The Challenge of Change - Australian Cities and Urban Planning in the New Millennium by Clive - Article Example

Clive F, 2006, ‘The Challenge of Change: Australian Cities and Urban Planning in the New Millennium’, Geographical Research, vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 173-182 Summary: The article titled Australian Cities and Urban Planning in the New Millennium critically examines the change in the spatial structure of the Australian cities. The study has considered the spatial structure of the Australian cities in the early 1960s as a benchmark and reviewed the changes that have occurred from thereon. The factors that were considered for evaluating the change were the location of employment and journey to work patterns. The article has also included the change in the nature of housing and also the patterns of residential advantage and disadvantage. The article is based on the assumption that the major Australian cities are undergoing fundamental changes in character and structure. The article has critically analyzed the strategic policy documents pertaining to the major metropolitan cities published between 2002 and 2005 and has observed mismatches in the conceptualization of future urban structures. The paper suggests the inflexible nature of current metropolitan planning strategies and fails to address the increasing geographical complexity as indicated by the researches on the changing internal structure of major Australian cities. Another key conclusion made by the study is that 1990s was the period which observed a significant change in the Australian urban character. Critique The article addressed a focused objective. The article has tried to research the changes that the Australian cities underwent in comparison their status in 1960s. The author has added a number of literatures which substantiates the relevance of the objective. Two latest studies have been stated by the author, which suggests in adherence with the assumption of the current study that the Australian cities have transformed in its structure. So as to form the background of the objective, the author has provided literature pertaining to the statistics of urbanization, employment pattern and the allied journey pattern. The author has cited the literatures based on the 1991 census and later compared the same with researches done in the early twenty first century. This scientifically backs up the objective of the article and substantiates its thesis. Adding to the strength of the article many authors as cited by the articles have published supporting information with regard to the objective of the reviewed article. As far as the literatures cited are concerned, the author has provided ample background information through referring to a number of literatures. While analyzing the literatures cited by the author, it can be found that appropriate and adequate works has been referred to. The oldest literature cited in the article dates back to 1969. A couple of literatures published in the year 2005 also have been cited in the article. This proves the adequacy and the depth of the research done by the author. This fact becomes more relevant considering that the objective of the article demands a critical comparison of the spatial structure of Australian cities. An added strength of the article is that the literatures referred belong to an explicit range of database and periodicals. The objective-wise coverage of the literature review also adds to the scientific value of the article. The structured research that has been involved in the process of writing the article is quite evident. Each particular part of the objective has been supported by relevant literature. The author has used the research literature based on Government census of 1991 to indicate the urban structure and employement location trend during those times. On the other side research papers published in the year 2005 also has been included to highlight the contrast. Similar sufficient number of literatures has been referred by the author with regard to the housing pattern. The depth and the structuring of the research is further confirmed as the article has specifically dealt with and cited literatures referring to different sectors of housing. Data pertaining to both the public sector and the private sector has been referred in detail. Further so as to support the objective, literatures pertaining to Residential differentiation also have been included. The contrast in the socio-economic status of each Australian city has been referred to and cited in the article. The author has included a number of literatures which supports the analysis of the metropolitan planning strategies. Different governmental agencies which are instrumental in formulating the strategies for metropolitan planning also have been cited in the article. This is a strong indication that authentic and reliable sources are used as reference in the article. As far the type of references are concerned, it involved wide range of sources as the literatures cited included websites, policy documents, journal articles, books and book chapters. However, the inclusion criteria of the literatures are not mentioned. From the list of references, literatures from other languages could not be identified as well. Primary sources like surveys and interviews are also found not to have included in the article. However, the nature of the study and the specific objective of the study justify the reason for not having included surveys and interviews. All the references are specifically related to the subject of research and thus add to the quality of the article. The structural framework of the article makes it easy for the reader to follow. The article is well arranged in accordance to the variables involved in the objective of the article. The language used is academic in nature. However, the catchword that is attached with the introduction and the conclusion does not fit into the academic framework of the article. On the other side these captions clearly suggests the abstract of the paragraphs to follow. However considering the academic nature of the article, these captions could have been avoided. The language used all through the article except these captions are simple and scientifically precise. The author has ensured to add proper in-text citations as well. Specific academic structuring format also has been taken into account. Some abbreviations like ‘CBD’ are used in the article. However, the expansion for these abbreviations has not been included in the article. Though these may be common terms for many of the Australian readers, these words may not be familiar to all the readers. Moreover, using such abbreviation without proper explanation does not suit the academic format of writing. It is highly recommended that a list of abbreviations and its expansions would have been added in the article. Although a lot number of literatures supporting the assumptions suggested by the study has been included in the article, the researches and findings which contradictory to the assumptions are not dealt in detail in the article. This makes the conclusions of the study biased. The alternate possibilities of arriving at a conclusion have not been considered. However, considering the fact that the literatures included in the study are scientifically relevant, the conclusions suggested by the article become more precise. The conclusion of the article poses concern over the limited trend in suburban development. The key conclusions made by the article are that there exist possibilities of formation of two non-connected universes if the current metropolitan planning strategies prevail as such for long. One of these is the urban universe occupied and envisaged by the metropolitan strategy builders. The other one is the realistic, complex and residentially differentiated universe highly concentrated around the traffic corridors. The real matter of concern is the parallelism between these concepts. It has been stated by the author that in the years to come urbanization would limit to the areas around the transport corridors. The development strategy being followed as reported by the article would result in multi nuclear trends and self contained societies. This suggests the social concern raised by the article. Thus the conclusions of the article prove to be of ethically relevant and valuable. The title of the conclusion parts suggests the formation of parallel universes. This statement gives the reader a clear abstract of the whole conclusion part. The issues of housing affordability and social exclusion have been well addressed in the conclusion part. Thus the conclusions of the article are locally applicable. The ethical and the usability part of the article are thus justified. In totality, the conclusion of the study has succeeded to reflect the main findings of the study and raise socially, geographically and politically relevant questions pertaining to Australian Cities and Urban Planning in the New Millennium. As an abstract of the critique on the article titled, ‘The Challenge of Change: Australian Cities and Urban Planning in the New Millennium’, it can be precisely stated that the author has succeeded in conveyed the intended message with regard to social planning. The article is scientifically well structured. Moreover, the information included in the article has been well backed by scientifically relevant published literatures. In other language, there has been ample research involved along with the article. Read More