Remaking of Central Sydney: Evidence from Floor Space and Employment Surveys in 1991–2006

Abstract

The global city discourse and the neoliberal urbanism in the literature on transformative central cities in contemporary globalization provide partial explanation and present theoretical limitations. This study makes a theoretical ‘cross-fertilization’ of globalism and neoliberalism to construct an integrative analytical framework, and applies it to Central Sydney. Using the data from a series of floor space and employment surveys in 1991–2006, this study systematically examines the functional changes in Central Sydney from the lenses of industry divisions and space use divisions. The empirical findings reveal new insights into a trend of strengthening capacity of the knowledge services and the experience services, and increasing living and amenity spaces in Central Sydney; applying the integrative analytical framework sheds light on the functional changes in association with the exogenous factor of Sydney's emergence as a global city and the endogenous factor of neoliberal strategies and planning.