Reconfiguring the Enterprise: Shifting Manufacturing Culture in Australia - Katherine Gibson, Stephen Healy and Joanne McNeill

Date: Thursday 16 May 2019
Time: 11.30am–1pm
Venue: EZ.G.23, Parramatta South Campus, Western Sydney University

Reconfiguring the Enterprise: Cultures of Manufacturing in Australia

Presenters: Professor Katherine Gibson, Dr Stephen Healy, and Dr Joanne McNeill (Institute for Culture and Society)

Abstract

Debates about the future of manufacturing in Australia return to prominence every few years, prompted by the latest downturn in employment or closure of a plant. While there is strong popular support for maintaining and strengthening a manufacturing base in this country, the overarching narrative is one of decline and the apparent invisibility of a buoyant manufacturing culture is worrisome. In this seminar we draw on the findings of our qualitative research on a range of innovative manufacturing enterprises in NSW to ask: What kinds of manufacturing cultures might be up to the challenges of the Anthropocene?

Biography

Katherine Gibson is a Professorial Fellow in the Institute for Culture and Society at the Western Sydney University. She is an economic geographer with an international reputation for innovative research on economic transformation. With Jenny Cameron and Stephen Healy she is co-author of Take Back the Economy: An Ethical Guide for Transforming Our Communities (2013).

Dr Stephen Healy is a Senior Research Fellow in the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. His research focuses on relationship between transformational process and subjectivity in the context of diverse economic practices. His recent publications have appeared in Arena, Antipode, Economic Geography and Geoforum.

Dr Joanne McNeill is a Research Project Manager and Research Fellow currently working across several universities. Her research and 15+ years prior professional experience engage with social innovation 'eco-systems' – around social enterprise, cooperatives, social procurement, financing, legal structures, capacity building and demonstrating ‘impact’. She has been a Churchill Fellow since 2008.

Events

Research at ICS

People at ICS

Contact ICS

Contact ICS

The Institute for Culture and Society is located in Parramatta, “the place where the eel sets down” in Dharug language,
along the north bank of the Parramatta River. It sits on the traditional lands and waters of the Burramattagal people of the Dharug Nation,
who have been stewards and caretakers of these territories since time immemorial, in what today is referred to as Greater Western Sydney,
one of the most diverse cultural communities in the world and home to the largest number of Indigenous Australians in the country.
The Institute for Culture and Society acknowledges the Dharug, Eora, Dharawal (also referred to as Tharawal)
and Wiradjuri peoples as traditional custodians and Indigenous knowledge-holders, whose storytelling serve
as historical record, a form of teaching and learning, a way to care for Country,
and an expression of Indigenous culture and identity.