title: Daring to build fair and sustainable urban food systems: A case study of alternative food networks in Australia

authors: Canal Vieira, Leticia

subjects: New localism

abstract: Food systems are under pressure from population growth, climate change, resource scarcity and increasing urbanization. Alternative food networks are initiatives related to food provision that operate at a local level and are concerned with both environmental stewardship and social justice. This paper presents a case study of alternative food networks operating in Brisbane and Melbourne in order to analyze: i) their socio-economic and environmental contributions to the resilience and sustainability of urban food systems; and, ii) the limitations that alternative food networks are facing. The cases researched include examples of urban agriculture, food hubs, buyers’ groups, and specialist retailers. The results indicate that alternative food networks can improve access to healthy food, provide fairer conditions for farmers, reduce food loss/waste, increase environmental protection, and facilitate climate change adaptation. The limitations to the expansion of alternative food networks are also discussed, including the restricted access to land for growing food, low public engagement, and the dependence on volunteer labor. The paper concludes by summarizing the contribution of alternative food networks to urban food systems and identifies issues for future research.

text: Daring to build fair and sustainable urban food systems: A case study of alternative food networks in Australia Food systems are under pressure from population growth, climate change, resource scarcity and increasing urbanization. Alternative food networks are initiatives related to food provision that operate at a local level and are concerned with both environmental stewardship and social justice. This paper presents a case study of alternative food networks operating in Brisbane and Melbourne in order to analyze: i) their socio-economic and environmental contributions to the resilience and sustainability of urban food systems; and, ii) the limitations that alternative food networks are facing. The cases researched include examples of urban agriculture, food hubs, buyers’ groups, and specialist retailers. The results indicate that alternative food networks can improve access to healthy food, provide fairer conditions for farmers, reduce food loss/waste, increase environmental protection, and facilitate climate change adaptation. The limitations to the expansion of alternative food networks are also discussed, including the restricted access to land for growing food, low public engagement, and the dependence on volunteer labor. The paper concludes by summarizing the contribution of alternative food networks to urban food systems and identifies issues for future research.

year: 2020

title: Testing for bubbles in time series data using long historical series

authors: Hu, Yang

subjects: thesis with publication

abstract: The concept of asset price bubble has drawn a large amount of academic attention. A bubble is commonly defined as where the asset price is not justified by expectations of the fundamentals. The empirical characteristics of a bubble are widely regarded as a dramatic rise in asset prices in the early periods along with a sudden collapse, which have been observed in a wide range of financial markets including commodity, real estate and stock.
This thesis attempts to examine several well-noticed bubble episodes in history, for example, the Mississippi Bubble in 1719, the South Sea Bubble in 1719-20, Japan’s asset price bubble during the 1980s and the more recent US real estate bubble in the early 2000s. One of the greatest contribution of this thesis is that it has provided econometric-based evidence to support the existence of these famous episodes for the first time using recently developed econometric tests. The origination and collapse dates for these identified episodes are coincided with the traditional view of famous bubbles.
This thesis not only tests for the existence of bubbles but also seeks to provide some empirical evidence to support the existence of bubble spillovers/contagion using the most-documented bubble episodes. The first example considered in this thesis is whether financial bubbles/crises spill-over to housing markets in Amsterdam, Norway and France. The second example is considered for a number of British financial organisations during the South Sea episode in 1719-20 (e.g., the South Sea Company, the Bank of England, East India Company, London Assurance, Million Bank, the Royal African Company and the Royal Exchange Assurance). The South Sea Bubble seems to migrate to other organisations as the British share market was speculative for that period. The timings of some identified episodes can be viewed as possible evidence of spillovers or contagion for this important period in England. The third example looks at the Japan’s real estate and stock markets during the 1980-90s. Based on econometric tools, the findings indicate signs of bubble migration from Japan’s stock market to its real estate market for the first time. Even if this phenomenon has been observed in the literature, none of existing studies provide any solid evidences to support this claim.
This thesis investigates the long-run equilibrium relationship between house prices and economic fundamentals in the US based on quantile cointegration approaches for the first time. The presence of cointegration between house prices and fundamentals would imply convergence to a stable equilibrium relationship, suggesting a temporary run-up or drop in house prices would eventually come back to the equilibrium. By making use of quantile autoregressive distributed lag model (QARDL), this research explores the cointegration relationship across the whole
conditional distribution.

