CONVENERS  Dallas Rogers (2017 – present), Vera Xia (2022- present), and Xiao Ma (2020 – 2022)

The Cities Writing Group is a monthly university-wide HDR/ECR urban studies writing group, which has been running since 2017. The group is attended by Honours, PhDs and ECRs from sociology, geography, architecture, and urban planning and design from across the University of Sydney. HDR/ECR research that has passed through the Cities Writing Group has been published in leading journals and won multiple awards.


Published

The following are some of the publications enriched by the discussions of the group:

Dallas Rogers (2022) Nautico-imperialism and settler-colonialism: water and land in the New South Wales colony, Australian Geographer

Xiao Ma et al. (forthcoming) Foreign real estate, international education and migration as a family strategy, in R Ronald & A Rowan (eds) Families, Housing and Property Wealth in a Neoliberal World, London: Routledge.

Xiao Ma et al. (2021) Chinese property developers after the decline in foreign real estate investment in Sydney, Australia, Housing Studies.

Deepti Prasad, Tooran Alizdeh and Robyn Downling (2021) Multiscalar Smart City Governance in India, Geoforum.

Caitlin Buckle (2020) Migrants’ encounters of a lifestyle destination: From coastal idyll to activated city, Geographical Research.

Deepti Prasad and Tooran Alizadeh (2020) What Makes Indian Cities Smart? A Policy Analysis of Smart Cities Mission, Telematics and Informatics

Yuting Zhang and Nicole Gurran (2020) Understanding the Share Housing Sector: A Geography of Group Housing Supply in Metropolitan Sydney, Urban Policy and Research.

Isabel Rousset (2020) The Industrious, the Laboring, and the Sunken: Berlin’s Mietskaserne and the Housing Question, Journal of Urban History.

Xiao Ma (2020) Chinese housing policy, capital switching and the foreign real estate investment ‘boom and bust’ in Australia, International Journal of Housing Policy.

Alistair Sisson, Dallas Rogers and Chris Gibson (2019). Property speculation, global capital, urban planning and financialisation: Sydney boom, Sydney bust redux. Australian Geographer.

Cameron Logan and Anna Simanowsky (2019) Unsettled: The Afterlife of the Newcastle Post Office, Fabrications.

Alistair Sisson and Paul Maginn (2018) “Reclaiming Northbridge”: Urban (Dis)Order and Territorial Stigmatisation in Perth’s Night Time Economy precinct, Urban Policy and Research.

Denis Byrne (2017). Remembering the Elizabeth Bay reclamation and the Holocene sunset in Sydney Harbour. Environmental Humanities.


Working Papers

November 2021

The investor-occupier effect – architectural quality and apartment design in Sydney, Australia

Xiao Ma, PhD candidate, School of of Architecture Design and Planning, The University of Sydney

Greta Werner, PhD candidate, FASS, The University of Sydney


October 2021

Nautico-imperialism and settler-colonialism: water and land in the New South Wales colony

Dr Dallas Rogers, School of Architecture Design and Planning, The University of Sydney


September 2021

Counter-urban migration and the search for an ideal home in coastal Australia

Dr Caitlin Buckle, Postdoctoral Research Associate, School of Architecture Design and Planning, The University of Sydney


August 2021

Who grows how? Governance in urban gardening research

Kristina Ulm, PhD candidate, The University of New South Wales


July 2021

Smart City Place-based Outcomes in India: bubble urbanism and socio-spatial fragmentation

Deepti Prasad, PhD candidate, School of Architecture Design and Planning, The University of Sydney


June 2021

Performing and resisting neoliberalism: pro-nightlife activist discourses in Sydney 

Dr. Peta Wolifson, Postdoctoral Research Associate, School of Architecture Design and Planning, The University of Sydney


May 2021

Social housing as solidarity in Vienna and Sydney

Greta Werner, PhD candidate, FASS, The University of Sydney


April 2021

Chinese property developers after the decline in foreign real estate investment in Sydney Australia

Xiao Ma, PhD candidate, School of Architecture Design and Planning, The University of Sydney


March 2021

Intersections between housing and health vulnerabilities: informal share housing in Sydney and the health risks of COVID-19

Dr Caitlin Buckle, Postdoctoral Research Associate, School of Architecture Design and Planning, The University of Sydney


February 2021

Smart City Planning and Informality in India 

Deepti Prasad, PhD candidate, School of Architecture Design and Planning, The University of Sydney


November 2020

Adapting holiday accommodation: resilience against the impacts to tourism of the 2019-20 bushfires and COVID-19 pandemic

Dr Caitlin Buckle, Postdoctoral Research Associate, School of Architecture Design and Planning, The University of Sydney


