus attention on the evidence presented by the planning profession.
Open Access
The Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement of 1956 and the politics of home-ownership in the Cold War
(Urban Research Program. Research School of Social Science. Australian National University., 1995) Murphy, John; Coles, Rita C
rticularly the post-war affirmation of the independent family, with its commitments to domesticity as a basis of citizenship, but in a period when a severe housing shortage also signalled uncertainties about the reliability of the economic boon. The paper then examines in detail the evolution of the 1956 Agreement within the conservative parties, the Commonwealth bureaucracy and the Cabinet. It concludes that, even though home-ownership emerges from these debates as a central ideological priority for the Menzies government, Cabinet thwarted the attempt of Senator Spooner — as the responsible minister — to abolish the CSHA altogether.
Open Access
No more imperial cities : on futurology in social science
(Urban Research Program. Research School of Social Science. Australian National University., 1996) Gleeson, Brendan; Coles, Rita C
This paper considers the dangers for social science when the predictive urge extends to prophesy, the conviction that the future is already knowable. Seen from a spatial perspective, futurology frequently relies on the theoretical aggrandisement of contemporary places to press its claim that the future of space has already been foretold in contemporary events. Two cases are essayed as cautionary tales: first, the inflated claims made in the social sciences during the 1980s for Los Angeles as a preview of an inevitable post-modern future for global capitalism; and second, the more recent, and no less extravagant, commentaries which have trumpeted contemporary, neo-liberal New Zealand as the future the world must have. The misleading claims of futurologists are exposed in both instances through empirical analyses of actual events. It is concluded that futurology is a deceptive, and therefore non-scientific, gaze which occludes social and natural contingency.
Open Access
Exploring the line of descent in the intergenerational transmission of domestic property
(Urban Research Program. Research School of Social Science. Australian National University., 1996) Mullins, Patrick; Coles, Rita C
While there has been growing interest in the intergenerational transmission of domestic property over recent years—and specifically housing inheritance—the line of descent in this transmission has been ignored. We do not know whether domestic property goes disproportionately to the next generation(s) of men, or to the women, or equally to men and women as the Western bilateral system of descent would dictate. Using published empirical research and data from a sample of Brisbane households, this paper tests an argument proffered by two European sociologists, Delphy and Leonard. They maintain that domestic property goes disproportionately to the next generation(s) of men because of the power of patriarchy. However, the Brisbane data showed that domestic property went roughly equally to the next generations of men and women, suggesting the presence of a bilateral system of descent. Conceptual and theoretical implications arising from this finding, relative to Delphy and Leonard's claim, are examined in the last part ofthe paper.

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