The geography of firm location is a longstanding focus in urban studies. This paper examines the ... more The geography of firm location is a longstanding focus in urban studies. This paper examines the distribution of Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) listed headquarters in Australian cities. It focusses on change in the distribution of firm locations between 2013 and 2016 by sector, with a lens on the differences within and between Australia's five largest cities. Findings indicate that the number of listed firm headquarters diminished overall, and that declining activity in the resources sector was primarily responsible. Cities in which mining and energy play a key role, particularly Perth, experienced the greatest headquarters losses, while Melbourne was the only city to gain firm headquarters over the three-year interval. On a more local scale, central business districts (CBDs) lost firm activity across all cities, while suburbs gained firm headquarters, particularly inner-ring suburbs adjacent to CBDs. This change was led in particular by the healthcare and information technology sectors, which exhibited the greatest gains. These broad changes indicate a shift to the knowledge economy across cities in which central and CBD-fringe locations are desirable from a firm perspective due to proximity to related firms and institutions, and also to high-skill labour forces, as a more detailed look at the intra-metropolitan geographies reveals. We would like to acknowledge the following people:
Defining the role of cities within economic networks has been a key theoretical challenge, partic... more Defining the role of cities within economic networks has been a key theoretical challenge, particularly as nuanced understandings of positionality are increasingly championed over hierarchical notions of influence or power in the World City Network (WCN). This paper applies social network analysis (SNA) to identify the critical role that a wide range of cities plays in the Australian economic system. Drawing upon the set of Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) listed firms, four distinct sub-networks are compared against the overall urban network. Each of the materials, energy, industrials, and financials sector sub-networks are found to have unique configurations of inter-urban relations, which are articulated through institutional and industry-specific factors, grounded in diverse histories and path-dependent trajectories. This analysis applies five different centrality measures to understand how positionality within the overall network and respective sub-networks might better inform policymakers formulating ‘globalizing’ urban policy. This addresses the long-standing theoretical debate regarding territorially articulated hierarchies of urban/corporate power, extricating WCN research from the core-periphery assumptions tied to its world-systems theory lineage. Understanding how, rather than if, cities are global provides contextual knowledge about how cities are situated within broader circuits of production, and the exogenous relations that shape urban economies around the world, providing a framework for research in other global contexts.
This paper examines the dominant policy discourse of
urban revitalization in the United States as... more This paper examines the dominant policy discourse of urban revitalization in the United States as it increasingly intersects with global processes and power structures. Though scholars have long attributed urban growth to larger, global processes, I argue that the impact of internationally mediated social, economic, and cultural flows is on the rise in the urban U.S. As a case study, I draw a critical lens to Las Vegas’ City Center, an $8.6 billion mixed-use megaproject that continues to be built in the wake of a global economic crisis. City Center is currently the largest privately funded development in the U.S. and implicates a variety of contemporary processes. I conclude that the project follows the orthodoxy of past revitalization initiatives, but with dramatically up-scaled capital outlays and global influence.
Thomas Sigler, Glen Searle, Kirsten Martinus & Matthew Tonts. This paper develops a comparative m... more Thomas Sigler, Glen Searle, Kirsten Martinus & Matthew Tonts. This paper develops a comparative means by which to understand metropolitan spatial structure through the dynamics of economic activities. Clustering and suburbanization have been key processes within the contemporary urban landscape, but few scholarly accounts have systematically merged the two to explain the geographies of economic activity. Using firm location as a variable to discern sector- and industry-based locational requirements, we explore land-use and economic activity in Australia’s five largest metropolitan areas. Drawing upon the respective headquarters and branch office locations of a set of publically traded firms, we seek to establish general spatial patterns across Australian cities using two proxy measures for clustering and suburbanization, being well-established drivers of firm locational choice. Despite the complexity that post-industrial and suburbanizing processes add to metropolitan land-use patterns, we contend that certain patterns exist that can be generalized from one context to another across urban space, and that certain emerging trends such as the development of CBD-fringe precincts merit greater attention.
