The experience of upward social mobility through education can have unexpected emotional costs – particularly for graduates from the working class.
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Articles on Western Sydney
Displaying 1 - 20 of 39 articles
It was once thought the Aboriginal names for the Hawkesbury had been lost forever. But after a remarkable find in the Mitchell Library, almost 100 place names will be restored to Dyarubbin Country.
With COVID-19 spreading in Sydney's southwest, can New South Wales avoid a return to lockdown and a similar scenario to Victoria's second wave? The answer depends on whether there is community spread.
A new airport, aerotropolis and development of two of the 'three cities' in the metropolitan strategy all aim to create jobs in Western Sydney. But right now the only certainty is a huge jobs deficit.
Western Sydney's growth-driven boom had ended before COVID-19 hit. Some neighbourhood unemployment rates were 2-3 times the metropolitan average, with female workforce participation as low as 43%.
Education fuelled extraordinary growth in Western Sydney's professional services workforce, but their jobs aren't local. More than 300,000 commute to work outside the region.
When a city gets to a certain size, it starts to make sense to have multiple centres of activity, and three are planned for Sydney. So what needs to be done to bring the city closer to this goal?
Central City 2048 proposes one new rail line, three metro lines and almost 300,000 extra jobs for the new CBD, one of three proposed for metropolitan Sydney. Clearly, the investment needed is massive.
The Greater Sydney metropolis is envisaged as having three CBDs by mid-century, but an assessment of the proposed Central City around Parramatta shows how much work is needed to make that a reality.
Sydney's supervised injection room in Kings Cross has helped reduce harmful drug use. But many drug users who live in the outer suburbs find it difficult to get to the inner-city facility.
Commonly used surfaces in play areas, such as "soft fall" materials and Astroturf, can heat up to 80-100°C in the sun. This makes them a hazardous design choice, especially as the climate gets hotter.
Michael Mohammed Ahmad's novel The Lebs is a realistic portrayal of teenage boys in Western Sydney.
Trust has returned to areas with a higher concentration of ethnically diverse migrants significantly since 2005, but more must to be done if we want to avoid another Cronulla riot.
In the same-sex marriage survey, the 'yes' vote came in at 57.8% in NSW – but in some western Sydney electorates, the 'yes' vote was as low as 26%.
The results of the same-sex marriage survey confirm what previous polling had shown, but western Sydney surprised with a strong 'no' vote.
Early intervention via education and training will cost money straight up. But it makes no sense to watch young people drift through unemployment and disengagement and turn into unemployable adults.
Reasoned debates on sustainable migration intake levels are important. But transport and health infrastructure shortfalls in Western Sydney won't be solved by reactive anti-immigration attitudes.
Extreme heat divides people from the environment and from each other. So with the rapid densification of our cities, what kind of legacies are we building for future generations?
Enshrining the need for planning healthy built environments in legislation will help ensure the fundamental role planners have to play in facilitating healthy lifestyles.
Universities can lead the way in creating opportunities for the economic development of regional cities and outer metropolitan areas under new City Deals.
Top contributors
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Director, Centre for Western Sydney, Western Sydney University
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Professor in Cultural and Social Analysis, Western Sydney University
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Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Technology Sydney
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Associate Professor in Urbanism and Telecommunication Planning, Sydney Research Accelerator (SOAR) Fellow, University of Sydney
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Associate Professor, Design Studies, Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, University of Technology Sydney
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Senior Lecturer, Sociology and Social Policy, University of New England
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Program director, Cities, Grattan Institute
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Senior Lecturer, School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University
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Principal Fellow (Hon), Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, The University of Melbourne
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Senior Lecturer, School of Computing and Information Systems, University of Melbourne; Senior Research Fellow, Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, The University of Melbourne
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Professor, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong
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Professor of Criminology, Western Sydney University
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Architecture Faculty Industry Advisory Group member, University of Newcastle
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Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
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Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University