text: Testing for bubbles in time series data using long historical series The concept of asset price bubble has drawn a large amount of academic attention. A bubble is commonly defined as where the asset price is not justified by expectations of the fundamentals. The empirical characteristics of a bubble are widely regarded as a dramatic rise in asset prices in the early periods along with a sudden collapse, which have been observed in a wide range of financial markets including commodity, real estate and stock.
This thesis attempts to examine several well-noticed bubble episodes in history, for example, the Mississippi Bubble in 1719, the South Sea Bubble in 1719-20, Japan’s asset price bubble during the 1980s and the more recent US real estate bubble in the early 2000s. One of the greatest contribution of this thesis is that it has provided econometric-based evidence to support the existence of these famous episodes for the first time using recently developed econometric tests. The origination and collapse dates for these identified episodes are coincided with the traditional view of famous bubbles.
This thesis not only tests for the existence of bubbles but also seeks to provide some empirical evidence to support the existence of bubble spillovers/contagion using the most-documented bubble episodes. The first example considered in this thesis is whether financial bubbles/crises spill-over to housing markets in Amsterdam, Norway and France. The second example is considered for a number of British financial organisations during the South Sea episode in 1719-20 (e.g., the South Sea Company, the Bank of England, East India Company, London Assurance, Million Bank, the Royal African Company and the Royal Exchange Assurance). The South Sea Bubble seems to migrate to other organisations as the British share market was speculative for that period. The timings of some identified episodes can be viewed as possible evidence of spillovers or contagion for this important period in England. The third example looks at the Japan’s real estate and stock markets during the 1980-90s. Based on econometric tools, the findings indicate signs of bubble migration from Japan’s stock market to its real estate market for the first time. Even if this phenomenon has been observed in the literature, none of existing studies provide any solid evidences to support this claim.
This thesis investigates the long-run equilibrium relationship between house prices and economic fundamentals in the US based on quantile cointegration approaches for the first time. The presence of cointegration between house prices and fundamentals would imply convergence to a stable equilibrium relationship, suggesting a temporary run-up or drop in house prices would eventually come back to the equilibrium. By making use of quantile autoregressive distributed lag model (QARDL), this research explores the cointegration relationship across the whole
conditional distribution.

year: 2019

title: Listening at dawn: Trans* storywork for all my relations

authors: Luna-Pizano, Rafaela

subjects: Transgender

abstract: This is a love letter to trans* people: a reminder of our place and legacy of trans*formation. In the form of collaborative and ceremonial research, this PhD with creative practice component is an affirmation of embodied, elemental storytelling as a necessary practice for unearthing and grounding the traditional knowledge that Indigenous-Trans* (Indigi-Trans*) people carry within our body-spirits. This creative practice (co)research uplifts liminal states of being, as given to us by our elemental ancestors, in the decolonial project of Indigenous (encompassing Black and Trans*) body-land reclamation and restoration. By recognizing and nourishing the power of the between, this thesis remembers practices of place that are rooted in the body, often our last piece of ancestral land as displaced and diasporic Indigi-Trans* people. Spanning the coasts of Aotearoa-NZ to the west coast of Ixtlán (Turtle Island-US), this creative project listened to the somatic presence of Indigi-Trans* creators (co-researchers) who are in varying states of connection to their ancestral lands and traditions. To account for sudden and extreme shifts in safety and access due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I created online and on-site rituals to sustain connection and retrace our ancestors’ techniques of time and space travel. By engaging with body-awareness practices or ritual performances offered in this project, co-researchers and storytellers were able to experiment with ‘knew’ ways of engaging the ancestral power of place. As a member of the communities contributing to this project, I witnessed an important transformation within co-researchers from a sense of landlessness to a sense of infinite place. This transformation gave co-researchers and storytellers a new source of power, strengthening their spiritual-mental capacity to receive and grow (especially during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic). In a political climate of increasing backlash to trans* and Indigenous sovereignty, this creative project is a unique contribution to the kete, or basket of knowledge that we offer to the coming generations of trans*formational practitioners and scholars.
Situated within the realms of Indigenous, Queer, Xicana and Critical Black Trans* Feminist theories, this creative project also draws upon performance, sound, and poetic practice to hatch another creative methodology that centers place-based ritual. As I created this thesis in a liminal waterscape, crossing back and forth between Aotearoa and Ixtlán, colliding with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, I opened myself to theories generated by the lands that nourished me. Thus, a Kaupapa Māori and Mana Wahine informed approach emerges as the prow of this banka, or canoe that carries other Black, Indigenous and Trans* lineages of scholarship. From this fluid place of theory, my practice as an Indigi-
Trans* ritualist, poet, and sound artist grounds these theories in my body and the body-lands of my co-researchers. Together, we create a Kappi (Ilocano crab motif referencing Maui’s fishing up of our islands) methodology, or the underwater reflections of celestial movement as mapped by Indigi-Trans* freedom strategies. As the co-researchers and storytellers of this project demonstrate, many Indigi-Trans* people are (re)birthing and (re)creating life and possibility just by existing. Our power of place, in body and land, can link and strengthen all Indigenous sovereignty movements when our communities take up the call to foster each person’s fluid potential.
Although this entire project is creative, as a PhD with creative practice component, this project is an ebb and flow of written and other media components. Most of the ‘creative component’ occurred during the co-research stage of this thesis and has been documented via photographs, video, participant testimony, soundscapes, and poetry on a separate, companion website (https://transjoy.cargo.site/). These artifacts of ritual research are also discussed within the harvest (data) section of the written portion, but reader/listeners are encouraged to view the website in tandem. Poetry, narrative, and soundscapes (hyperlinks or bone icons) weave throughout the written portion to create a multi-sensory experience that privileges my roots in aural tradition. Together, the performances, website, poetry, and soundscapes constitute roughly thirty percent of the final thesis, weighing more heavily on a written portion of seventy percent. Listener/readers are encouraged to experience the written and multi-media portions in tandem, cycling back and forth in a playful spirit as the next step of creative practice: listener participation. Please enter this project with the care and excitement invited of all listeners when the storyteller asks, “are you ready to hear a story?”