Sustainable development has broad consensus in environmental science and policy discourse, but it... more Sustainable development has broad consensus in environmental science and policy discourse, but its implications differ in specific cultural contexts. This article articulates sustainable development from a Chinese cultural perspective by tracing ideas from Chinese traditional culture and exploring China's concept of harmonious development with emphasis on environmental management. Ideas that resemble sustainable development are not new to Chinese culture, but have roots in ancient Chinese thoughts, which in turn influence current governance and policies. Notably, Chinese traditional philosophies such as Confucianism, Taoism, Legalism, and Yin-Yang contain philosophies fundamental to sustainable development. As a distinct local discourse, such concepts were well interpreted and understood in the ancient meaning of harmony, giving China unique sustainability perspectives with institutional implications for policies of harmonious development and environmental management. Currently, China is driven to create a new national identity of harmonious development that involves Chinese traditional philosophies and values in its modern administration. The slogans "harmonious society" and "Chinese dream" reflect this new way of responding to the world with the aspiration to achieve cleaner growth, personal prosperity, and social stability. The Chinese and Western roots of sustainable development are conceptually, ideologically, and historically different, and this paper articulates how the convergence of the two underlies contemporary international debates.
T his article addresses understandings of race and ethnicity within Latin American research by ex... more T his article addresses understandings of race and ethnicity within Latin American research by examining and arguing for an increasingly transnational interpretation of identity through an analytical engagement with the changing politics of difference in Panama. Applying historiographical and ethnographic approaches, we interrogate ethno-racial differentiation from a transnational perspective, concluding that dominant national discourses on identity in Panama have shifted in response to transnational alliances and pressures, and that a monolithic nationalism driven by the narrative of panameñismo (a national political discourse in Panama predicated upon the concept of a monolithic and singular Panamanian culture) has given way to an ethno-racial climate in which the politics of identity and representation are approached more pluralistically and arguably more equitably.
Over the past three decades, a multitude of studies have examined the relational properties of co... more Over the past three decades, a multitude of studies have examined the relational properties of corporate networks as a proxy for analyzing interurban hierarchies and structures. While this has been important in illuminating the nature of global connectivity, a significant conceptual lacuna exists in understanding how a multi-scalar analysis of interurban networks informs a more complete understanding of the geographies of globalization, and how cities within these networks act as regional globalizing centers. Building upon the theoretical and methodological foundations of 'world city network' (WCN) research, this paper investigates the corporate networks of the energy industry as a historic driver of globalization using social network analysis from an Australia geographical perspective. Globally and nationally scaled energy networks derived from the Platts and Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) corporate lists are used to explore the convergence of nationally and globally articulated networks, and identify cities instrumental in the globalization of the national industry sub-networks. These are strategic 'globalizing centers' which, in contradistinction to 'global cities' or 'world cities' as broad classifications, play nuanced roles in anointing industry-specific circuits of capital and information. The analysis of two complementary yet distinct networks provides theoretical insight into how scale plays an integral role in defining/articulating interurban relations.
ABSTRACT In order to tackle persistent labour and skill shortages, a number of developed countrie... more ABSTRACT In order to tackle persistent labour and skill shortages, a number of developed countries have implemented visa programmes and development plans to enhance the attraction and retention of domestically educated overseas graduates. While prior work has principally focused on exploring their migratory flows between countries, few studies have empirically examined the career and migration trajectories of overseas graduates within the country of study. This paper redresses this gap by investigating the spatial choices of overseas graduates from Australian Higher Education Institutions for employment after graduation. Drawing on a nationally representative survey of graduates, our analysis focuses on examining the individual characteristics that lead to the settlement of overseas graduates in non-metropolitan locations across Australia given the pronounced labour and skill shortages experienced outside the country's urban centres. Results highlight the importance of possessing education or health qualifications and having previously studied and lived in nonmetropolitan areas as the key factors underlying the selection of such locales as post-graduation employment destinations. Age, gender, salary, and an English-speaking background were not found to be significant factors in the decision to locate outside of metropolitan areas. These findings are of significant value for future policy development aimed at attracting and retaining overseas graduates to locales with the greatest labour needs.
