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Planning Theory
And Process (1) - 7968
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Canberra: Going Global
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Workshop Report
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Jacob White (u3090605), Nick Goodman
(u3083357), Rachelle Hardaker (u3117629) and Stuart Hunter (u3083168)
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11/21/2014
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Contents
Canberra: Going Global
Introducing Canberra as a Global City
Emerging in the
late 20th Century, the ‘global city’ as a concept is defined as an
economic and social entity that is able to overcome the traditional constraints
that the nation-state structure might otherwise place on the free flow of
capital, labour, and enterprise. Viewing globalisation through the lens of the
‘global city’ with a strong focus on the networked economy, is an intangible
economy based on services and intellectual property. The globalisation process
has itself facilitated an unprecedented growth in international business
transactions, movements of goods and capital, and has allowed regions and
indeed cities to specialise in the production of goods and services that they
can create most efficiently. Many of these conventional constraints do not
apply to a connected global city in the 21st century, many
constraints which otherwise may have placed an unassailable economic dampener
on the development of cities like Canberra in developed economies.
How these global cities compete to attract talent capital from around the
world is a point of study for urban and regional planners as they seek to
understand and emulate the conditions locally to make a city competitive
globally. Many of these developments have been catalysed by the proliferation
of accessible and affordable telecommunications, as well as favourable policies
by governments to actively liberalise the flow of trade and remove barriers to
foreign investment and movement of labour. Michael Porter’s ‘Diamond Model of Competitive Advantage’ outlines the principle factor conditions
that can catalyse to create conditions in which global cities can thrive. The
model highlights six points upon which this kind of competitive advantage is
reliant. Porter’s theory was originally to be applied to firms and the
advantages that they would have in international trade, other scholars have
since expanded upon this model and it can be adapted to understand how cities
compete in the globalised age to grow, attract, and retain talent. How urban
and regional planners are able to envisage, plan, and create these global
cities has become a major question in the planning field, and this report will
seek to highlight Canberra’s movement towards this status as it moves to
compete in a globally competitive marketplace.
Evaluating Canberra: Strengths and Weaknesses
How a global city can be evaluated
is a broad question as it entails much criteria, particularly as cities are
seen as large hubs not just for trading and culture but also for living and
operating as a society. This can be applied to Canberra in many different
means. Sassen (2005) raises 7 hypothesis of a modern global city. These
include;
i.
The geographic dispersal of economic activities
that marks globalization, along with the simultaneous integration of such
geographically dispersed activities, is a key factor feeding the growth and
importance of central corporate functions.
ii.
These central
functions become so complex that increasingly the headquarters of large global
firms outsource them: they buy a share of their central functions from highly
specialized service firms.
iii.
Those specialized
service firms engaged in the most complex and globalized markets are subject to
agglomeration economies.
iv.
The more
headquarters outsource their most complex, unstandardized functions,
particularly those subject to uncertain and changing markets, the freer they
are to opt for any location.
v.
These specialized
service firms need to provide a global service that has meant a global network
of affiliates and a strengthening of cross border city-to-city transactions and
networks.
vi.
The economic
fortunes of these cities become increasingly disconnected from their broader
hinterlands or even their national economies.
vii.
One result of the
dynamics described in hypothesis six, is the growing informalization of a range
of economic activities which find their effective demand in these cities, yet
have profit rates that do not allow them to compete for various resources with
the high-profit making firms at the top of the system.
(Sassen, 2005)
All of these
hypotheses are then seen as necessary to a global city, therefore if each
feature is applied to a city it can be decided if the given city is a global
city or not, and also what its strengths and weaknesses are. In the instance of Canberra as this report is
based around, these 7 hypotheses can be summarised into 4 main points. The
first is that these global cities are largely based around the concept of their
own individual economy and how it interacts with others globally, locally and
internally. Secondly it can be drawn that often these cities are based around
central hubs of businesses and these areas are often the most diverse and
dynamic areas within the city, whereas outer areas are often disadvantaged,
when compared to these inner hubs. Thirdly, these global economies operating in
the cities are filled with networking as the industries within, such as
financing operate across borders and between firms with outsourcing forming a
large part of this. Last, however these
links between and across borders are not simply business they are also
political, social and cultural.
With
all this is mind, applying each of the last four summary points to Canberra
will enable an evaluation on Canberra as a global city. The first is that each
global city is either planned or based and has developed around its own economy
and how that it interacts with others. In Canberra, with it being a planned
city Canberra has been planned around it self and thus developed around the
economy it has within. As seen in its design, there is a central hub in the CBD
and close surrounds houses a large majority of business operations. This is not
only housed within the CBD but also the Central areas of surrounding suburbs
such as Belconnen, Woden and Tuggeranong. This is consistent with the planning
scheme for Canberra and the points raised by Sassen.
