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Past News and Events
Workshop 2014
Social Housing 'Renewal' and Redevelopment: From the Ground Up [PDF, 760.85 KB]
29 – 30 September 2014
Urban Research Centre, Western Sydney University, Bankstown NSW
This Urban Research Centre workshop will bring together a small group of researchers, practitioners and residents to consider alternative understandings of the 'renewal' agenda and experiences of public/social housing redevelopment. The workshop will attempt to examine contemporary social housing policy through the related lenses of participation/citizenship and knowledge production.
Workshop 2013
New Sources of Growth for Dynamic Local Labour Markets: Policies and Strategies in Western Sydney and Beyond
21-22 August, 2013
Urban Research Centre, Western Sydney University, Bankstown NSW
This workshop was organised by the Urban Research Centre within the framework of the OECD LEED project on local economic strategies for shrinking and ageing labour markets.
URC ARC Discovery Success
Congratulations to Professor Peter Phibbs who has successfully received ARC funding for the project, Measuring the impact of urban regulation on housing affordability in Australian cities and regions. The project which will commence in 2011 is part of a project administered out of the University of Sydney. Once again, this round of success builds on Professor Phibb's fine record of AHURI funding in the field of housing affordability.
PhD candidate presents at Shelter NSW seminar
On December 2, together with Professor Bill Randolph and Dr Hazel Easthope from City Futures (UNSW) and Mike Sheargold from NSW Family Services, PhD candidate Sharon Fingland gave a presentation at a Shelter NSW workshop.
Sharon's presentation, titled 'Living well in density in Greater Sydney: What are the issues for councils and planners? ',covered topics such as: definitions of density; misunderstandings and prejudices that arise from the pejorative use of the term; limitations of the current policy approach, and suggestions of how it might be re-formulated.
Spatial@gov Conference 2010
The URC Spatial and GIS Analyst, Borce Dimeski recently attended the 2010 Spatial@gov Conference & Exhibition in Canberra. The conference was a series of concurrent sessions covering a range of topical themes including Government 2.0, Social Inclusion, Smart Infrastructure, Water, Defence and Earth Observation. The driving topic across many sessions was the implementation of community engagement information systems which has changed the way GIS and location based technologies are delivered. Crowd-sourcing technologies were also discussed, especially in being able to help local councils maintain and better manage their city plus a means to share location based information across a wide GIS community.
PhD Candidate presents paper in India
The URC PhD Candidate, Tara Andrews recently presented her paper titled 'Mobilising the University as a frontier for design-led social innovation' (PDF, 70kb) (opens in a new window)at the Sustainability in Design: Now! Conference in Bangalore, India. The conference was an initiative of the Learning Network on Sustainability and addressed Challenges and Opportunities for Design Research, Education and Practice in the XXI Century. The focus was on knowledge exchange between East and West in Sustainable Design and Design for Social Innovation. Tara had the opportunity to catch up with international members of the Design for Social Innovation (DESIS) network to further discuss on how design faculties in Australia, including Western Sydney University, can contribute to this project.
Postdoc Researcher attends Summer Institute in Economic Geography
Dr Felicity Wray(opens in a new window) was a recent delegate at the bi-annual Summer Institute in Economic Geography in July this year at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. The event was an opportunity for other young economic geographers from across the globe to meet and discuss methods, theory and research proposals. The next Summer Institute meeting will take place in Zurich in 2012.
International Best Practice in Local and Regional Development Symposium
In June, URC Director Professor Phillip O'Neill(opens in a new window) and Postdoctoral Researcher Dr Felicity Wray(opens in a new window) attended the International Best Practice in Local and Regional Development Symposium in Melbourne. The one-day event, hosted by Professor John Tomaney (Monash University and Newcastle University, England) was designed to inform a dialogue between European and Australian researchers, stakeholders and policymakers about new approaches to spatial policy. This vibrant and well attended event was opened by The Hon. Jacinta Allan MP, Minister for Regional and Rural Development and Minister for Industry and Trade in Victoria. This was followed by a range of presentations where speakers spoke about their own experiences and approaches of forming and implementing spatial policies. Such speakers included Dr Ronnie Hall, Directorate-General for Regional Policy at the European Commission, Louise Marra from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet New Zealand, David Admans from the Federal Innovative Regions Centre and Andrew Lewis from The Northern Way, Newcastle Upon Tyne. Presentations were also given by Professor Phil McCann from Groningen University and Professor Andres Rodriguez-pose of LSE.
