Regional Development and Community Capacity Building

[Convenors: Beer Flinders U and Martin (ECR) RMITU].

The focus is on reconceptualising the meanings of space and place in the context of understanding the dynamics and causes of difference in socio-economic performance and well-being, the development and implementation of strategy and process to enhance capacity building for regional, local economic development and community development, and issues of governance and government to manage transitional change in places.

Emphasis for project development will be on:

1. developing meaningful benchmarked indicators to measure and evaluate place-based performance and regional risk;
2. evaluating the impact of the Cost Shifting Inquiry on local areas and their capacity to fund and manage locally;
3. exploring the meaning of the ‘new regionalism’ for governance;
4. measuring the local impact of global processes;
5. understanding the role and impact of leadership, entrepreneurialism and institutional factors in endogenous regional growth and development;
6. developing strategies for managing population decline in small towns in rural and remote Australia;
7. measuring and ameliorating the unintended consequences of planning and design at the local level.