October 2020

Turning Sydney’s ‘Housing Supply Tap’

Greta Werner, PhD candidate, School of Architecture Design and Planning, The University of Sydney


September 2020

Evaluation of experiential attributes of shopping malls in two types: enclosed versus open-air

Chunrong Hao, PhD candidate, School of Architecture Design and Planning, The University of Sydney


August 2020

Housing the Classless Society: Genealogies of German Modernism

Dr. Isabel Rousset, Postdoctoral Research Associate, School of Architecture Design and Planning, The University of Sydney


July 2020

Migrants’ encounters of a lifestyle destination: from coastal idyll to ‘activated’ city

Dr Caitlin Buckle, Postdoctoral Research Associate, School of Architecture Design and Planning, The University of Sydney


June 2020

Multiscalar governance in India

Deepti Prasad, PhD candidate, School of Architecture Design and Planning, The University of Sydney


May 2020

Emergent Urban Agricultural Practices and Attitudes in Planned Residential Areas in China

Yuan Wei, PhD candidate, School of Architecture Design and Planning, The University of Sydney


April 2020

Chinese housing policy, capital switching and the foreign real estate investment ‘boom and bust’ in Australia

Xiao Ma, PhD candidate, School of Architecture Design and Planning, The University of Sydney


March 2020

PhD Chapter 2 – Social housing and social theory

Greta Werner, PhD candidate, FASS, The University of Sydney


February 2020

Uncovering Structural Inequalities: Adopting a relational perspective for understanding urban (in)formality

Dr Pranitha Shrestha, School of Architecture Design and Planning, The University of Sydney


January 2020

Understanding the Share Housing Sector: A Geography of Group Housing Supply in Metropolitan Sydney 

Yuting Zhang, PhD candidate, School of Architecture Design and Planning, The University of Sydney


September 2019

What makes India Cities Smart?

Deepti Prasad, PhD candidate, School of Architecture Design and Planning, The University of Sydney


August 2019

Of Spectres and Poltergeists: The Hauntological Politics of Urban Data

Dr Jathan Sadowski, Postdoctoral Research Associate, School of Architecture Design and Planning, The University of Sydney


July 2019

The Industrious, the Laboring, and the Sunken: Berlin’s Mietskaserne and Lower-Class Reform

Dr Isabel Rousset, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Architecture, Design and Planning, University of Sydney School


June 2019

The accommodating state: social housing in Vienna

Greta Werner, PhD candidate, FASS, The University of Sydney


May 2019

Job Choice, Location and Mobility among Rural Migrants Living in Public Rental Housing in Chongqing, China

Weijie Hu, PhD candidate, School of Architecture Design and Planning, The University of Sydney


April 2019

PhD Chapter

Pratichi Chatterjee, PhD candidate, Geosciences, The University of Sydney


March 2019

PhD Chapter

Alistair Sisson, PhD candidate, Geosciences, The University of Sydney


February 2019

Foreign real estate, international education and migration as a family strategy

Xiao Ma, PhD Candidate, School of Architecture Design and Planning, University of Sydney


October 2018

The Emergence of Liveability in Melbourne’s Planning

Pash Tzaikos, Honours Candidate, School of Architecture Design and Planning, University of Sydney


August 2018

The Transformation of Desert Settlements in Inner Mongolia: Tradition, Politics and Identity

Yushu Liang, PhD candidate, School of Architecture, Tsinghua University, China


July 2018

Remembering the Elizabeth Bay reclamation and the Holocene sunset in Sydney Harbour      

Dr Dennis Byrne, Western Sydney University


June 2018

The Afterlife of a Civic Building: Newcastle Post Office

Dr Cameron Logan, School of Architecture Design and Planning, University of Sydney


May 2018

Reshaping lived space in Waterloo

Pratichi Chatterjee, PhD candidate, Geosciences, The University of Sydney


April 2018

Property speculation, global capital, urban planning and financialisation: Sydney boom, Sydney bust redux

Alistair Sisson, PhD candidate, Geosciences, The University of Sydney


March 2018

This meeting we discussed writing plans for 2018


February 2018

PhD research proposal – Foreign real estate investment boom and bust, Chinese property developers after bust

Xiao Ma, PhD Candidate, School of Architecture Design and Planning, University of Sydney


November 2017

WestConnex, clashing visions and strategic action

Greta Werner, PhD candidate, FASS, The University of Sydney


October 2017

“Reclaiming Northbridge”: Urban (Dis)Order and Territorial Stigmatisation in Perth’s Night Time Economy precinct

Alistair Sisson, PhD candidate, Geosciences, The University of Sydney


…. and more