No Home Away from Home: A Qualitative Study of Care Leavers' Perceptions and Experiences of ‘Home’

This paper explores the cultural and biographical specificity of home by examining the connections between young people's experiences of out-of-home care and their definitions of home. The paper draws on 77 in-depth interviews with young people who had lived away from their families in the Australian out-of-home care system. The paper applies a psycho-social conceptualisation of ‘home’ to argue that home was a crucial symbol through which these young people imagined a less challenging future and claimed identities of ‘being normal’. The majority remembered their time in out-of-home care as a time of instability and insecurity in terms of both housing and relationships; they did not feel at home in these contexts. These histories informed young people's experiences and imagining of home and their sense of identity within and after out-of-home care, as they defined home as fundamentally different from out-of-home care. Their definitions incorporated shelter, emotional well-being, control, routine, caring relationships and stability.     

“It’s Just a Matter of Adjustment”: Residents’ Perceptions and the Potential for Low-impact Home Practices

In addition to material, spatial and thermal standards and norms that influence the resource intensity of home environments, a key indicator of the environmental impact related to housing is found in residents’ ways of life. Of interest to the study presented in this paper is how residents’ perceptions of home and living standards relate to opinions on environmental issues and the reduction of resource use, exploring the potential and willingness to engage in low-impact ways of living. Empirical material from a questionnaire (n = 156) and interview study (n = 22) with residents in a tenant-owned housing association in Sweden provides insights into conventions and perceptions surrounding practices primarily linked to voluntary simplicity, living smaller as well as sharing spaces and resources. The study emphasizes the need for understanding residents’ perspectives and the implications this might have for targeting the resource intensity of homes in future development and policy.     

Analysis on Beijing’s Policy of Restricting Motor Vehicle Usage

Along with the increase of car ownership,the problem of traffic congestion has appeared more and more serious since the 1990s in Beijing.In order to deal with the problem of traffic congestion,the policy of restricting motor vehicle usage,as a measure of transportation demand management by decreasing the total number of on-road motor vehicles,was firstly implemented in 2006 in trial,which continued from 2008 during the period of Olympic Games up to day.Starting with an analysis on policy motivation,this paper describes the practices of restricting motor vehicle usage in Beijing since 2006,analyzes the effects on the performance of the city’s transportation,and concludes after a comparative analysis that,in spite of the positive effects on relieving the traffic congestion,the policy of restricting motor vehicle usage could only constitute a temporary measure of traffic demand management,rather than a fundamental one,because the comprehensive effects would decrease along with the continuous growth of motor vehicle possession.     

Sense of place: using people’s experiences in relation to a rural landscape to inform spatial planning guidelines

This paper explores the interplay between people and a distinctive rural locality namely Vredefort Dome World Heritage Site, South Africa to inform spatial planning guidelines. A transdisciplinary, qualitative research methodology was followed. First, participants’ experiences in relation to the rural landscape were obtained using photographs, interviews and focus groups. Experiences related to physical and emotional safety, relaxation and tranquillity, hope and curiosity, and relational experiences with people and a divinity emerged. Drawing on these interactional experiences, participants (divided into multi-disciplinary groups) made visual collages of how to maintain the sense of place. Guidelines developed included two-dimensional site planning guidelines: (i) a sense of arrival; (ii) development zones; (iii) conservation zones; (iv) compatible land uses; (v) a low density, spatially dispersed development pattern and (vi) footpaths. Three-dimensional design guidelines included: (i) unity in style with a diversity of detail designs; (ii) restricted buildings sizes; (iii) building heights of maximum two storeys; (iv) specified building materials and (v) prescribed colour codes. The paper contributes to existing sense of place research by proposing an integrated, contextual and participatory approach as a possible way forward to make the sense(s) of place explicit by integrating these in spatial planning guidelines.     

Editor’s introduction to: a scholarly tribute to the 50th anniversary of the Western Regional Science Association

The paper provides an interpretive guide to the Special Issue commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Western Regional Science Association. The Special Issue contains 13 papers arranged into four groups (1) Perspectives on the Western Regional Science Association, (2) Assessment with a view to the future (3) Current topics—regional issues, and (4) Current topics—urban issues.     

A Qualitative Examination of Jim Kemeny’s Arguments on High Home Ownership,the Retirement Pension and the Dualist Rental System Focusing on Australia

A key aspect of Jim Kemeny’s argument is that in advanced economies that have high levels of home ownership, the age pension is only adequate if you have low accommodation costs. A related argument is that these societies will be dominated by what he calls a dualist rental market. In this rental market regulation is minimal and landlords hold sway. Kemeny’s thesis, was given added support by Castles’ (1998) more extensive comparative analysis. He concluded that his findings were ‘extremely supportive’ of Kemeny’s conclusion. In this paper, I use in-depth interviews to test Kemeny’s thesis. The circumstances of older homeowners and older private renters in Australia are compared. All of the interviewees were dependent solely or primarily on the government age pension. The interviews indicated that almost all of the older homeowners felt that the age pension was adequate. They were able to consume adequately, engage in leisure activities, run a car, go on holiday and they had little anxiety about their financial situation. This was especially so in the case of those interviewees drawing the couples pension. In contrast, most of the older private renters suffered from severe financial stress. Invariably they had to use a large proportion of their income to pay for accommodation, and as a result, they found it difficult to purchase basic items and any unexpected expense precipitated much anxiety. Their limited resources severely impacted on their capacity to sustain social contacts, engage in leisure activities and look after their health. In addition to having limited resources, many had minimal security of occupancy. The interviews strongly substantiated Kemeny’s original thesis. They illustrated that within a dualist rental market the housing tenure and attendant accommodation costs of a person dependent on the government age pension are crucial determinants of their capacity to live a decent life.     

