Qualifications
BA, Monash; Dip. Crim., Univ. of Melbourne; MA, Univ. of Melbourne; PhD, Victoria Univ.

Professional experience
Sally Weller is currently Senior Research Fellow – Regional Economies in the Centre for Strategic Economic Studies. She is an economic geographer interested in the shifting relationships between capital, labour and the State – her research is concerned with developing a spatialized interpretation of the restructuring of the Australian economy. During the 1990s, her focus was the changing nature of the textiles clothing and footwear (TCF) industries, which involved studies of retrenchment, labour market change and industrial restructuring in the context of policy reforms in labour and product markets. This work developed into an interest in the relationships between fashion, globalisation and industrial change. Weller’s doctoral thesis examined the impact of fashion on the global garment production system. More recently, with the support of an ARC APD-ECR Fellowship, her interests have shifted to the restructuring of Australia’s aviation industry and labour market after the collapse of Ansett Airlines. These studies have pioneered the analysis of workers’ career trajectories using discrete time event history analysis – a form of logistic regression that captures the effects of dynamic, time-dependent change in longitudinal datasets. Sally’s work has been influential in the public policy arena, especially the Industry Commission’s 1997 and 2003 deliberations on the future of the Clothing and Textiles industries.

Research interests

• New regionalism
• Labour market change
• Geographies of scale
• New economies – cultural industries and service industries
• Sociologies of work
• International supply chains and networks
• Equity and inequality
• Knowledge and innovation
• Theories of value
• Industrial organisation

Interested in enrolling in a PhD in any of these areas of interest? Contact sally.weller@vu.edu.au

Publications

Books
Webber, M. J. and S. A. Weller (2001). Re-fashioning the Rag Trade: the Internationalisation of the TCF Industries in Australia. Sydney, University of New South Wales Press.
 

Dissertation
Weller, S. A. (2004). Fashion's Influence on Garment Mass Production: Knowledge, Commodities and the Capture of Value. Centre of Strategic Economic Studies. Melbourne, Victoria University, http://eprints.vu.edu.au/top50papers.html (ranked 1st of Top 50 Papers, as of 15 January 2008).
 

Refereed journal articles
Weller, S.A. (2008). "Rethinking the ‘Localness’ of Labour Market Spatiality: Segmentation, and Scale." (forthcoming in Urban Studies) (see working paper version).

Weller, S. (forthcoming 2008). "Transportation and Scale." Economic Geography 84(2): 137-158.

Weller, S.A. (2008). "Relational Geographies Of Power: Critical Events and Shifting Registers of Power". Geoforum, vol 39, no. 1, special issue on Geographies of Power.

Weller, S.A. (2008). "Australia’s Asia-Pacific engagement: Failure or emerging success?" (in revision for Geoforum).

Weller, S. (2008, in press). "Limits to “Global Production Network” metaphors: Fashion’s trans-sectoral synergies." Growth and Change 38(4) (see working paper version).

Weller, S.A. 2007, ‘Strategy and the contested politics of scale: Air transportation in Australia’, Economic Geography, vol. 83 no. 2, pp. 137-58.

Weller, S. (2007). "Power and scale: the shifting geography of industrial relations law in Australia." Antipode 39(5): 896-915.

Weller, S. (2007). "Power and scale: the shifting geography of industrial relations law in Australia." Working Paper 41, Centre for Employment and Labour Relations Law, University of Melbourne. Melbourne, May, at http://celrl.law.unimelb.edu.au/go/publications/centre-publications/working-papers/index.cfm

Weller, S. (2007). "The labour market prospects of older workers: What can a former legal case teach us?" Work Employment and Society 21(3): 417-437 (see working paper version).

Weller, S. (2007). "Fashion as viscous knowledge: fashion's role in shaping trans-national garment production." Journal of Economic Geography 7(1): 39-66 (free access http://joeg.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/7/1/39).

Weller, S. (2007). "Regulating Clothing Outwork: A Sceptic's View." Journal of Industrial Relations 49(1): 67-86 (see working paper version).

Weller, S. (2006). "Fashion as viscous knowledge: fashion's role in shaping trans-national garment production." Journal of Economic Geography advanced access published online, October 2006.

Weller, S. A. (2006). "Networks, commodity chains and crisis: the impact of Fiji's coup on garment production networks." Environment & Planning A 38(7): 1249-67.

Weller, S. (2006). "Service Industries and Asia-Pacific Cities: New Development Trajectories.(Book review)." Economic Geography 82(3): 347-48.

Weller, S. (2005). "Grieg et al's 'Inequality in Australia' (Book Review)." Australian Economic History Review 45(1): 95-96.

Weller, S. and M. Webber (2004). "Ansett airlines employees: A preliminary survey of post-retrenchment outcomes." Economic and Labour Relations Review 14(2): 305-330.

Webber, M. J. and S. A. Weller (2002). "Trade and Inequality: Australia's textile, clothing and footwear industries, 1986-1996." Journal of Economic Geography 1(4): 381-403.

Weller, S. A. (2000). "International competitiveness and export performance: the case of clothing and textiles." Journal of Australian Political Economy 46(December): 71-102.

Weller (2000). "Retrenchment and Industry Policy." Australian Bulletin of Labour 26(2): 147-68.

Weller, S., J. Cussen, et al. (1999). "Casual Employment and Employer Strategy." Labour and Industry 10(1): 15-34.

Weller, S. A. (1999). "Clothing outwork: union strategy, labour regulation and labour market restructuring." Journal of Industrial Relations 41(2): 203-227.

Weller, S. and M. Webber (1999). "Re-employment after retrenchment: evidence from the TCF Industry Study." Australian Economic Review 32(2): 105-29.

