Beyond Business as Usual: A 21st Century Culture of Manufacturing in Australia

This report summarizes the findings of the ARC discovery project, Reconfiguring the enterprise: shifting manufacturing culture in Australia (DP # DP160101674). Research conducted between 2016 and 2019 collected data from 10 manufacturing enterprises, across diverse sectors, scales and organisational forms through in-depth interviews, site visits and workshops. The project’s main finding is that there is a culture of manufacturing that is beyond business as usual in Australia. This report counters ill-founded fears that manufacturing in Australia is dead by presenting convincing evidence of dynamic companies that are committed to just and sustainable manufacturing practices. It demonstrates how there is a viable future for manufacturing in Australia in the 21st century that is being shaped by a culture that is beyond business as usual. Through the case examples we uncovered how this new manufacturing culture: a) maintains firm viability and thereby safeguards manufacturing in Australia; b) provides decent jobs in an inclusive society and thereby builds a more just manufacturing sector; and c) produces with a smaller ecological footprint and thereby builds a more environmentally sustainable manufacturing sector. These economic, social and ecological goods are realised in these firms through practical commitments expressed in the daily enterprise operations and over time. The findings are significant for Australia. Manufacturing supports 1.27 million jobs in Australia. It plays a major role in social inclusion, nurturing the productive capacity of people from many different backgrounds and experiences. It is a point of concentration for innovation and investment in R&D. However, the current business as usual model is no longer viable. Growth without regard for a social licence to produce is no longer acceptable. Nor is growth with disregard for the environmental impacts of production and consumption. The new culture of manufacturing rewrites the social licence for enterprises. It is building viable firms with the capacity to withstand threats that might undermine the sector. At the same time, their ongoing commitments and practices are helping Australia address the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth, SDG 9 Industry Innovation and Infrastructure, and SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production

Articulating Value in Cooperative Housing: International and Methodological Review

Housing cooperatives are a growing presence in Australia’s housing system, providing a diversity of housing forms to a variety of household types across the income spectrum, typically serving low- and moderate-income households. International evidence shows that housing cooperatives can provide a range of housing from very low price points through to market rate in both non-urban and urban contexts. The research presented in this report reviewed a selection of international cooperative housing sectors in addition to the Australian context, with two aims: 1. Compile the current evidence for the social and financial benefits of housing cooperatives, to develop a framework to assess this in Australia; and, 2. Identify preliminary issues regarding the growth and diversification of housing cooperatives in Australia

Roepke Lecture in Economic Geography : economic geography, manufacturing, and ethical action in the Anthropocene

In a world beset by the problems of climate change and growing socioeconomic inequality, industrial manufacturing has been implicated as a key driver. In this article we take seriously Roepke’s call for geographic research to intervene in obvious problems and ask can manufacturing contribute to different pathways forward? We reflect on how studies have shifted from positioning manufacturing as a matter of fact (with an emphasis on exposing the exploitative operations of capitalist industrial restructuring) to a matter of concern (especially in advanced economies experiencing the apparent loss of manufacturing). Our intervention is to position manufacturing for the Anthropocene as a matter of care. To do this we pull together feminist insights into care as an embodied entanglement of ethical doings and material transformation, and applied insights into the building of just sustainabilities in place. This thinking frames our discussion of four diverse manufacturing enterprises in Australia (two capitalist firms, a cooperative, and a social enterprise). We make the case for economic geography to attend to ethical economic actions that make other worlds possible

Pre-empting Apocalypse? : postcapitalism as an everyday politics

In the decade that has followed the Global Financial Crisis, the term ‘postcapitalism’ is enjoying wide circulation in popular culture and political discourse, as well as academic settings. There is a growing recognition that business as usual cannot continue and an increasing interest in the idea that there are better ways of organising economies, politics and society

Impediments and opportunities for growing the cooperative housing sector : an Australian case study

In many countries, housing cooperatives are longstanding and stable components of housing systems, providing a range of housing options that sit between the historically dual tenure poles of renting and owning. In others, such as Australia, cooperatives represent a very small proportion of total housing stock. Such differences derive from institutional lock-in resulting from market failures, government policy and historical norms. Breaking the institutional lock-in requires evidence of the benefits of cooperative housing to demonstrate the rationale for appropriate policy frameworks. However, despite their longevity in some countries, cooperatives remain relatively under-researched, such that their purported benefits as compared to other tenure forms can be hard to assess or compare. This article provides a brief synthesis of extant literature on the benefits of cooperatives before focusing on Australia where the sector is poised for growth from a very small base. We consider the impediments and opportunities for growing the sector in Australia, which highlight issues of potential relevance to other jurisdictions with similarly nascent cooperative sectors

Economic geography and ethical action in the Anthropocene : a rejoinder

We are thrilled by Vicky Lawson’s deeply appreciative response to the Roepke Lecture and the written article. In her response, Vicky does more than we could ask for by inviting economic geographers to think with us about ways of reworking manufacturing (and other economic activities) that center on care for the well-being of people and of the planet. Vicky goes to the heart of our project by highlighting the importance we place on looking for the ethical openings that arise in the current context of climate change and growing socioeconomic inequality. As she identifies, part of our armory includes tactics of attending to already existing possibilities that are hidden from view and reframing understandings of what an economy is for

Enabling Community Land Trusts in Australia

Over recent years, numerous intertwined housing issues have intensified in Australia regarding the environmental impact, liveability, social equity and affordability of our housing stock and choices. This is driving the exploration and implementation of a diverse range of design forms; development and procurement processes; tenure and governance options; and costing mechanisms. Internationally, community land trusts (CLTs) have shown the capacity to embed and embody diversity across all of those options. That capacity is a key driver of the ongoing analysis of how CLTs might be enabled in Australia, including this book and its predecessor, The Australian Community Land Trust Manual. It is strongly advised that these two publications be read in combination. This book is based in research that builds on The Australian Community Land Trust Manual (‘the Manual’). The Manual introduced CLT principles to an Australian audience and provided conceptual background, practical advice and template documents to underpin the establishment of an Australian CLT sector. The Manual was the result of Phase 1 of a two-phase research project undertaken by Western Sydney University in partnership with six public and community agencies across New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia

More Than Monitoring: Developing Impact Measures for Transformative Social Enterprise

Meeting the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 involves transformational change in the business of business, and social enterprises can lead the way in such change. We studied Cultivate, one such social enterprise in Christchurch, New Zealand, a city still recovering from the 2010/11 Canterbury earthquakes. Cultivate works with vulnerable youth to transform donated compost into garden vegetables for local restaurants and businesses. Cultivate’s objectives align with SDG concerns with poverty and hunger (1 & 2), social protection (3 & 4), and sustainable human settlements (6 & 11). Like many grant-supported organisations, Cultivate is required to track and measure its progress. Given the organisation’s holistic objectives, however, adequately accounting for its impact reporting is not straightforward. Our action research project engaged Cultivate staff and youth-workers to generate meaningful ways of measuring impact. Elaborating the Community Economy Return on Investment tool (CEROI), we explore how participatory audit processes can capture impacts on individuals, organisations, and the wider community in ways that extend capacities to act collectively. We conclude that Cultivate and social enterprises like it offer insights regarding how to align values and practices, commercial activity and wellbeing in ways that accrue to individuals, organisations and the broader civic-community