Changes to Continuing Landscapes: Industrialisation of Australia’s Productive Rural Lands

Abstract

Changes in scale and economies of Australia’s productive agricultural lands from small-scale family owned farms of mixed stock/crop production to large-scale agglomerations of vast monocultures especially grains and cotton will be examined. Rural heritage listing is concentrated on nineteenth century colonial rural homesteads, woolsheds and associated processing buildings and estates, mainly the built components of a designed landscape, or on forested lands in national parks and conservation reserves. Heritage landscapes associated with intensive production on small holdings specialising in vegetables, vineyards or orchards are under threat from subdivision for suburban expansion and rural lifestyle or hobby farms with associated development of utilities and access routes. The decline in sheep farming and its replacement in some regions by grain-growing agglomerations and the national spread of cattle raising has led to much abandonment of rural infrastructure. Agriculture has become more productive, but many cultural landscapes have not been identified as such for protection under local planning schemes. How much change should be permitted in small-scale ‘traditional’ rural landscapes and when do large-scale agri-business landscapes become significant?     

Study on Evolution of Zhengzhou’s Urban Planning and Spatial Structure from 1906 to 1957

According to the study on history, the construction of Beijing-Hankou Rail Line and Lianyungang-Lanzhou Rail Line during the late Qing Dynasty and the era of the Republic of China (1912 - 1949) not only decided the spatial layout of modern Zhengzhou, but also brought about the rapid development of Zhengzhou’s commercial industry. Without scientific planning, they have already caused essential changes of Zhengzhou’s urban spatial structure. From the early days of the People’s Republic of China, urban planning became the most important factor to shape Zhengzhou’s urban spatial structure, in terms of the rational allocation of industrial areas. In above mentioned two successive periods, the driving forces of urban construction were different, the characteristics of urban spatial structure was also opposite, i.e., disorderly and unsystematic layout in the former period, while rigorous and regularized structure in the latter one. The problems existed in Zhengzhou’s spatial construction today are also closely related to this specific character formed in the early development period.     

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of Nigeria’s Rapid Urban Transition

Owing to the dramatic pace and scale of its transformation, Nigeria is considered Africa’s next urban giant. Between 1960 and 2010, Nigeria added approximately 62.5 million inhabitants to its urban population, with forecasts to 2050 projecting an additional 226 million. As Nigeria forges ahead into the next chapter of its urban transition, there is an unmet need to take stock of past experiences, identify trends, and speculate on future growth trajectories. Taking advantage of recently available datasets from the United Nations and the Africapolis Project, this paper launches an inquiry into the nature and causes of Nigeria’s rapid urban transition between 1960 and 2010. It disaggregates urbanization into its individual components of urban growth and calculates their contributions to the overall urban increment. Several notable findings are highlighted. Nigeria, which is considered a late urbanizer, is currently in the accelerated stage of its urban transition and is projected to enter the terminal stage by 2030. Urban natural population increase has been the dominant component of urban growth in the post-colonial period and will likely continue to be so in the immediate future. Despite this, policies aimed at stemming rural to urban migration appear to have been the preferred mechanism for lessening the pressures posed by the contemporary urban transition, suggesting a potential policy mismatch.     

The Review and Prospect of Chinese Urban Planning from 1980s to 1990s

Ⅰ.Chinese Cities and Towns in1980sThe development and changes ofChinese cities and towns over the last dec-ade had been most extraordinary,which at-tributed both to its thousand-year-civiliza-tion-history and development process sincethe founding of the P.R.China.The devel-opment changes are in both “quantity” and“quality”.Although it is a bit difficult tosummarize all the changes,at least,it is pos-sible to sum up the following subjects fordiscussion.     

Shaping an urban Amazonia: ‘a planner’s nightmare’

This paper discusses the massive colonization plan and settlement scheme implemented in the early 1970s by the Brazilian government as part of the development of the Amazonian territory, and accounts for some of the reasons for its failure. Building on the notion that the Amazonian settlement scheme had taken a mid-twentieth-century private-colonization enterprise in northern-Paraná state as a planning model, this paper reveals that they were both grounded in garden-city repertoire; particularly the ideas of decentralization, satellite towns, and the marriage of town and country. However, unlike its model, the Amazonian settlement scheme failed badly. The adaptations made to the model and the innovations of the new scheme will also be identified.     

Segregation and conflict in post-modernist Caracas: from Pérez’s Gran Venezuela to Chávez’s Bolivarian Revolution*

Reviewing political and economic changes underwent since the so-called Gran Venezuela, characterized by the nationalization of oil and mammoth projects during the first presidency of Carlos Andrés Pérez (CAP, 1974–1979), the article focuses on the socio-spatial segregation and urban conflict staged in Caracas until Hugo Chávez’s Bolivarian Revolution (1999–2013). It is a timespan when, at an urban scale, the oil-booming and modernist capital of the 1950s – initial episode of the article’s review – gave way to a less progressive and more deteriorated metropolis, which has become one of Latin America’s most polarized and conflictive arenas. Drawn from a research project about ‘The City in the Thought of Urban Venezuela’, the article outlines, from a methodological standpoint, an urban overview throughout some images, which intertwines the political and intellectual discourse about the city with its changing structure and perception. In this respect, the article’s approach is arguably inscribed within the urban cultural history in Latin America. For decades after CAP’s second government (1989–1993), the article intends as well a closer examination of segregation in the public space, considering that Caracas has become Latin America’s testbed of political and spatial polarization, fuelled by the unrest characteristic of Chávez’s neo-populist revolution.