Comparative Analysis of 20-Minute Neighbourhood Policies and Practices in Melbourne and Scotland

Twenty-minute neighbourhoods highlight the importance of well-connected and mixed-used neighbourhoods and communities with proximate access to employment, essential services, public transport, and open spaces. Shorter distances together with re-prioritised public spaces encourage more active transport choices, resulting in public health benefits and reduced environmental pollution. Higher liveability brought about by mixed-use developments enables people to have equitable access to local facilities, amenities, and employment opportunities, promoting vibrancy, social cohesion, and intergenerational connections. The attributes of 20-minute neighbourhoods also combine to create places, that are acknowledged as friendly for all ages, address changing needs across the life course, and provide better support for the age-ing population. Furthermore, there are indications that 20-minute neighbourhoods may be more resilient against many of the negative impacts of stringent public health protocols such as those implemented in periods of lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic. In this article, we evaluate and compare planning policies and practices aimed at establishing 20-minute neighbourhoods in Melbourne (Australia) and Scotland (the UK). Using case studies, we discuss similarities and differences involved in using place-based approaches of 20-minute neighbourhoods to address 21st-century challenges in key areas of health and wellbeing, equity, environmental sustainability, and community resilience

Comparative Analysis of 20-Minute Neighbourhood Policies and Practices in Melbourne and Scotland

Twenty-minute neighbourhoods highlight the importance of well-connected and mixed-used neighbourhoods and communities with proximate access to employment, essential services, public transport, and open spaces. Shorter distances together with re-prioritised public spaces encourage more active transport choices, resulting in public health benefits and reduced environmental pollution. Higher liveability brought about by mixed-use developments enables people to have equitable access to local facilities, amenities, and employment opportunities, promoting vibrancy, social cohesion, and intergenerational connections. The attributes of 20-minute neighbourhoods also combine to create places, that are acknowledged as friendly for all ages, address changing needs across the life course, and provide better support for the age-ing population. Furthermore, there are indications that 20-minute neighbourhoods may be more resilient against many of the negative impacts of stringent public health protocols such as those implemented in periods of lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic. In this article, we evaluate and compare planning policies and practices aimed at establishing 20-minute neighbourhoods in Melbourne (Australia) and Scotland (the UK). Using case studies, we discuss similarities and differences involved in using place-based approaches of 20-minute neighbourhoods to address 21st-century challenges in key areas of health and wellbeing, equity, environmental sustainability, and community resilience.Output Status: Forthcomin

What activities might facilitate personal recovery for adults who continue to self-harm? A meta-synthesis employing the connectedness/hope and optimism/identity/meaning/empowerment framework

© 2017 Australian College of Mental Health Nurses Inc. Self-harm is an international concern. While treatment in health care focusses on methods to reduce the act, there is less exploration in how to assist adults who are unable to minimize their self-harm. In order to aid these people, in the present systematic review, we employed a qualitative meta-synthesis to explore the lived experience of what activities might facilitate personal recovery for adults who continue to self-harm. Findings were interpreted by drawing on the CHIME framework; a taxonomy of personal recovery comprising of connectedness, hope and optimism, identity, meaning and purpose, and empowerment. The located activities in the review converged on different support groups, and although face-to-face groups were discovered, the majority highlighted the benefits of Internet forums where mutuality and reciprocity were key to promoting personal recovery. Adults desired time to share accounts of themselves, to develop connection and identity. Furthermore, hope was established by group members accepting that self-harm has a role, while congregating with others who did not judge the act. Helping relationships also promoted hope by having a balance between goals and protection against disappointment. The nature of writing online seemingly had cathartic properties fostering meaning, alongside empowerment being facilitated by adults controlling the narrative of their self-harm. It is hoped that these insights might guide self-harm research to develop beyond the confines of minimizing self-injury in health care

Strangers in a strange land?: (Re) constructing "Irishness" in a Northern English town

This is a case study of the social and physical construction of an ‘Irish’ community in an English town. It asks how or why members of this community migrated and how they construct contemporary images of ‘home’. The article draws on semi-structured interviews and conversations with members of the contemporary Irish community in Huddersfield, including Irish-born and second-generation Irish respondents. We find that their sense of Irish identity is complex, encompassing the totality of social experience, much of which is influenced by often competing interpretations of social and political relationships and understandings of history. What constitutes Irish identity in Huddersfield is determined not just by these factors, but also by the ways in which individuals are socialised as members of different families, neighbourhoods, workplace or other social interest groups. </jats:p

Building Transformation Through Housing Expos: A multi-pronged strategy to help address the wicked problem of affordable housing

The papers presented at the 2015 State of Australian Cities National Conference (SOAC 7) were organised into seven broad themes but all shared, to varying degrees, a common focus on the ways in which high quality academic research can be used in the development and implementation of policy. The relationship between empirical evidence and theoretical developments that are presented as part of our scholarly endeavours and policy processes is rarely clear and straightforward. Sometimes, perhaps because of the fortuitous alignment of various factors, our research has a direct and positive impact on policy. Sometimes it takes longer to be noticed and have influence and, sometimes, there is no little or no evidence of impact beyond or even with the academy. And while there are things we can do to promote the existence of our work and to present it in more accessible formats to people we believe to be influential, ultimately the appreciation and application of our work lies in the hands of others. This paper is one of 164 papers that have each been reviewed and refereed by our peers and revised accordingly. While they each will have been presented briefly at the SOAC conference, they can now be read or re-read at your leisure. We hope they will stimulate further debate and discussion and form a platform for further research. Adapted from the SOAC 7 conference proceedings introduction by Paul Burton and Heather Shearer The State of Australian Cities (SOAC) national conferences have been held biennially since 2003 to support interdisciplinary policy-related urban research. SOAC 7 was held in the City of Gold Coast from 9-11 December 2015. The conference featured leading national and local politicians and policy makers who shared their views on some of the current challenges facing cities and how these might be overcome in the future

The Happenstance Dispatches

Peter McCaughey/WAVEparticle was selected by the Scottish Government, in partnership with Architecture & Design Scotland, Creative Scotland, the British Council Scotland, and Young Scot, to curate a distinctive Scottish presence at La Biennale di Venezia’s 2018 International Architecture Exhibition. The theme of the Biennale was Freespace. To respond to this McCaughey brought teams of artists and architects together to explore how public space, non-space, stalled space and civic space, all have the potential to change and grow, depending on how we choose to occupy them. The Happenstance cited various ideas that are homegrown and developed in Scotland, a country interested in grassroots, community-led processes that inform emerging places, which were then discussed and celebrated in Venice. A freespace was built in the garden of Palazzo Zenobio in Venice, acting as an active archive, focussed on the event nature of live situations – exploring how we can intervene in our own lives and the circumstances that shape us. It hosted all-comers, inviting locals, visitors, participants and the core team of artists and architects. There was a live programme from May - November, which included animating other spaces in Venice, whilst Outdoor Cinema screenings focussed on inspiring examples of individuals, organisations and situations that underscored the theme of Freespace. The themes and learning explored included participatory practice and community empowerment and how a space itself can become a medium for generating maps, amplifying capacities, and encouraging community networking. The Happenstance Dispatches allowed time to digest the incredible response to this work and to account for and analyse what happened. A series of 12 dispatches were published in September 2020, 3 by Lead artist Curator McCaughey, exploring and sharing the themes and learning from The Happenstance from the viewpoint of the curator, the contributors to, and the participants involved in, the project - including artists, architects, a Venetian designer, a journalist, a student fellow of The Happenstance, and the Chief Architect of Scottish Government