The privatised city: critical studies in Australian housing and urban structure

Abstract

Australian urban structure remains one of the more neglected topics in urban studies as far as the discipline as a whole is concerned. This is not because of any lack of research in Australia. On the contrary, since the late 1960's there has been a burgeoning literature on Australian urban structure. The early work by writers such as Troy (1967), Neutze (1971), Stilwell (1974), Stretton (1970) and Sander cock (1975) has led to the development of a very substantial body of literature analysing the whole gamut of urban phenomena (see for example, Neutze, 1977, 1978; Jay, 1978; Kilmartin and Thorns, 1978; Aungles and Szelenyi, 1979). Unfortunately, this literature has as yet made little impact on urban studies as a whole. As a country with a relatively small population, far from the main centres of urban research in Europe and North America, the distinctiveness of Australian urban structure remains largely unappreciated.