Islamophobia and the urban (im)mobilities of Muslims : a comparative case study of Sydney, Australia and the San Francisco Bay Area, USA

This thesis argues that there is a complex and relational link between race and Muslim mobility which is shaped by global and local processes of Islamophobia. The research uses a social constructivist theoretical approach to racism and insights from the ‘new mobilities’ paradigm – notably, the ‘politics of mobility’ – to examine how the geographies of Islamophobia influence the way young Muslims engage in urban spaces. Empirically, the thesis draws on the findings of two mixed-method case studies, which used web-based surveys and follow-up interviews with young Muslims aged 18-35 years living in Sydney, Australia, and the San Francisco Bay Area, USA. The thesis advances three key contributions. Theoretically, the thesis contributes to emerging debates on the geographies of racism by mapping the spatial imaginaries of Islamophobia from the perspective of the racialised. These findings add nuance to existing research on the geographies of racism that have restricted their analyses to racial attitudes rather than perceptions of racism. Additionally, the research enhances emerging debates on the racialised politics of mobility by exploring how the relationship between race, space and movement shapes Muslim (im)mobility in each city. Finally, the study contributes to comparative urbanisms by uncovering the relational processes as well as contextual variations in how the racialised politics of mobility is both spatialised and negotiated by racialised individuals. The thesis is structured in a ‘PhD by a series of papers’ format, with four results chapters presented in the form of academic journal articles. Three (3) papers are published and one (1) is accepted for publication (in-print). Each paper is introduced with an exegesis that contextualises the research and the papers. The thesis is connected through six (6) additional chapters that form the ‘overarching statement’. Together, the findings highlight the need for local and context-specific anti-racism policy practice, public education campaigns and policy initiatives that respond to the geographies racism according to the spatial imaginaries and lived experiences of racialised groups. Such responses must account for the spatial impacts of past, as well as current socio-political events on racialised (im)mobilities in contemporary urban spaces

State of the Arts in Western Sydney

This report shows that the arts sector in Western Sydney is facing critical inequities in funding, infrastructure and resources that have restricted the growth and success of the arts economy, and resulted in challenges faced by workers in the region. As a result, key studies and strategic documents have advocated for greater resource allocation and policy planning at a state level to support the arts in the Western Sydney region

Bridging the Divide: Exploring the Intersections of Education, Income, and Identity in Western Sydney

This Centre for Western Sydney issues paper examines the key trends in the 2021 census that highlight the relationships between place and identity for key groups in Western Sydney: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, multicultural communities and women and how these identities intersect across educational attainment and income

Parramatta 2035: Community Views on the Future of Our Region

This report documents diverse community voices on the Future of Greater Parramatta, as captured through a public consultation undertaken from September to October 2022. The public consultation was launched as a part of The Glover Review on Parramatta 2035: Vibrant, Sustainable Global', and reflects the Centre for Western Sydney's commitment to a politics of listening. This research seeks to engage with local communities and reflect their vision for the future of Parramatta and the Central River City. The report documents the region's most pressing challenges, and the solutions required for a thriving future in Greater Parramatta as identified by its communities. It is these communities that are most invested in the future of the region, and ultimately most impacted by decisions made when planning for its development. By listening to these valuable voices, we highlight the importance of capturing the knowledge and experience of various communities when planning for regional futures. We argue that through engaged community consultation, planners and policymakers can build cities that respond to community needs and visions

Untapped Talent: Western Sydney's Remarkable but Inequitable Labour Market

This issues paper analyses the 2021 census data, considering the profound but uneven changes to educational attainment, industry mix and labour force participation. Western Sydney has registered a significant increase in its educational attainment over the past decade. The region’s proportion of higher skilled residents now sits on par with the national average. In some areas it exceeds that level. The shift is profound but uneven within the Western Sydney region, producing complex implications. Additionally, the census data reveals persistent socio-spatial polarisation between Western Sydney and the Rest of Sydney when it comes to high productivity jobs. This issues paper produces an analysis of the census data, and considers the implications of the data for policy makers in the State and Federal Governments of Australia

Western Sydney Votes: The Voice Referendum

Western Sydney was once again positioned as a key 'electoral battleground' in the 2023 Voice Referendum – with voter behaviour in the western suburbs of Sydney projected to be critical to the outcome. The referendum was always going to be challenging in a region like Western Sydney, where trust in government has been profoundly compromised in recent years. However, the region is diverse and complex, and so is voting behaviour. This paper examines Australian Electoral Commission Tally Room data (as at 2PM Sunday 15 October 2023) and presents a geographical mapping and key analysis of the votes in the Voice referendum