text: Listening at dawn: Trans* storywork for all my relations This is a love letter to trans* people: a reminder of our place and legacy of trans*formation. In the form of collaborative and ceremonial research, this PhD with creative practice component is an affirmation of embodied, elemental storytelling as a necessary practice for unearthing and grounding the traditional knowledge that Indigenous-Trans* (Indigi-Trans*) people carry within our body-spirits. This creative practice (co)research uplifts liminal states of being, as given to us by our elemental ancestors, in the decolonial project of Indigenous (encompassing Black and Trans*) body-land reclamation and restoration. By recognizing and nourishing the power of the between, this thesis remembers practices of place that are rooted in the body, often our last piece of ancestral land as displaced and diasporic Indigi-Trans* people. Spanning the coasts of Aotearoa-NZ to the west coast of Ixtlán (Turtle Island-US), this creative project listened to the somatic presence of Indigi-Trans* creators (co-researchers) who are in varying states of connection to their ancestral lands and traditions. To account for sudden and extreme shifts in safety and access due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I created online and on-site rituals to sustain connection and retrace our ancestors’ techniques of time and space travel. By engaging with body-awareness practices or ritual performances offered in this project, co-researchers and storytellers were able to experiment with ‘knew’ ways of engaging the ancestral power of place. As a member of the communities contributing to this project, I witnessed an important transformation within co-researchers from a sense of landlessness to a sense of infinite place. This transformation gave co-researchers and storytellers a new source of power, strengthening their spiritual-mental capacity to receive and grow (especially during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic). In a political climate of increasing backlash to trans* and Indigenous sovereignty, this creative project is a unique contribution to the kete, or basket of knowledge that we offer to the coming generations of trans*formational practitioners and scholars.
Situated within the realms of Indigenous, Queer, Xicana and Critical Black Trans* Feminist theories, this creative project also draws upon performance, sound, and poetic practice to hatch another creative methodology that centers place-based ritual. As I created this thesis in a liminal waterscape, crossing back and forth between Aotearoa and Ixtlán, colliding with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, I opened myself to theories generated by the lands that nourished me. Thus, a Kaupapa Māori and Mana Wahine informed approach emerges as the prow of this banka, or canoe that carries other Black, Indigenous and Trans* lineages of scholarship. From this fluid place of theory, my practice as an Indigi-
Trans* ritualist, poet, and sound artist grounds these theories in my body and the body-lands of my co-researchers. Together, we create a Kappi (Ilocano crab motif referencing Maui’s fishing up of our islands) methodology, or the underwater reflections of celestial movement as mapped by Indigi-Trans* freedom strategies. As the co-researchers and storytellers of this project demonstrate, many Indigi-Trans* people are (re)birthing and (re)creating life and possibility just by existing. Our power of place, in body and land, can link and strengthen all Indigenous sovereignty movements when our communities take up the call to foster each person’s fluid potential.
Although this entire project is creative, as a PhD with creative practice component, this project is an ebb and flow of written and other media components. Most of the ‘creative component’ occurred during the co-research stage of this thesis and has been documented via photographs, video, participant testimony, soundscapes, and poetry on a separate, companion website (https://transjoy.cargo.site/). These artifacts of ritual research are also discussed within the harvest (data) section of the written portion, but reader/listeners are encouraged to view the website in tandem. Poetry, narrative, and soundscapes (hyperlinks or bone icons) weave throughout the written portion to create a multi-sensory experience that privileges my roots in aural tradition. Together, the performances, website, poetry, and soundscapes constitute roughly thirty percent of the final thesis, weighing more heavily on a written portion of seventy percent. Listener/readers are encouraged to experience the written and multi-media portions in tandem, cycling back and forth in a playful spirit as the next step of creative practice: listener participation. Please enter this project with the care and excitement invited of all listeners when the storyteller asks, “are you ready to hear a story?”

year: 2023