Geoffrey Woolcock

Urban research and child-friendly cities: a new Australian outline

Recent public debates about Australias children and young people have begun to acknowledge the direct impact of urban development on their health and well-being. This paper reviews a broad range of trans-disciplinary literature addressing child-friendliness in contemporary Australian cities, drawing particular attention to the fact that even some of the most recognised texts on children and young people in Australia still make few references in their analysis to the issue of place and neighbourhood. More specifically, the paper points to two particular research challenges confronting the ongoing study of young peoples well-being in urban areas, including (a) the need for a more thorough analysis, both conceptual and applied, about how children and young peoples well-being is affected by different urban forms and by the social and ecological variations that occur throughout cities; and (b) the focus on younger children needs to be complemented by a focus on adolescents and young adults who in turn need to be actively involved in confronting these challenges.

Enacting food sovereignty: values and meanings in the act of domestic food production in urban Australia

This article brings to light one aspect of alternative agri-food practices by exploring the values and meanings domestic food producers associate with their actions, thereby making a small contribution to increasing understanding of the act of urban backyard food production. While Australian backyards have long been productive spaces, there has been little examination of this phenomenon in the Australian context. Limited quantitative data give some insight into the extent of domestic production, and while there is an increasing interest in certain aspects of the local food system, including community gardens and farmers markets, there is a dearth of literature that explores the contemporary act of domestic production. This work seeks to situate the act of domestic production within the broader movement calling for change within the global food system, particularly that being articulated by the food sovereignty movement. Drawing on Gibson–Grahams diverse economies framework, and through interviews with eight domestic food producers in one Australian city, this work finds that the act of growing food at home offers space for hope – where small acts can be seen as part of the broader food sovereignty movement seeking to remake our food system.

Measuring Spatial Variations in Sports Talent Development: the approach, methods and measures of ‘Talent Tracker’

ABSTRACT Knowing where sports talent is produced is fundamental to identifying spatial factors in talent production and to assist with talent identification. This research develops spatial analysis methods—the ‘Talent Tracker’—to harness geographical information systems and identify regions that are over- and under-producing sports talent. The approach focuses on the professional Australian Football League (AFL), using data sourced from the AFL itself and other sources, to identify differences in regional ‘talent yield’ based on junior participation. Data from AFL draft records, informants and secondary sources identified the place of junior talent development for the 1290 players who were drafted and played at least one game of senior AFL football in the period 1997–2010. AFL national census data identified junior participation for 94 specified regions for the period 2002–09. AFL talent was assigned to these regions by using ArcGIS procedures, and the datasets synthesised to produce tables and maps of talent yield by participation for each of the 94 AFL regions. The results demonstrate the power of contemporary spatial analysis to open up new research methods for studies into sports talent production and identification. Clear spatial patterns emerge in talent yield at both the national and metropolitan scales. The results provide numerous avenues for further research to explore determining factors for the spatial patterns identified.

Getting to the game: travel to sports stadia in the era of transit-oriented development

Australian sports stadia are returning to the core of cities and to sites supported by high-capacity public transport infrastructure, forming what is often termed ‘transit-oriented development’ (TOD). In addition, travel demand management (TDM) is being used to condition patrons into using public transport, redefining the patron transport experience. The scale of these shifts has significant implications for patrons, most of whom attend to watch the four respective football codes – Australian Rules (AFL), rugby league, rugby union and soccer – the dominant spectator sports in Australia. These shifts are exemplified in new stadiums such as Docklands in Melbourne and Lang Park in Brisbane. The rise of TDM and TOD also requires a new approach to determining stadium catchments, for which a method based on public transport accessibility is demonstrated. The research explores the prospects of possible AFL stadium locations on Queenslands Gold Coast and questions the decision to locate the future stadium at Carrara.

Can the neighborhood built environment make a difference in children's development? Building the research agenda to create evidence for place-based children's policy

Healthy child development is determined by a combination of physical, social, family, individual, and environmental factors. Thus far, the majority of child development research has focused on the influence of individual, family, and school environments and has largely ignored the neighborhood context despite the increasing policy interest. Yet given that neighborhoods are the locations where children spend large periods of time outside of home and school, it is plausible the physical design of neighborhoods (built environment), including access to local amenities, can affect child development. The relatively few studies exploring this relationship support associations between child development and neighborhood destinations, green spaces, interaction with nature, traffic exposure, and housing density. These studies emphasize the need to more deeply understand how child development outcomes might be influenced by the neighborhood built environment. Pursuing this research space is well aligned with the current global movements on livable and child-friendly cities. It has direct public policy impact by informing planning policies across a range of sectors (urban design and planning, transport, public health, and pediatrics) to implement place-based interventions and initiatives that target childrens health and development at the community level. We argue for the importance of exploring the effect of the neighborhood built environment on child development as a crucial first step toward informing urban design principles to help reduce developmental vulnerability in children and to set optimal child development trajectories early.

