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Geographers hone skills on home work

July 14, 2005

thumb_walmsley jim .jpgPink ceilings and lime green walls, rural festivals and mosque development … these are just some of the topics to be discussed when geographers gather for a national conference at The University of New England next week.
Professor Jim Walmsley, convenor of the annual Institute of Australian Geographers conference, said geography has “come a long way” from the days when practitioners studied maps and plotted contour lines.
“It is a very exciting subject, looking at the real world and how that affects the lives of everyone,” Professor Walmsley, from UNE’s School of Human and Environmental Studies, said.
More than 100 people are expected to attend the conference, which starts on Monday, July 18, with more than 90 academics from across Australia presenting an array of papers on subjects including:
* Geographies of home
* Changing rural communities
* Geopolitics
* Leisure and tourism

On Monday, Dr Robyn Dowling, an Urban and Cultural Geographer at Macquarie University, will present a paper entitled: “Pink Ceilings and Lime Green Walls: Style and Comfort in Sydney Homes”.

Said Dr Dowling: “I will be considering the ways issues of taste, family and comfort intersect.
“Family homes are created and maintained through networks, social relations and materialities of style. The connections and disjunctures between style and family are complex and I will be talking about this.”
Her paper is just one under the general topic of geographies at home, which includes papers on public housing tenants, neighbourhood wellbeing and supportive family homes for gay and bisexual residents.
Professor Walmsley said one of the most interesting sessions will be on Rural Festivals and how rural towns have reinvented themselves as cultural centres to survive problems such as drought, falling commodity prices and a declining population.
“Many people are opting for a tree change and towns such as Bellingen [on the mid North Coast of NSW] are attracting these people by becoming cultural centres and holding rural festivals,” Professor Walmsley said.
He noted how Tamworth has bloomed as a rural centre, in part due to its annual Country Music festival.
“Geography is really the study of how people interact with the environment around them and this involves everything from climate change through to the role of government and business in planning and policy,” Professor Walmsley said.
For more information phone Professor Walmsley on 67732863 or
Lydia Roberts on 6773 2779.

Posted by Lydia Roberts at July 14, 2005 12:25 PM