Architecture, Building and Planning - Theses

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    Planning for dogs in urban environments
    Carter, Simon Bruce ( 2016)
    Dogs are the most common pet in Australia and increasingly occupy both social and cultural norms. There is a growing interest in more-than-human geography and my thesis extends this critical concern to the planning of urban environments as a human habitat. Contemporary literature in more-than-human geography typically and unconsciously anthropomorphises the experience of those other species and in turn accounts for other species from a human perspective. My thesis recognises this gap and endeavours to provide a critical account of planning for dogs through a lens of justice for animals. My research problem is predicated on the basis that Australian society lacks consensus on the appropriate treatment of dogs in urban environments, reflecting in local differentiation of opportunities available to dogs and yielding different outcomes of justice for dogs. My thesis accordingly examines how institutions and planners affect such freedoms through their language and actions. My thesis comprises a similar systems case study design that examines the phenomenon of planning for dogs using the case of Melbourne, a city of four million people and the capital of the state of Victoria, Australia, through the institutional discourse of eight representative councils (local government authorities). In order to critically address the fundamental uncertainty of anthropomorphism introduced by the dependent companion relationship, I elect to examine the discourse of government institutions as a credible, consistent and comparable reflection of society. Themes and theory emerge from the data through a disciplined application of qualitative content analysis underpinning a grounded theorisation of planning for dogs in cities. An operational framework describing justice for dogs is developed from first principles, suggesting the importance of animal management, open space planning and urban planning professions in planning for dogs. These roles demonstrate a clear ontological distinction, with the dominance of ontology shown to be exceedingly important to understanding planning for dogs. In operationalising a justice for dogs, I capture the pervasive anthropocentrism of planning which manifests in the animal management practices of councils and in how human agency is defined and exercised in the process and outcomes of planning for dogs. Whilst my thesis is ostensibly about planning urban environments and the role of local government, it also contributes to the social sciences more broadly. My approach distinguishes from what may be typical to other more-than-human geography literature through its treatment of planning for dogs as attending to underlying considerations of justice for dogs. A natural concordance with the justice as capabilities (derived from the Capabilities Approach espoused by Sen and Nussbaum) emerges, suggesting more authentic and just outcomes for dogs than in the utilitarian anthropocentric tradition where actions are guided by the demarcation of humans from animals. My thesis is a valuable contribution to this growing body of more-than-human geography literature and advances the philosophy of planning of urban environments beyond humanity, in doing so strengthening the bonds which connect the broader social sciences.
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    Public transport policy and land use in Melbourne and Toronto, 1950 to 1990
    Mees, Paul Andrew ( 1997-01)
    This study examines the reasons behind the decline in public transport patronage in Melbourne between 1950 and 1990, through a comparison with Toronto. The share of urban travel undertaken by public transport has declined since the Second World War in all developed countries, but public transport patronage in Melbourne appears to have declined more rapidly than in most other industrialised cities. Public transport has, however, gained or held ground in Toronto, where the form of development is similar in many ways to Melbourne. Most accounts of Toronto’s success (particularly in Australia) regard transport/land-use integration as the critical factor. The contrasting analysis maintains that Melbourne’s urban form has changed over this period to a dispersed, car-oriented pattern. This study evaluates a different interpretation of the ‘Toronto model’. This is that Toronto has undergone similar urban changes to Melbourne since the war, but has found a way of operating public transport successfully in a relatively dispersed environment. The contrast with Melbourne, then, is not primarily in land-use patterns, but in policies towards the operation of public transport.
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    The role of affect in local government corporate real estate management
    Heywood, Christopher Andrew ( 2007)
    This dissertation reveals affect’s contribution to strategic local government corporate real estate management (CREM). Affect is found in subjective assessments of the effects of the CRE and its management that contribute to the, often, fractious and vigorous debates around proposals to provide or change Council facilities. These subjective assessments, which may be colloquially known as ‘perceptions’, are thought by CREM to contradict the, seemingly, ‘objective’ measures they rely upon in framing facility proposals and decisions. The local government and general CREM literature is not extensive and quite deficient in its treatment of subjective assessments – affective or not. Other literature that does consider subjective assessments of environments rarely considers the political and governance issues implicit in the research problem. In practice, local government CREM already navigates across the problem field of affect and other subjective assessments of CREM’s effects. This dissertation presents analysis of cases demonstrating this navigation. A multiple case study research methodology was employed using four cases of facility proposals from a middle suburban Melbourne metropolitan council. The four cases were selected to illustrate the issues that exist in local government CRE and its management. Analysis occurred within a psychologically-orientated qualitative enquiry using an ‘Affective Lexicon’ to access affective dimensions contained in word-based data, both text and verbal. Using a psychologically-based mapping model the presence of affect in local government CREM was mapped across the management processes in providing the studied facilities as a means of furthering understanding of the effects of local government CREM. Possible further research in the field of local government CREM is also identified. This research makes several contributions to knowledge. Primarily, there is the contribution from demonstrating that affective, being psychological and subjective, practices apply to and are used by effective local government CREM. This contribution is supported by demonstrating that there is an ‘Affective domain’ to and for local government CREM and the form of that domain with regard to the psychological functions present. This provides an understanding of the subjective responses to facility proposals, more commonly called ‘perceptions’, and their affective assessments’ basis; both ‘ante’ and ‘post’ CRE project processes. Furthermore, rather than being merely recipients of affective, subjective responses, this research demonstrates an affect-based approach to local government CREM through an identification of affective management processes used by local government in providing community facilities. In addition, because the field of (local government) CREM is undertheorised at this point, this research also contributes knowledge to several gaps indentified in the property literature, particularly with regard to defining the basis of CREM practice and its effects.