Using transdisciplinary research to examine talent identification and development in sport

Abstract Effective sport talent identification and development (TID) programmes are integral to a nation’s success in international sport. Using a transdisciplinary approach that involved sport practitioners and researchers with diverse theoretical perspectives, we investigated TID factors in four Australian sports (Australian rules football, cricket, kayaking and tennis). A transdisciplinary approach allowed us to isolate and explore a range of factors critical to successful sport TID. This methodological article explores how this project moved TID research beyond its paradigmatic, quantitative, sport science lens and advanced knowledge and practice in TID from both theoretical and applied perspectives. The use of a transdisciplinary approach in future TID research is recommended.

The unheard voices of youth in urban planning: using social capital as a theoretical lens in Sunshine Coast, Australia

ABSTRACT Despite the imperative that youth voices should contribute to shaping their future world, there is limited evidence of youth agency and participation which articulates their unique experience of community in urban planning decision-making. This study uses the lens of social capital to compare perspectives of community between young people aged 15–17 years and adults in a suburban community on the Sunshine Coast, South East Queensland, Australia. The results, derived from both quantitative and qualitative methods, illustrate the different experiences of community between youth and adults and suggest how urban planners and decision-makers can incorporate youth-friendly responses to address issues of power inequality between youth and adult residents and mechanisms to engage adult residents through collaborative governance approaches.

Kids in Communities Study (KiCS) study protocol: a cross-sectional mixed-methods approach to measuring community-level factors influencing early child development in Australia

Introduction Healthy childhood development in the early years is critical for later adult health and well-being. Early childhood development (ECD) research has focused primarily on individual, family and school factors, but largely ignored community factors. The Kids in Communities Study (KiCS) will test and investigate community-level influences on child development across Australia. Methods and analysis Cross-sectional mixed-methods study exploring community-level effects in 25 Australian local communities; selection based on community socioeconomic status (SES) and ECD using the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC), a population measure of child development, to create a local community ‘diagonality type’, that is, those performing better or worse (off-diagonal), or as expected (on-diagonal) on the AEDC relative to their SES. Data collection includes stakeholder interviews, parent and service provider focus groups, and surveys with general community residents and service providers, mapping of neighbourhood design and local amenities and services, analysis of policy documents, and the use of existing sociodemographic and early childhood education and care data. Quantitative data will be used to test associations between local community diagonality type, and ECD based on AEDC scores. Qualitative data will provide complementary and deeper exploration of these same associations. Ethics and dissemination The Royal Childrens Hospital Human Research Ethics Committee approved the study protocol (#30016). Further ethics approvals were obtained from State Education and Health departments and Catholic archdioceses where required. ECD community-level indicators will eventually be derived and made publically available. Findings will be published in peer-reviewed journals, community reports, websites and policy briefs to disseminate results to researchers, and key stakeholders including policymakers, practitioners and (most importantly) the communities involved.

Urban Social Capital: Civil Society and City Life

public policy is developed, the way universities develop their educational curriculum and the way society thinks about Indigenous peoples (p. xvi). I can’t speak for the other jurisdictions, but in Australia the issue of incorporating Indigenous issues into our university planning courses has been on the agenda for several years. In 2007, the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) formed the Indigenous Planning Working Group (IPWG) to raise awareness of Indigenous peoples’ values and aspirations in planning contexts and to improve planning education. In 2010, the IPWG released a Discussion Paper on “Improving Planners’ Understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians and Recommendations for Reforming Planning Education Curricula for PIA Accreditation” (Indigenous Planning Working Group, 2010). The paper went down like a lead balloon and the Working Group has since disbanded due to lack of support and general disinterest in pursuing the recommendations in the Discussion Paper. Perhaps we need a compendium of experiences with a particular focus on Australia similar to this one to wake the profession from its colonial slumber. If this edited volume has any weakness, it is the predominant focus on Canada over the other three countries, but that is understandable given the origins of the book. As a practitioner, academic and research scholar, I will be using this book as a benchmark and recommending this as compulsory reading for my students and fellow practitioners.