Laurel Johnson

The place of public space in the lives of Middle Eastern women migrants in Australia

ABSTRACT For Middle Eastern migrants to Australia, the process of acculturation is compounded by Islamophobia, which is on the rise, with many incidents occurring in public spaces and targeting women. Through in-depth interviews, this paper examines how women migrants from the Middle East, especially Muslim ones, are affected. The study finds that Middle Eastern women migrants have a different perspective on public space compared to local populations, and this difference stems from their cultural, political and religious backgrounds. These findings can help cities create inclusive and culturally-sensitive public spaces, which catalyze a ‘sense of belonging’ and ‘sense of place’ among migrants.

Managing the challenges of combining mobilities of care and commuting: an Australian perspective

ABSTRACT Women face particular travel challenges when combining commuting with broader caring responsibilities. This policy note considers the issues associated with meeting the transport needs of working women as they navigate their daily ‘mobilities of care’. We extend the concept of ‘mobilities of care’ by combining an intersectional understanding of the transport task with the principles embodied in the child-friendly cities agenda. These are discussed with respect to the provision of public transport services and infrastructure in Australia to illuminate the ways that such an approach could deliver transport benefits to those commuting with young children in their care, most often mothers. We also argue that transport policy, planning and provision must make an explicit connection between intersectional factors such as disability, class, as well as gender, and the substantive impact they can have on women and children’s mobilities and modal choices.

Re-imagining the practices of town, social and community planning in Australia: opportunities for planning in neoliberal policy settings

Town, social and community planning are among a broad suite of planning pathways widely understood as aiming to ensure development and associated social change is in the interest of the ‘public good’. While there are convergences in these planning approaches, they also diverge in multiple ways, including in understandings of who legitimate players are, and how planning gives voice to the knowledge and interests of such players. In this paper, we map the similarities and differences of these planning approaches in the Australian context, considering the philosophical and praxis underpinnings of each. While divergence in the knowledge, mandate and institutional legitimacy of each approach is highlighted, the extent to which they are unified in a commitment to people and ecology is also considered. Given the constraints imposed by neoliberal ideology, this paper argues there is some urgency to reposition planning approaches. We argue that converging foundational interests need to be considered and attention paid to the energetic community-based coalitions that are forming to empower communities in planning. This will ensure the continued relevance of all three planning approaches in the creation of a fair and environmentally responsible Australia – historically core mandates for all planning praxis.

Learning by Doing: Employer Expectations of Planning Studio Education

Abstract Planning education is often criticised for being “too theoretical” and subsequently producing graduates who lack the requisite technical skills for the job market—who, in other words, are not “work ready.” It is assumed that employers will prefer graduates with technical and procedural know-how. This article reports on an employer workshop to evaluate the urban planning studio courses at the University of Queensland in Australia. The results were surprising. The attending employers agreed that procedural planning skills can be learned “on the job” while the university environment is an opportunity to develop critical and spatial thinking.

Discretion and the erosion of community trust in planning: reflections on the post-political: Discretion and community trust in planning

In this study, performance-based planning is implicated in the destabilisation of community trust in the planning system. Set in a contested inner city area of Brisbane, Australia, the research associates neoliberal planning objectives with the discretionary decision-making specifically embedded in performance-based planning. The neoliberalisation of planning is, we submit, symptomatic of a post-ideological politics of consensus that actually erodes properly political moments and renders the political merely administrative. We explore these matters by reference to a particular case study involving a spatial planning project that resulted in height and density being extended to unprecedented levels, and competitive economic value and city branding being prioritised over the local value of the place. This discretionary action, limited formal participation opportunities, and existing low levels of community trust motivated local residents to mobilise against the plan and design alternatives. To understand the role of trust and participation in performance-based planning, both in this case and more generally, a number of stakeholders were interviewed and surveyed to gather their views on participation, trust, and discretion in planning, and on the performance-based planning system. A surprising research finding is that many stakeholders expressed trust in planning professionals but distrust in the planning system in which planners operate, and they did so on the understanding that the system gives unfettered priority to economic growth objectives.

The community planning handbook: how people can shape their cities, towns and villages in any part of the world

existing way of life’, while an average 24% foresaw the same chance of the elimination of humanity within a century. Perhaps they had read and digested Sustainable Futures. Given these portents of self-immolation, which could constitute the greater threat: climate change in the atmosphere or diseconomies of scale and the law of diminishing returns on the ground. Can planning lift its view beyond the level of the individual region, put aside the symptomatic and palliative distractions of ‘mitigation’ and ‘adaptation’, and get down PAT to the root causes of the crisis? These moveswould elevate its systemanalytic capacities and advocacy roles developed during the 1970s. Today, to any reasonable observer who accepts contemporary science, the discipline’s continuing complicity with the neo-liberal political, and expansionary demographic, Zeitgeist must surely defy logic – not an especially prospective basis for acclaim. To their enduring credit, realist volumes such as Sustainable Futures act as beacons in the swirling mists of confusion, inertia or plain avarice while, within city and regional planning, insightful writers like Gabor Zovanyi (2013) offer thefirst indications of a possible paradigm shift.

MAPPING LOCAL SOLUTIONS TO ENTRENCHED TRANSPORT PROBLEMS: KEY LESSONS REGARDING THE USE OF GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES IN COMMUNITY MAPPING WITH DISADVANTAGED COMMUNITIES

There is an increasing interest in the use of information technology as a participatory planning tool, particularly the use of geographical information technologies to support collaborative activities such as community mapping. However, despite their promise, the introduction of such technologies does not necessarily promote better participation nor improve collaboration. In part this can be attributed to a tendency for planners to focus on the technical considerations associated with these technologies at the expense of broader participation considerations.