Local Government Adaptation for Dispersed Cald Ageing Communities

Responding to Demographic Misfit

Bibliographic Data

ID17660629
AuthorsBingqin Li (0000-0003-2240-0876, UNSW Sydney, corresponding author), Yiran Li (0000-0001-6547-5574, UNSW Sydney), Alan Morris (0000-0001-7652-5370, University of Technology Sydney), Ilan Katz (0000-0001-9002-0205, UNSW Sydney)
Year2026
Volume44
Issue1
Pages34-50
Publication date2026-01-02
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueUrban Policy and Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0811-1146 • E-ISSN: 1476-7244
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/08111146.2026.2650435
OpenAlexW7150791265
LanguageEN
References cited12

Local councils in New South Wales are central to supporting culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) residents, yet many populations are spatially dispersed across local government boundaries. Drawing on interviews with staff across six councils in Greater Sydney and analysis of policy and governance documents, this study examines how place-based systems respond to dispersed older Chinese-speaking communities. We show that while participation develops through cross-boundary networks, formal governance instruments remain territorially bounded. This produces three forms of demographic misfit: instrumental, where funding privileges place-bound activities over enabling functions; territorial, where eligibility is tied to residency despite cross-boundary participation; and temporal, where short funding cycles undermine continuity. Councils respond through discretionary adaptations, including repurposing libraries, informal communication networks, and reliance on bilingual staff as brokers. These practices enable participation but remain fragile, as they depend on individual effort rather than institutionalised support. The paper advances demographic misfit as a framework for understanding how dispersed populations become less visible within territorially organised systems. Although centred on Chinese-speaking residents, the analysis has broader relevance for other dispersed CALD and marginalised communities whose participation extends across council boundaries

Ageing · Local adaptation · Local government · Public policy · demographic modeling and climate adaptation · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving · Migration, Aging, and Tourism Studies

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access