People
Associate Professor Michael Darcy
- Director
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Michael Darcy is a prominent researcher on social housing policy and management and the connections between social disadvantage and place. His recent work questions orthodox approaches to concentration and de-concentration of disadvantage and the way in which constructs of social capital and social mix have been deployed in public policy. Michael has worked with many research partners including the Westpac Foundation, Centrelink, NSW Dept of Housing, City of Sydney, City of Parramatta and National Shelter. He was twice appointed by the Minister as an expert member of the NSW Housing Assistance Plan Advisory Committee and has been a Board Member of Shelter NSW and Australia New Zealand Third Sector Research.
Professor Phillip O’Neill
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Professor O'Neill is an economic geographer with specialties in urban and regional economies, corporate investment behaviours and socio-spatial indicators. He was previously Foundation Director of the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies at the University of Newcastle, New South Wales. He is a major contributor to international scholarship in the general area of urban and economic development. This is recognised in his appointments to four key international editorial boards. He maintains strong publications output with consistent placement of research in the highest quality international journals as well as for targeted policy use.
Professor Chung-Tong Wu (Adjunct)
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Professor Wu is an urban planner with specialities in regional development strategies, urban dynamics and impacts of migration on urban development. His work includes collaborations in China, South Korea and other South-East Asian countries. He was previously the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Development and International) at UWS. Previous appointments include Dean of the Faculty of Built Environment at the University of New South Wales and various academic appointments at QUT, University of Sydney, University of Hawaii and the University of Singapore. His current research is on shrinking cities, urban dynamics and urban revival strategies.
Associate Professor Michael Bounds (Adjunct)
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Associate Professor Bounds is an Urban Sociologist and author of Urban Social Theory (OUP 2004). His research over the past 10 years has concentrated on the study of the social impacts of urban development, with a particular focus on urban consolidation and gentrification. He has undertaken research on strata title governance, brownfield redevelopment in Pyrmont-Ultimo in Sydney, master-planned development in the south west of Sydney and researched development in the 'Olympic Corridor' and the impact of the Sydney Olympics. Associate Professor Bounds is a member of the Planning Institute of Australia and formerly of the executive committee of Research Committee 43 of the International Sociological Association. He reviews for a number of academic publishers and urban, planning and sociological journals.
Dr Felicity Wray
- Postdoctoral Fellow
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Dr Wray is an economic geographer with research interests in (1) the drivers of uneven territorial development; (2) geographies of money and finance with a particular focus on the venture capital industry; (3) entrepreneurship; and (4) the changing nature and practices of economic geography. Prior to her appointment at the Urban Research Centre in March 2010, Felicity worked at the University of Western Australia and Newcastle University Business School. Felicity undertook her postgraduate studies at the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies at Newcastle University, a leading edge European centre for the study of local and regional development. Her current research examines impediments to employment generation amongst Arabic businesses in Sydney’s West Central region.
