Selina Tually

Research Fellow

Contact Details Office: Room 306 Social Sciences North Postal: School of Geography, Population and Environmental Management Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide SA 5001, Australia Email: selina.tually@flinders.edu.au Phone: (08) 8201 2602 (in Australia); (618) 8201 2602 (outside Australia) Fax: (08) 8201 3521 (in Australia); (618) 8201 3521 (outside Australia)

Qualifications

• PhD (Flinders) – details of PhD thesis provided below
• BA (Hons) (Flinders)
  

Position Held

• Research Officer, Southern Research Centre
  Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI)
  (hosted by School of Geography, Population and Environmental Management at Flinders University)
  

Positions Held Previously

• Tutor and Guest Lecturer, GEOG 3008 Regional Economic Development
• Organiser, Australasian Housing Researchers Conference, Adelaide, June 19-21 2006
• Research Assistant, Southern Research Centre, AHURI
• Research and Projects Officer, Beach Road Main Street Project Inc (two year placement as part of PhD research/APA(I) scholarship)
  

Research Areas

• Local and regional development in Australia and overseas generally, and especially:
  Main Street Programs in Australia, US, UK and New Zealand
  Other programs to support small and micro businesses
  Community economic development programs
• Housing and Housing Policy, particularly:
  For people with disabilities
  Community Housing
  Housing and Ageing
  

Current/Recent Research Projects

• Australian Women’s Housing Futures 2015–2025 – for the Women’s Housing Caucus
• Focus Groups for the South Australian Ageing Atlas: Ageing and its Implications for Social and Planning Policy (Final report on Outcomes forthcoming)
  

Selected Publications

Faulkner, D., Tually, S., Baker, E. and Beer, A. forthcoming, Report on the Outcomes of Focus Groups for the South Australian Ageing Atlas: Ageing and its Implications for Social and Planning Policy, report prepared for Planning SA, April 2007.

Tually, S. forthcoming, A Review of State and Territory Housing and Disability Policies in Australia, August 2006, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, Melbourne, Vic.

Tually, S. 2006, Streets Ahead? The Limits to Main Street Programs as a Local Economic Development Strategy: the Case of the Beach Road Main Street Project Inc., PhD Thesis, Flinders University, Adelaide, March 2006.

Maude, A., Tually, S. and Beer, A. 2006, Governance and the Organisation of Regional Development: Cross National Comparisons, report prepared for the Office of Regional Affairs, Department of Trade and Economic Development, Government of SA, May 2006.

Flatau, P., Cooper, L., McGrath, N., Edwards, D., Hart, A., Morris, M., Lacroix, C., Adam, M., Marinova, D., Beer, A, Tually, S., Traee, C. 2005 Indigenous Access to Mainstream Public and Community Housing, Positioning Paper, Western Australian Research Centre and Southern Research Centre for the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, July 2005.

Flatau, P., McGrath, N., Tually, S., Cooper, L., Morris, M., Adam, M., Marinova, D., Beer, A. 2004, Indigenous Access to Mainstream Public and Community Housing, Final Report, Western Australian Research Centre and Southern Research Centre for the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, November 2004.

Beer, A., Tually, S., Wulff, M., Minnery, J., Paris, C., Jacobs, K. 2004, Housing Solutions for the 21st Century, Seminar Series 2003, Seminar Proceedings, Southern Research Institute, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, Flinders University, South Australia.

Beer, A., Tually, S., Cutler, C. 2004, ‘The Dimensions of Regional Research in Australia’, Editorial in Sustaining Regions, Vol. 3, No. 3, Winter 2004.

Beer, A., Tually, S., Cutler, C. 2004, Website: Sustainable Regions for a Competitive Australia, Australian Research Council Special Research Initiative hosted by School of Geography, Population and Environmental Management, Flinders University, Adelaide. Australia. (Available at: http://www.ssn.flinders.edu.au/ geog/srca/)

Tually, S. 2001, ‘Streets Ahead? A Review of Main Street Programs: The South Australian Experience’, Regional Policy and Practice, Vol. 10, No. 1, May 2001.

Tually, S. 1999, Held to Ransom or Window of Opportunity? An Examination of Community and Self-Management Issues in South Australia’s Community Housing Organisations, BA (Hons.) thesis, Flinders University, Adelaide, October 1999.

PhD Thesis

Title: Streets Ahead? The Limits to Main Street Programs as a Local Economic Development Strategy: the Case of the Beach Road Main Street Project Inc., PhD Thesis, Flinders University, Adelaide (March 2006)

Supervisors: Professor Andrew Beer and Associate Professor Alaric Maude

Abstract: In the late 1980s and 1990s, Main Street Programs (MSPs) were introduced to the suite of tools available to governments and local communities in Australia for affecting place-based local and regional economic development (L&RED). Since that time, MSPs have emerged across the country as localised self-help programs and/or public-private partnerships for revitalising main street districts, and improving the fortunes of such places and those with an interest in them. The typical activities of MSPs include street beautification and amenity improvements; marketing and place-making activities, i.e. local promotions and events; and basic business development training for traders.

This research used a case study MSP – the Beach Road Main Street Project (BRMSP) – to investigate the limits to MSPs as a L&RED strategy, which is the central research question. To answer this question, the thesis asked: (1) what were the unsuccessful activities undertaken by the BRMSP?; (2) what were its successful activities?; (3) can the failure of the BRMSP and limited success of some of its activities be explained?; and (4) what do these explanations tell us about the limits to MSPs and L&RED initiatives in Australia generally?

The research examined MSPs in both Australia and the United States to determine the typical activities of MSPs and the support mechanisms extended to, and needed by, them. The research also tested three theoretical explanations for the emergence of MSP, their actions and the behaviours of actors involved in them: neoliberalism, growth coalition theory and public choice theory. The research found that the emergence of the BRMSP, its activities and eventual failure were clearly shaped by neoliberalism and its local implications. The BRMSP emerged out of one of the spaces created for L&RED initiatives by neoliberal rationalisation of government L&RED programs and the consequent devolution of some economic and social policy activities to the local level; specifically to local government and communities themselves. Its eventual failure and the limited success of most of its activities were determined by the severe funding limitations placed on the organisation as a result of governments’ favouring of neoliberal economic management practices and the implications of this for communities.

Updated 28 May 2007