The
second point being that these central areas are often the most dynamic and
diverse areas of the city, when compared and contrasted to the outer
surrounding areas. This can be seen widely throughout Canberra as the CBD is
considered a vibrant area, especially with the new developments such as the New
Acton area and the Nishi complex. These areas have a large and diverse range of
services and cultural offerings in a close area. These areas are also
constantly updated and visually appealing. Contrast this with the often-dilapidated
suburbs of Lyneham in Belconnen, Northbourne Avenue with its dilapidated
building or Phillip in Woden. These areas are old; offer very few services and
opportunities for employment or the recreation areas for it citizens. This is form the large centralized approach
to planning that Canberra was implemented with and the way that the money
coming into Canberra’s economy comes through these central business hubs first
then spreads out to these areas after.
The
third point is the business and operations that take place often cross border
and firm within and without this area and economy. This can be largely seen
from the outsourcing that takes place from within the Government here in
Canberra. The best example of this is
the outsourcing of their I.T. operations. (Holland, 2001) in this example the
Government opted to outsource their I.T. operations to up to 60 different
agencies. This was large as the private sector could perform these tasks more
efficient and to reduce the load on the Government. This is not only cross between Canberra firms
and the Australian Government, which is based here but also firms which have
operations in many locations such as Computer Sciences Corporation Limited,
which have headquarters located in Sydney but have offices in almost every
state in Australia and also offices across the globe. Thus these links are business across borders,
stateliness and local operations and also a degree of political link with these
follow.
The
final point of summarizing the hypothesis was that the links are not simply
business, but political, social and cultural. As the example above has stated
and shown political links and business links can exist across borders and do
within Canberra. The most prominent example of Political links is the fact that
Canberra itself is the central hub for Australian parliament and thus
Government. As the policies made and discussed here in Canberra have far
reaching effects across all of Australia and in terms of international business
and trade too across to the international scale. In terms of social and cultural links within
Canberra these are some what a little lacking when compared to Melbourne or
Sydney which are seen as vibrant social and cultural hubs. Yet Canberra does
have social links. Canberra is the sister city of both Beijing in China and
Nara in Japan. This Sister city link promotes business links and social
programs between the two cities in their lifetime. From this we then gain their culture and
experiences. However Canberra does have
a high percentage of overseas born residents. With over half of the residents
of Civic in Canberra were born overseas (Belot, Westcott 2014). This then shows
we do have links social and then associated culture that comes with this. This
statistic also backs up the second point of the central hub being more diverse.
From these points Canberra can be seen as a global city, in terms of its
layout, population and economic links, social and cultural links and it
political standing within the Australian setting.
How Global Cities Interact, Compete and Attract
Global cities
interact, compete and attract in various behaviours and often the
characteristics of these means will define a global city. Canberra manages to
act as a global city by interacting, attracting and competing with national and
international cities to enhance its global presence. Interaction between cities
allows businesses to prosper, information and resources to be shared, services
to provide to their greatest capacity and for cities to develop a wider sense
of community. For global cities to interact there must be a combination of
centralisation and dispersal of economic activities (Sassen, 2005, 32). As
previously discussed, Sassen (2005) identifies a few specific features of a
global city, including: multiple headquarters of different corporations,
companies that are large enough to need to outsource some of their services,
and consist of companies that provide a service of which the local and wider
economy and society needs. Large corporations which centralise in any given
city develop networks as they expand, creating more opportunities within more
global cities; they expand their services to local, national and international
cities, allowing their productivity and business to grow. These businesses form
networks with other global cities and economic communities which allow them to
interact on a business level and exchange resources and information.
Canberra as the capital of Australia is the political headquarters of the
country; it interacts with other global cities in terms of international and
domestic affairs, economics and politics, using networks of social media,
public and private political organisations. Canberra is also leading the way in
Australia in terms of communicative technologies with 69.3 per cent of Canberra
homes being connected to broadband internet (ANZSOG Institute for Governance,
2013); this is a feature of a global city of which is reliant on technological
communication for interaction between other cities. Global corporations interact
via the highest end technological developments, and typically are responsible
for the interaction between cities. Sassen (2005, 32) confirms that ‘globalised
economic sectors tend to be intensive users of the new telecommunications and
computer technologies, and increasingly produce a partly de-materialized
output, such as financial instruments and specialized services’.
Cities interact on political and economic levels as they expand and
develop, although also compete in a similar manner; for example for
corporations to develop headquarters in a particular city, for more
professionals and graduates to work in these global corporations and live in
the cities, as well as for tourism. How these cities compete can be explained
by using Michael Porter’s economic Diamond Model, which explains how industries
are competitive. The factors consist of the resources, demand, related
industries and inputs as well as a company’s structure and management. These
features develop the ‘Diamond Model’ and all combine to answer how industries
compete, and can be applied to how global cities compete as well (Porter,
1986). The ‘Double Diamond Model’ which is an extension of Porter’s original
theory, adds two additional factors and captures the multinational activity of which
Porter did not acknowledge; these factors include government and chance.