Drawing upon the case of Panama's Casco Antiguo, this paper establishes the theoretical concept o... more Drawing upon the case of Panama's Casco Antiguo, this paper establishes the theoretical concept of 'transnational gentrification': a process of neighbourhood change both enabled by and formative of a spatially embedded transnational 'gentry' whose locational mobility creates new possibilities for profitable housing reinvestment in geographically disparate markets where such possibilities would not have otherwise existed. Globalisation does not just create a common political-economic structure driving urban change or a common ideology for a gentrifying cohort. In this case, it creates historically and geographically specific connections between places, which themselves can become pathways along which gentrification processes propagate, connecting local capital to international consumer demand. The case of the Casco Antiguo offers a provocative inversion of a standard critical narrative of globalisation, whereby capital is freed from national constraints and able to roam globally while people largely remain place-bound. In the Casco Antiguo, residents are transnational and proper ty developers are local.
ABSTRACT The built environment of Panama City, Panama, has undergone a transformative change over... more ABSTRACT The built environment of Panama City, Panama, has undergone a transformative change over the past decade. Hundreds of high-rise residential towers have sprung up in and around its central business district, eliciting comparisons with Singapore, New York and Dubai insofar as journalists, real estate boosters and politicians have associated the increase in tall buildings with a commensurate increase in global status. Concurrently, on the urban periphery, scores of uniform housing estates have been erected to house an upwardly mobile middle class. Triggered by the handover of the Panama Canal and the surrounding Canal Zone in 1999, the city's pronounced building boom has corresponded with the highest rates of economic growth in Latin America. This paper examines the complex factors behind the recent transformation of Panama City from a historical-morphological perspective. While the drivers of demand for real property were primarily global, the determinants of supply have been highly localized, suggesting that the interface between the global and the local is a fundamental catalyst of changes in the urban landscape.
ABSTRACT This article evaluates the learning outcomes of a month-long cities in film course offer... more ABSTRACT This article evaluates the learning outcomes of a month-long cities in film course offered during an intensive, four-week semester at a liberal arts college in the United States. The course was divided into four shorter units that explored specific cities and subregions in detail through multiple, and often conflicting, perspectives. It begins with an overview of the scholarly perspectives on the use of film within geography. Based on evidence from 142 student reaction papers, the course's actual learning outcomes against its purported learning outcomes was evaluated. This analysis offers critical and empirical best practices for future geographic instruction through film.
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2014
ABSTRACT The interface between economic globalization and territorial formation has been a fundam... more ABSTRACT The interface between economic globalization and territorial formation has been a fundamental concern to scholars from a wide range of disciplines as both supra- and subnational configurations increasingly supplant the role of the nation-state so as to achieve purported political or economic objectives. Though extensive literatures document this process, considerable lacunae exist with regard to the understanding thereof within a socio-historical framework. This article invokes the concept of ‘palimpsest’ as a metaphor through which one reads the re-inscription of multiple layers of the built environment or territory vis-à-vis the widespread changes within Panama's ‘transit corridor’ — a densely settled territorial strip extending from the northern city of Colón to Panama City in the south. Though much of this transformation has been attributed to the newfound economic stability of the Panamanian state, I argue that these structural changes are best understood in the context of prior developments on the Isthmus of Panama dating back centuries. To this end, both structural and poststructural arguments are invoked so as to transgress a narrow focus on Panama as a fixed territorial entity.
Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, 2009
Democracy as Problem Solving: Civic Capacity in Communities Across the Globe, by Xavier de Souza ... more Democracy as Problem Solving: Civic Capacity in Communities Across the Globe, by Xavier de Souza Briggs. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008. 374pp. $28.00 paper. ISBN: 9780262524858. THOMAS JANOSKI University of Kentucky tjanos@uky.edu
The geography of firm location is a longstanding focus in urban studies. This paper examines the ... more The geography of firm location is a longstanding focus in urban studies. This paper examines the distribution of Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) listed headquarters in Australian cities. It focusses on change in the distribution of firm locations between 2013 and 2016 by sector, with a lens on the differences within and between Australia's five largest cities. Findings indicate that the number of listed firm headquarters diminished overall, and that declining activity in the resources sector was primarily responsible. Cities in which mining and energy play a key role, particularly Perth, experienced the greatest headquarters losses, while Melbourne was the only city to gain firm headquarters over the three-year interval. On a more local scale, central business districts (CBDs) lost firm activity across all cities, while suburbs gained firm headquarters, particularly inner-ring suburbs adjacent to CBDs. This change was led in particular by the healthcare and information technology sectors, which exhibited the greatest gains. These broad changes indicate a shift to the knowledge economy across cities in which central and CBD-fringe locations are desirable from a firm perspective due to proximity to related firms and institutions, and also to high-skill labour forces, as a more detailed look at the intra-metropolitan geographies reveals. We would like to acknowledge the following people:
Defining the role of cities within economic networks has been a key theoretical challenge, partic... more Defining the role of cities within economic networks has been a key theoretical challenge, particularly as nuanced understandings of positionality are increasingly championed over hierarchical notions of influence or power in the World City Network (WCN). This paper applies social network analysis (SNA) to identify the critical role that a wide range of cities plays in the Australian economic system. Drawing upon the set of Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) listed firms, four distinct sub-networks are compared against the overall urban network. Each of the materials, energy, industrials, and financials sector sub-networks are found to have unique configurations of inter-urban relations, which are articulated through institutional and industry-specific factors, grounded in diverse histories and path-dependent trajectories. This analysis applies five different centrality measures to understand how positionality within the overall network and respective sub-networks might better inform policymakers formulating ‘globalizing’ urban policy. This addresses the long-standing theoretical debate regarding territorially articulated hierarchies of urban/corporate power, extricating WCN research from the core-periphery assumptions tied to its world-systems theory lineage. Understanding how, rather than if, cities are global provides contextual knowledge about how cities are situated within broader circuits of production, and the exogenous relations that shape urban economies around the world, providing a framework for research in other global contexts.
This paper examines the dominant policy discourse of
urban revitalization in the United States as... more This paper examines the dominant policy discourse of urban revitalization in the United States as it increasingly intersects with global processes and power structures. Though scholars have long attributed urban growth to larger, global processes, I argue that the impact of internationally mediated social, economic, and cultural flows is on the rise in the urban U.S. As a case study, I draw a critical lens to Las Vegas’ City Center, an $8.6 billion mixed-use megaproject that continues to be built in the wake of a global economic crisis. City Center is currently the largest privately funded development in the U.S. and implicates a variety of contemporary processes. I conclude that the project follows the orthodoxy of past revitalization initiatives, but with dramatically up-scaled capital outlays and global influence.
Thomas Sigler, Glen Searle, Kirsten Martinus & Matthew Tonts. This paper develops a comparative m... more Thomas Sigler, Glen Searle, Kirsten Martinus & Matthew Tonts. This paper develops a comparative means by which to understand metropolitan spatial structure through the dynamics of economic activities. Clustering and suburbanization have been key processes within the contemporary urban landscape, but few scholarly accounts have systematically merged the two to explain the geographies of economic activity. Using firm location as a variable to discern sector- and industry-based locational requirements, we explore land-use and economic activity in Australia’s five largest metropolitan areas. Drawing upon the respective headquarters and branch office locations of a set of publically traded firms, we seek to establish general spatial patterns across Australian cities using two proxy measures for clustering and suburbanization, being well-established drivers of firm locational choice. Despite the complexity that post-industrial and suburbanizing processes add to metropolitan land-use patterns, we contend that certain patterns exist that can be generalized from one context to another across urban space, and that certain emerging trends such as the development of CBD-fringe precincts merit greater attention.
Sustainable development has broad consensus in environmental science and policy discourse, but it... more Sustainable development has broad consensus in environmental science and policy discourse, but its implications differ in specific cultural contexts. This article articulates sustainable development from a Chinese cultural perspective by tracing ideas from Chinese traditional culture and exploring China's concept of harmonious development with emphasis on environmental management. Ideas that resemble sustainable development are not new to Chinese culture, but have roots in ancient Chinese thoughts, which in turn influence current governance and policies. Notably, Chinese traditional philosophies such as Confucianism, Taoism, Legalism, and Yin-Yang contain philosophies fundamental to sustainable development. As a distinct local discourse, such concepts were well interpreted and understood in the ancient meaning of harmony, giving China unique sustainability perspectives with institutional implications for policies of harmonious development and environmental management. Currently, China is driven to create a new national identity of harmonious development that involves Chinese traditional philosophies and values in its modern administration. The slogans "harmonious society" and "Chinese dream" reflect this new way of responding to the world with the aspiration to achieve cleaner growth, personal prosperity, and social stability. The Chinese and Western roots of sustainable development are conceptually, ideologically, and historically different, and this paper articulates how the convergence of the two underlies contemporary international debates.
