Curtin University Homepage
  • Library
  • Help
    • Admin

    espace - Curtin’s institutional repository

    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.
    View Item 
    • espace Home
    • espace
    • Curtin Theses
    • View Item
    • espace Home
    • espace
    • Curtin Theses
    • View Item

    'Whose city/whose Fremantle?' : reconceptualising space for an open politics of place

    187808_Cox2012.pdf (5.496Mb)
    Access Status
    Open access
    Authors
    Cox, Shaphan Leon
    Date
    2012
    Supervisor
    Assoc. Prof. Philip Moore
    Prof. Roy Jones
    Type
    Thesis
    Award
    PhD
    
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Faculty
    Faculty of Humanities, School of Social Sciences and Asian Languages
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/607
    Collection
    • Curtin Theses
    Abstract

    The notion of space being eroded by time underpins the dominant formulations of globalisation premised on time-space compression. The consequences have included the announcement of the ‘end of geography’. More recently, a spatial turn has repositioned the concept of space at the forefront of Human Geography. The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the ongoing theoretical reconceptualisation of space with an empirical study of the contested port city of Fremantle. Set within the broader metropolitan area of Western Australia’s capital city, Perth, Fremantle is simultaneously constructed by local and external actors as a ‘city under threat’ and as a ‘city in decline’. It is the dominant port city of Western Australia and differs in many ways, historically, physically, culturally and economically from its modern, suburban surrounds. Using the question ‘whose city’ in my interactions and observations within Fremantle, I began to see contestations for space emerging.This thesis explores four controversies pertinent to the ongoing battles to define (the meaning of spaces within) Fremantle. The forces of change impacting on Fremantle include de-industrialisation, gentrification, urban entrepreneurialism and heritage construction; however these challenges have served as contingencies which have enabled the opening up of these controversies to other voices. My participant observations, overlayed with a discourse analysis of content from the local Fremantle Herald newspaper across the decade 2000 to 2010, have allowed me to critically engage with these local political controversies. What I found is that, if space is reconceptualised not as a fixed surface but as relational, contested and always in process, then no one group or individual can ever truly claim ownership of or an identity for Fremantle. Consequently what is at issue are the local terms by which competing groups and individuals stake their claims to the ownership or the meaning of the city.Drawing on the work of Doreen Massey, Nigel Thrift and Matthew Rofe, this thesis aims to contribute to the ongoing reconceptualisation of space occurring in contemporary post structuralist scholarship.

    Related items

    Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

    • Heuristic algorithms for routing problems.
      Chong, Yen N. (2001)
      General routing problems deal with transporting some commodities and/or travelling along the axes of a given network in some optimal manner. In the modern world such problems arise in several contexts such as distribution ...
    • Exploring social and cultural norms to promote ecologically sensitive residential garden design
      Uren, H.; Dzidic, Peta; Bishop, Brian John (2015)
      Western Australia (WA) is experiencing severe water shortages associated with a drying climate. Suburban gardens in and around WA's capital city of Perth however, continue to be dominated by water dependent European style ...
    • Residential revitalisation of inner city areas: a case study of Northbridge
      Davidson, Dean A. (1995)
      The catalyst for this research has been the growing national interest in inner city living. Specifically this has come from local and state government, the housing and land development industry, and the general public ...
    Advanced search

    Browse

    Communities & CollectionsIssue DateAuthorTitleSubjectDocument TypeThis CollectionIssue DateAuthorTitleSubjectDocument Type

    My Account

    Admin

    Statistics

    Most Popular ItemsStatistics by CountryMost Popular Authors

    Follow Curtin

    • 
    • 
    • 
    • 
    • 

    CRICOS Provider Code: 00301JABN: 99 143 842 569TEQSA: PRV12158

    Copyright | Disclaimer | Privacy statement | Accessibility

    Curtin would like to pay respect to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members of our community by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which the Perth campus is located, the Whadjuk people of the Nyungar Nation; and on our Kalgoorlie campus, the Wongutha people of the North-Eastern Goldfields.