It is incontestable that the motor age changed the face of urban life forever. What is more problematic is its role as the prime instrument of this spatial and cultural shift. To what extent did the motor car in fact accelerate a long process of spatial redefinition dating back long before its advent?

Examines the coincidence between suburbanisation, mass consumption and mass production during the golden era of Fordism after the Second World War.

Beginning with a description of Elizabeth, an outer suburb of Adelaide, as a ‘ workers’ city, this paper asserts the central importance of women's activities, whether in households or wider territories, in the making, defining and defending of place.

This paper describes the suburban ideal, explains its historical development and compares the Australian suburb with its counterpart in other countries such as the United States and Great Britain.