T his article addresses understandings of race and ethnicity within Latin American research by ex... more T his article addresses understandings of race and ethnicity within Latin American research by examining and arguing for an increasingly transnational interpretation of identity through an analytical engagement with the changing politics of difference in Panama. Applying historiographical and ethnographic approaches, we interrogate ethno-racial differentiation from a transnational perspective, concluding that dominant national discourses on identity in Panama have shifted in response to transnational alliances and pressures, and that a monolithic nationalism driven by the narrative of panameñismo (a national political discourse in Panama predicated upon the concept of a monolithic and singular Panamanian culture) has given way to an ethno-racial climate in which the politics of identity and representation are approached more pluralistically and arguably more equitably.
Over the past three decades, a multitude of studies have examined the relational properties of co... more Over the past three decades, a multitude of studies have examined the relational properties of corporate networks as a proxy for analyzing interurban hierarchies and structures. While this has been important in illuminating the nature of global connectivity, a significant conceptual lacuna exists in understanding how a multi-scalar analysis of interurban networks informs a more complete understanding of the geographies of globalization, and how cities within these networks act as regional globalizing centers. Building upon the theoretical and methodological foundations of 'world city network' (WCN) research, this paper investigates the corporate networks of the energy industry as a historic driver of globalization using social network analysis from an Australia geographical perspective. Globally and nationally scaled energy networks derived from the Platts and Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) corporate lists are used to explore the convergence of nationally and globally articulated networks, and identify cities instrumental in the globalization of the national industry sub-networks. These are strategic 'globalizing centers' which, in contradistinction to 'global cities' or 'world cities' as broad classifications, play nuanced roles in anointing industry-specific circuits of capital and information. The analysis of two complementary yet distinct networks provides theoretical insight into how scale plays an integral role in defining/articulating interurban relations.
ABSTRACT In order to tackle persistent labour and skill shortages, a number of developed countrie... more ABSTRACT In order to tackle persistent labour and skill shortages, a number of developed countries have implemented visa programmes and development plans to enhance the attraction and retention of domestically educated overseas graduates. While prior work has principally focused on exploring their migratory flows between countries, few studies have empirically examined the career and migration trajectories of overseas graduates within the country of study. This paper redresses this gap by investigating the spatial choices of overseas graduates from Australian Higher Education Institutions for employment after graduation. Drawing on a nationally representative survey of graduates, our analysis focuses on examining the individual characteristics that lead to the settlement of overseas graduates in non-metropolitan locations across Australia given the pronounced labour and skill shortages experienced outside the country's urban centres. Results highlight the importance of possessing education or health qualifications and having previously studied and lived in nonmetropolitan areas as the key factors underlying the selection of such locales as post-graduation employment destinations. Age, gender, salary, and an English-speaking background were not found to be significant factors in the decision to locate outside of metropolitan areas. These findings are of significant value for future policy development aimed at attracting and retaining overseas graduates to locales with the greatest labour needs.
Drawing upon the case of Panama's Casco Antiguo, this paper establishes the theoretical concept o... more Drawing upon the case of Panama's Casco Antiguo, this paper establishes the theoretical concept of 'transnational gentrification': a process of neighbourhood change both enabled by and formative of a spatially embedded transnational 'gentry' whose locational mobility creates new possibilities for profitable housing reinvestment in geographically disparate markets where such possibilities would not have otherwise existed. Globalisation does not just create a common political-economic structure driving urban change or a common ideology for a gentrifying cohort. In this case, it creates historically and geographically specific connections between places, which themselves can become pathways along which gentrification processes propagate, connecting local capital to international consumer demand. The case of the Casco Antiguo offers a provocative inversion of a standard critical narrative of globalisation, whereby capital is freed from national constraints and able to roam globally while people largely remain place-bound. In the Casco Antiguo, residents are transnational and proper ty developers are local.