Parramatta 2035: Vibrant, Sustainable, Global

This Review, prepared at the request of the NSW Premier, tests the proposition that Greater Parramatta can become a ‘global city’ by 2035. Parramatta, in the past five years, has been the focus of intensive and accelerated urban regeneration. Equally, it has been the recent beneficiary of substantial public infrastructure investments. Ensuring these positive developments work to the city’s benefit, particularly against liveability and sustainability benchmarks is an emphasis of the Review. The city’s elevation into a ‘global’ cohort is conditional on the preservation and enhancement of these attributes, particularly in fundamental areas like housing affordability, cultural expression, and connectivity. Recognising the investment and talent attraction properties of these elements is a vitally important and, ideally, distinctive element of Parramatta’s current and future character. The Review identifies four priorities where government should now focus its efforts for this region over the next decade: 1. Greater Parramatta needs a Strategic Plan and better cross-government cooperation and investment in the region; 2. The development of the Greater Parramatta region needs to balance the goals of liveability and growth and better manage the unequal impacts of change; 3. Greater Parramatta’s economic future needs to be secured through preserving and investing in the region’s industrial and urban services land; and, 4. Sustainability needs to be a priority to ensure Greater Parramatta’s successful transformation into a resilient global city-region. The Review concludes that Parramatta will become a ‘global’ city, and notes that the real question is one of what type of global city it chooses to become. The Review makes twelve recommendations framed thematically across three priorities: 1. Strategic Planning and Governance; 2. Planning and Infrastructure Priorities; and, 3. Liveability and Sustainability

The geography of Islamophobia in Sydney : mapping the spatial imaginaries of young Muslims

A rise in anti-Muslim sentiment in the ‘West’ has invoked wide debate on the impacts of Islamophobia on Australian Muslim citizens. Noble and Poynting (‘White Lines: The Intercultural Politics of Everyday Movement in Social Spaces’, Journal of Intercultural Studies 31 (2010): 489–505) speculated that racism impacts young Muslims’ sense of belonging in and across public spheres. Despite Australian Muslim testimonials of racial experiences occurring in the public space, the impact of racism on how ethnic and/or religious minorities, such as Muslims, translate this sentiment into mental maps of exclusion has not hitherto been empirically examined. This paper reports on the findings of an online survey conducted in July 2014 with young Australian Muslims living in Sydney. Young Muslims suggest that there is a geographical distribution of Islamophobic spaces across Sydney, focused in the regions of Sutherland, Sydney’s North Side/Eastern Suburbs, and the Upper North Shore. In comparing young Muslims’ ‘mental maps’ of Islamophobia and existing evidence of Sydney’s ‘geographies of racial attitudes’ illustrated by Forrest and Dunn in 2007 (‘Constructing Racism in Sydney, Australia’s Largest EthniCity’, Urban Studies 44 (2007): 699–721), the need for culturally specific, empirical examinations of (in)tolerance across Australian cities is emphasised

Islamophobia Reading Resource Pack

The purpose of this publication is to enhance the utility of existing academic research on Islamophobia in the United States for a wide range of stakeholders interested in challenging this global phenomenon

Mapping perceptions of Islamophobia in the San Francisco Bay Area, California

Recent debates in social and cultural geography on the inclusionary/exclusionary nature of space have brought our attention to the ‘everywhere different’ nature of racism across cities. Among these debates have been calls to interrogate the socio-spatial dimensions of new forms of racism, like Islamophobia as they evolve. This paper draws on the findings of an online survey conducted from September 2016 to April 2017 with young Muslim American residents of the Bay Area, California. It provides empirical material on the way young Muslims map ‘the geography of Islamophobia’ across this region to uncover how the racialization of Muslims has translated into perceptions of racism across city spaces. The findings indicate that Islamophobia occurs in various public spheres, particularly on public transport and in airports. There is a spatial concentration of Islamophobic spaces in the Bay Area, focussed in the North and Outer-East Bay regions–relatively rural parts of the region with a less significant Muslim population. Conversely, areas with larger Muslim populations were associated with lower levels of perceived Islamophobia. This paper highlights the need for more localised, socio-spatial engagements in racism that capture the evolving nature of the American racisms, and how they are spatialised across cities