Recent work on the agency of change (Grillitsch and Sotarauta, 2020) has profoundly influenced academic debate on how regional economies grow and transform.
While some authors have cautioned against underplaying the impact of structural conditions (Weller and Beer, 2023), this perspective remains intuitively attractive in its capacity to make sense of relatively rapid change – including new path development, and its acknowledgement of the role of diverse actors in shaping transformations.
A focus on the agency of change brings with it considerable potential to inform practice, enabling regions and their communities to better comprehend the full range of actions and strategies available to them as they work to reposition their economy.
However, this dimension of the agency of change has received too little attention amongst researchers and policy makers alike, and this presentation seeks to fill this gap through an examination of two Australian case studies: Whyalla, South Australia and Lithgow, NSW. Both have a history of industrialisation focused on coal, and both are confronted by the need to develop a new economic future.
This presentation considers the possibilities opened up by a focus on change agency, and the ways in which structural factors, including national and state-level policies shape outcomes.
Speaker biography
Professor Andrew Beer is the Executive Dean of UniSA Business. Having previously worked at The University of Adelaide and Flinders University and having served as a Research Fellow at the University of Plymouth, a Leverhulme Fellow at the University of Ulster, and a Visiting Professor at the University of North Texas.
He was the Chair of the South Australian Government’s Homelessness Strategic Group from 2011 to 2017 and is a Fellow of the Regional Australia Institute. He served on the College of Experts for the Australian Research Council and is a Fellow of the UK’s Academy of Social Sciences.
Professor Beer was Chair of the Regional Studies Association from November 2013 to November 2017. Andrew’s research interests include the operation and functioning of Australia’s housing markets (including the provision of housing for persons with a disability), the drivers of regional growth, structural change within the economy, and the impacts of an ageing population.
He is currently undertaking research in four major areas:
- The outcomes of the closure of the Australian automotive industry
- The cross-national analysis of the leadership of places
- The quality and condition of Australia’s housing stock
- The use of services and housing by Australia’s ageing population
