Projects

A grassroots strategy for inclusive and diverse neighbourhood centres

I am currently starting new work with Neighbourhood Houses Victoria and LinkWest in Western Australia and with individual centres in New South Wales to research changes in policy and funding opportunities that shape the sector in these three states. In addition to extensive document review, the research will include focus groups with managers and one-on-one interviews with a diverse representation of people who use centres. This work is only just getting up now, so check back soon for more!

The disability inclusive city: service access for people with intellectual disability

‘The Disability Inclusive City’ is a three year project that analyses what adjustments are needed to make services and community spaces in Australian cities accessible for people with intellectual disability. The project is a collaboration between La Trobe and Melbourne University and the research team consists of Associate Professor Ilan Wiesel, Prof Brendan Gleeson, Christine Bigby and myself.

The study seeks to understand the agency of people with intellectual disability as participants in mainstream services, and to reveal how a changing urban context influences the participation of people with intellectual disability in mainstream urban services. We interviewed people with intellectual disability in North Eastern Melbourne, Geelong, Western Sydney and Newcastle and we also interviewed service managers of services that people with intellectual disability mentioned as being important or inclusive.

See the publications page for papers that has been published from this work.

Community and ownership in inner-city community gardens

In my doctoral work I took issue with the widespread promotion of community gardens as inclusive community spaces. I understood community gardens in Australian cities to be inextricably connected and shaped by the relatively affluent and gentrifying urban areas in which they are situated. I examined community gardeners’ practices in three community gardens in the inner west of Sydney and the ways in which people respond to changes in their neighborhoods and communities through community gardening and organising. This approach revealed gardeners’ constant balancing of tensions between their desires for feelings of ownership, personal success and accomplishment, and community objectives such as reciprocity and inclusiveness.

See the publications page for papers that has been published from this work.