Dr Robyn Dowling
Lecturer
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Robyn Dowling is an urban and cultural geographer. Her primary research interests are in cultures of cities, and in particular the ways gender and class identities overlap in the everyday lives of urban residents. She has a special interest in the cultural geographies of Sydney, but has also undertaken research in Canada. Robyn's secondary research interests are in retailing, and especially the interconnections of culture and capital in contemporary retailing strategies.
Robyn has recently completed an Australian Research Council funded project entitled 'Reinterpreting Suburbia'. This focuses on the nature of 'home' in contemporary Sydney, using qualitative research with householders in suburban Sydney to outline people's creations of style, fashion, home and family. This material forms part of her recently published book 'Home' (Routledge), co-authored with Professor Alison Blunt of the University of London. This book also develops a new critical geography of home the multi-scalar nature of its home and its political, social and cultural importance.
Robyn's current research explores the contours of privatisation and privatism in residential life in Sydney. Also funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant, and in collaboration with Professor Pauline McGuirk of the University of Newcastle and Dr Rowland Atkinson of the University of Tasmania, this research is aimed at extending understandings of this new form of residential neighbourhood. It also explores the changing governance processes in Australian cities and the ways 'community' is drawn upon and constructed through these processes.
Robyn supervises a number of higher degree research students and welcomes enquiries from those interested in postgraduate study in the broad fields of urban and cultural geography. A PhD Scholarship in Urban Geography availaible
Mailing address: Dept of Human Geography, Macquarie University, NSW, 2109, Australia