Neoliberalism and Suburban Employment: Western Sydney in the 1990s

Abstract

During the past 15 years metropolitan planning strategies of the NSW state government have done little to address the spatial distribution of either employment or labour market equity within the metropolis. In the fast‐growing outer western suburbs, the government has focused on attracting business investment to increase the stock of local jobs and to improve employment ‘self‐sufficiency’— a dominantly neoliberal policy framework. This paper explores a widening gulf between the reality of outer urban change and this policy framework by considering changes in the location of jobs and in the employment experiences of residents in Greater Western Sydney (GWS). Evidence is drawn from census journey‐to‐work data (1991–2001). While holding a majority of manufacturing jobs in Sydney, GWS also experienced continued growth of jobs in service industries during the 1990s. Yet the relative importance of employment in the city's fast‐growth finance and business services sector still lags well behind that of inner and northern parts of the city. The focus on growing the regional stock of jobs has not addressed problems of labour market access faced by residents of particular localities and the goal of employment self‐sufficiency has not delivered greater equity to outer suburban labour markets. A focus on sufficiency of access to employment for residents of GWS draws attention not only to regional stocks of jobs but also to the provision of social infrastructure and state‐provided services to outer suburban populations as they continue to expand.

Goodbye Pram City: Beyond Inner/Outer Zone Binaries in Creative City Research

“…We briefly summarise these possible explanations here, by way of a conclusion to this article, and point to different kinds of opportunities for policy narratives, where Sydney could be re-positioned as a creative city in ways that much better appreciate the subtlety of its constituent parts. One possible explanation for the spatial trends evident in Figures 2 and 3 is that outer and exurban areas have seen absolute population and employment growth rates far exceeding inner areas (Mee, 2002;Fagan & Dowling, 2005), and creative work has simply been a part of this. This is a relatively straightforward explanation that points to the presence of creativity in all kinds of new jobs and industries, and thus, hypothesises that 'outer' and 'exurban' areas of cities, where total population and employment growth are evident, are also likely to experience growth in creative work.…”

The challenge of attaining a sustainable urban morphology for South East Queensland

“…Contemporary patterns of economic development, housing and travel preferences do not correlate to this spatial ordering (O'Connor & Rapson, 2003;Birrel et al, 2005;Fagan & Dowling, 2005;Han, 2005). The divergence between these policy aspirations and the complex nature of urban transformations calls in to question the delivery of a sustainable urban morphology for SEQ.…”

“…Recent research on urban morphology, however, casts a sceptical view on the capacity of spatial policies to deliver neat and ordered polycentric forms (Fagan & Dowling, 2005, Williams, 2005Forster, 2006). Contemporary patterns of economic development, housing and travel preferences do not correlate to this spatial ordering (O'Connor & Rapson, 2003;Birrel et al, 2005;Fagan & Dowling, 2005;Han, 2005).…”

“…Whilst it is unclear exactly how these developments will transpire, it is however worth noting that recent research suggests that growth areas in Australian cities, designed to promote self-containment, rarely meet their ambitions (Yigitcanlar et al, 2005;Fagan & Dowling, 2005).…”

Preservice Teachers’ Learning Among Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…Such status of the residents is in stark contrast with the fact that 150 of the nation's top 500 companies are located within GWS. Over a period of 15 years, reports (Fagan & Dowling, 2005;Mee, 2002;Murphy & Watson, 1997) consistently show that low household income and employment levels characterise the lives of a significant number of people living in GWS.…”