ABSTRACT The built environment of Panama City, Panama, has undergone a transformative change over... more ABSTRACT The built environment of Panama City, Panama, has undergone a transformative change over the past decade. Hundreds of high-rise residential towers have sprung up in and around its central business district, eliciting comparisons with Singapore, New York and Dubai insofar as journalists, real estate boosters and politicians have associated the increase in tall buildings with a commensurate increase in global status. Concurrently, on the urban periphery, scores of uniform housing estates have been erected to house an upwardly mobile middle class. Triggered by the handover of the Panama Canal and the surrounding Canal Zone in 1999, the city's pronounced building boom has corresponded with the highest rates of economic growth in Latin America. This paper examines the complex factors behind the recent transformation of Panama City from a historical-morphological perspective. While the drivers of demand for real property were primarily global, the determinants of supply have been highly localized, suggesting that the interface between the global and the local is a fundamental catalyst of changes in the urban landscape.
ABSTRACT This article evaluates the learning outcomes of a month-long cities in film course offer... more ABSTRACT This article evaluates the learning outcomes of a month-long cities in film course offered during an intensive, four-week semester at a liberal arts college in the United States. The course was divided into four shorter units that explored specific cities and subregions in detail through multiple, and often conflicting, perspectives. It begins with an overview of the scholarly perspectives on the use of film within geography. Based on evidence from 142 student reaction papers, the course's actual learning outcomes against its purported learning outcomes was evaluated. This analysis offers critical and empirical best practices for future geographic instruction through film.
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2014
ABSTRACT The interface between economic globalization and territorial formation has been a fundam... more ABSTRACT The interface between economic globalization and territorial formation has been a fundamental concern to scholars from a wide range of disciplines as both supra- and subnational configurations increasingly supplant the role of the nation-state so as to achieve purported political or economic objectives. Though extensive literatures document this process, considerable lacunae exist with regard to the understanding thereof within a socio-historical framework. This article invokes the concept of ‘palimpsest’ as a metaphor through which one reads the re-inscription of multiple layers of the built environment or territory vis-à-vis the widespread changes within Panama's ‘transit corridor’ — a densely settled territorial strip extending from the northern city of Colón to Panama City in the south. Though much of this transformation has been attributed to the newfound economic stability of the Panamanian state, I argue that these structural changes are best understood in the context of prior developments on the Isthmus of Panama dating back centuries. To this end, both structural and poststructural arguments are invoked so as to transgress a narrow focus on Panama as a fixed territorial entity.
Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, 2009
Democracy as Problem Solving: Civic Capacity in Communities Across the Globe, by Xavier de Souza ... more Democracy as Problem Solving: Civic Capacity in Communities Across the Globe, by Xavier de Souza Briggs. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008. 374pp. $28.00 paper. ISBN: 9780262524858. THOMAS JANOSKI University of Kentucky tjanos@uky.edu
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Papers by Thomas Sigler
urban revitalization in the United States as it increasingly
intersects with global processes and power structures.
Though scholars have long attributed urban growth
to larger, global processes, I argue that the impact of
internationally mediated social, economic, and cultural
flows is on the rise in the urban U.S. As a case study,
I draw a critical lens to Las Vegas’ City Center, an $8.6
billion mixed-use megaproject that continues to be built
in the wake of a global economic crisis. City Center
is currently the largest privately funded development in
the U.S. and implicates a variety of contemporary processes.
I conclude that the project follows the orthodoxy
of past revitalization initiatives, but with dramatically
up-scaled capital outlays and global influence.
urban revitalization in the United States as it increasingly
intersects with global processes and power structures.
Though scholars have long attributed urban growth
to larger, global processes, I argue that the impact of
internationally mediated social, economic, and cultural
flows is on the rise in the urban U.S. As a case study,
I draw a critical lens to Las Vegas’ City Center, an $8.6
billion mixed-use megaproject that continues to be built
in the wake of a global economic crisis. City Center
is currently the largest privately funded development in
the U.S. and implicates a variety of contemporary processes.
I conclude that the project follows the orthodoxy
of past revitalization initiatives, but with dramatically
up-scaled capital outlays and global influence.