Conference

7th State of Australian Cities Conference, 9-11 December 2015, Gold Coast, Australia

Owning Institution

The State of Australian Cities (SOAC) national conferences have been held biennially since 2003 to support interdisciplinary policy-related urban research. SOAC 7 was held in the City of Gold Coast and hosted by Griffith University.

The 164 peer reviewed papers were organised into seven broad themes but all shared, to varying degrees, a common focus on the ways in which high quality academic research can be used in the development and implementation of policy. The conference featured leading national and local politicians and policy makers who shared their views on some of the current challenges facing cities and how these might be overcome in the future.

Papers from all past and subsequent SOAC conferences can be found at the State of Australian Cities Conferences Collection on APO.

Conference paper

Urban dimensions of creative clustering: mix/adaptation/networks/ambivalence

11 Dec 2015

Stephen Wood,

Kim Dovey,

Lucinda Pike

7th State of Australian Cities Conference, 9-11 December 2015, Gold Coast, Australia

Why do creative clusters emerge within some specific urban morphologies and not others? This paper is based on a series of in-depth interviews with cultural producers in a range of fields including included design, new media, visual and performing arts, working in key creative clusters in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

Conference paper

Don't fence me in: Understanding local government decisions to allocate and fence public open space for dogs in Melbourne, Australia

11 Dec 2015

Simon Carter,

Jennifer Day,

Ole Fryd

7th State of Australian Cities Conference, 9-11 December 2015, Gold Coast, Australia

This study examines the rationales of key actors in local government in making decisions about fencing public open spaces for dogs and builds an overarching understanding of how different councils allocate public open space for dogs.

Conference paper

Resilient cities and lost opportunities: the case of transport funding in New Zealand

11 Dec 2015

Stephen Knight-Lenihan

7th State of Australian Cities Conference, 9-11 December 2015, Gold Coast, Australia

This paper uses the example of New Zealand’s national transport funding policy and allocation processes to demonstrate how an unreflective use of the term resilience results in lost opportunities to pursue a low carbon future, and works against the concept of resilience itself.

Conference paper

Urban design guidelines for places with restorative values

11 Dec 2015

Nigel Cartlidge,

Lynne Armitage,

Daniel O'Hare

7th State of Australian Cities Conference, 9-11 December 2015, Gold Coast, Australia

This paper proposes an urban design model for the governance of accessibility to the inviting, secure and comfortable places associated with the values found in restorative environments.

Conference paper

Retirement village or the general community? Downsizing choices of older Australians

11 Dec 2015

7th State of Australian Cities Conference, 9-11 December 2015, Gold Coast, Australia

This paper compares the demographic characteristics of these two groups, circumstances leading to moving, considerations made in their choice of accommodation, difficulty of the moving process and their satisfaction with the outcomes