Australia’s capital city is particularly competitive in terms of professionals
and education, as Porter acknowledged, resources and related industries are
important factors for competitiveness. Canberra is gifted with internationally
recognized tertiary education facilities of which attract many new university
undergraduates yearly, also; there is a significant movement of people with
high-level qualifications into the Canberra region in comparison to that of
Sydney, with a total of 40.6 per cent of people having a tertiary
qualification.
Competition also develops over their desire to attract, as the more a
city attracts, generally means the more it succeeds and the better the capital.
As mentioned previously, tourism is another way in which global cities compete
for attraction. Competing for attraction in terms of tourism and residency
heavily depends on urban aesthetics, population, attractions, culture, sport
and special events (Paige, 1995). Urban design and planning is an important
element in this area as the transport systems, urban landscapes and aesthetics.
Canberra’s aesthetics and urban design are a main tourism attraction, as well
as the special events and significant national attractions such as museums and
galleries. The capital city is nationally and internationally competitive,
interactive and attractive in many ways, particularly due to its political
position, its leading tertiary facilities and because of its history of being a
planned city.
Urban Form and Retaining Citizens
Canberra is no doubt one of
Australia’s leading cities when it comes to how it has been planned and created
though its urban form to attract and maintain an increasing population.
Canberra has a population of around 380,000 people, been the eighth biggest
city in Australia, making it Australia’s biggest inland city (Bobinoz.com,
2014). In 2012 Canberra’s population grew by 2.3 per cent, the increase being the
second highest nationally (McIlroy, T. 2013). From this
fact alone we can see that Canberra is increasing its population due to many
different reasons.
At
the centre of the city is the artificial Lake Burley Griffin, named after the
Chicago architects who designed the city. This is a major element to Canberra
appeal for both international and domestic people alike. To complement this
element, Canberra has large open spaces designed into it that allow a more
natural feel to the city and allow people to enjoy more leisure activities
closer to the city centre. This is where Canberra in particular differs itself
from the likes of Sydney and Melbourne which are much denser and have a high
volume of people condensed into a smaller area.
Canberra,
although feeling more like a country town to its Sydney and Melbourne
counterparts with Sydney hosting a population of about 4.7 million people, has
the largest proportion of residents with a university qualification which in
itself is a very high achievement. This static show that after students finish university
many are either moving into Canberra or studying in Canberra. These students
who are now looking for work are also more likely to find jobs, be involved in
research and innovation fields and in general have high-level of occupations
within Canberra (Globalisation and Cities Research Program, 2014). This
is partly because Canberra is host to the parliaments and other political
infrastructure also helping it to encourage people that support the political
elements of Australia to be drawn into the city. The biggest employer in the
nation’s capital is easily the federal government which accounts for a lot of
the higher end white collar jobs (Bobinoz.com, 2014). It should
also be noted that Canberra also has the highest
proportion of households with access to broadband internet of any major
Australian city (Globalisation and Cities Research Program, 2014) This displays how the residence of Canberra are
technological savvy in that they are aware of the opportunities that the
internet presents. The internet is a major part of the way Canberra can
interact with other cities both domestically and internationally and is a big
factor when considering global cities.
The
infrastructure that Canberra has is another massive reason it’s among the
conversation of being or become a global city. Just the fact that it has two
major universities means that there is a massive number of people that will
look to Canberra when finishing their high school years to further their
educations. Not just this Canberra also has many primary, high and preschools
plus the option of Tafe to attract home buyers in this area and provide children
and adults with high quality educations that can then be taken into the
workforce. When these people finish their schooling Canberra looks to
accommodate them with offering many different high level occupations meaning
that there level of education can be satisfied with an appropriate level of
work. This therefore leads to an increased population through maintaining these
students. Canberra is also undergoing expansion with new developments going in
a few different places. This also is opening up many job opportunities for
Canberra residence and accommodating the rising population that Canberra is
faced with. The same format in these developments is generally still being used
in that it is going with the general master plan of Canberra.
The way Canberra
has been designed has also allowed a good flow of traffic in and out of its
ever expanding suburbs. This again helps for people living in the areas of
Canberra to reach other parts with ease and even in the city centre it is
relatively easy to get around. Canberra still has so much potential when it
comes to public transport with a good bus system but other systems generally
not as good. But this can be put to the fact that the population has not
reached a level where these other elements are needed but in time with the
current growth of Canberra other public transport maybe introduced.
Conclusion
Evidently through the information
presented, Canberra is becoming an increasingly competitive city, both
nationally and internationally. Sassen’s theory suggests many features of a
global city that are applied to Canberra and its region, and although Canberra
is not formally classified as a global city it poses significant potential in
the future. Canberra’s competition with tertiary level international schools
increases its attraction from young students across all cities. Its political
position and advanced technological developments allows Canberra to interact
with other global cities, enhancing its global presence and possibility of being
acknowledged as a global city.
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