Webber, M., S. Weller, et al. (1996). "Participation in Labour Adjustment Assistance." The Economic and Labour Relations Review 7(2): 295 -324.

Book chapters
Weller, S.A, (2009, forthcoming). Retailing, Clothing and Textiles Production in Australia, Berg Encyclopaedia of World Dress and Fashion, London, Berg.

Cawthorne, P. and S. Weller (2004). Fiji's experiment with export-oriented industrialisation: the garment industry before and after the 2000 coup. Eye of the Cyclone: Issues in Pacific Security. I. Molloy. Brisbane, Southern Cross University: 131-143.

Weller, S. A. and M. J. Webber (2001). Precarious Employment and Occupational Change.  Work Rich, Work Poor. J. Borland, B. Gregory and P. Sheehan (eds). Melbourne, Victoria University Press.

Webber, M. J. and S. A. Weller (2001). What happens when you are retrenched from an old, declining industry? The Economic and Social Costs of Unemployment. P. Saunders and R. Taylor (eds). Sydney, Allen and Unwin.

Consultancy reports
Weller, S. (2007). "Power and scale: the shifting geography of industrial relations law in Australia." Working Paper 41, Centre for Employment and Labour Relations Law, University of Melbourne. Melbourne, May, at http://celrl.law.unimelb.edu.au/go/publications/centre-publications/working-papers/index.cfm

Weller, S. (2004). Labour Market Outcomes of Former Ansett Airlines Employees: Second Follow-up Study. Melbourne, Report prepared for the Victorian Department o Treasury and Finance.

Weller, S. (2004). Non-Regulatory Impediments to the Employment of Older Workers. Melbourne, Report prepared for the Victorian Department o Treasury and Finance.

Weller, S. A. and M. J. Webber (2003). Overview of Retrenchment Impacts. Melbourne, Report prepared for the ACTU test case on Redundancy and Termination.

Webber, M. J. and S. A. Weller (2002). Post-Retrenchment Labour Market Experiences of Ansett Worker. Melbourne, Report to the Victorian Government Department of Treasury and Finance.

Webber, M. and S. Weller (2001). The Victorian Labour Market: Overview and Policy Directions. Melbourne, Melbourne Enterprises International.

Weller, S. A. (2000). Overview of the Australian TCF industries. Melbourne, Centre for Strategic Economic Studies.

Weller, S. A. (2000). Clothing Retail in Australia. Melbourne, Centre for Strategic Economic Studies.

Webber, M., S. Weller, et al. (1995). TCF Labour Adjustment Study: Final Report. Melbourne, University of Melbourne.

Conference presentations
Weller S.A. (2007). Critical Events and Labour Mobility: Long-term Outcomes of the Ansett Collapse, Paper presented at the 2007 State of Australian Cities conference, Adelaide, 28-30 November.

Weller, S.A (2007). Industry Restructuring, Mobility and Migration: Australia's Aviation Workforce, Paper presented at the Second Global Conference on Economic Geography, Beijing, 25th-28th June.

Weller, S. A. (2007). Power and Scale: the Geography of Australian IR changes. Seminar presentation: Centre of Employment and Industrial Relations Law, University of Melbourne, 9th March.

Weller, S.A. (2007). Consumption and the future of economic geography, Expert panel, 2007 meeting of the Association of American Geographers, San Francisco, April 17th-21st

Weller, S.A. (2007). Trans-sectoral associations, interconnectedness and value creation, Paper presented at the 2007 meeting of the Association of American Geographers, San Francisco, April 17th-21st

Weller S.A. (2006). Relational Geographies Of Power: Critical Events and Shifting Registers of Power. Paper presented at the 2006 Conference of the RGS-IBG, London, 2nd–5th September.

Weller, S.A. (2006). The Shifting Scalar Geography of Industrial Relations Law in Australia. Paper presented at the Meeting of the International Geographical Union, Brisbane, June.

Weller S.A. (2006). The Corporatisation of Union Strategy: Redefining Activism in Australian Airline Unions. Paper presented at the 2006 Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Chicago, 7th–11th March.

Weller, S.A (2006). What Can Former Ansett Flight Attendants Teach Us about the Labour Market Prospects of Older Workers? Paper Presented at the 2006 Conference of the Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand, Adelaide, 4th–7th February.

Weller S.A (2005). Fashion as a Complex Knowledge. Paper presented at the University of Melbourne Human Geography Seminar, November.

Weller, S.A. (2005). Trans-sectoral synergies and knowledge communities. Paper presented at the RGS-IBG Annual Conference, London, 31st August–2nd September.

Weller, S.A. (2005). Airline Restructuring and Regional Change: the Case of Australian Airlines. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Institute of Australian Geographers, Armidale, NSW, July.

Weller, S. A. (2005). Relationality and Spatiality of Labour Market Processes. Paper presented at the 2005 Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Denver, 3rd–8th March.

Weller, S. A. (2004). Outwork and Industrial Organisation. Paper presented at the “Labour Matters” Workshop, Monash University, Melbourne, 21st–24th November.

Weller, S.A. (2004). Networks and Commodity Chains and Crisis: the Impact of Fiji’s Coup on Garment Production Networks. Paper presented at the 100th Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Philadelphia, March.

Weller S.A. (2003). Intellectual Property and the Hierarchy of Fashion. Paper presented at the New Zealand Geographical Society Conference, Auckland, 6th–9th July.

Weller S.A. (2003). Networks, Chains and Crisis: Fiji's Export-Oriented Industrialisation and the Speight Coup. Paper presented at the School of Anthropology, Geography and Environmental Studies Seminar Series, University of Melbourne, May.

Weller S. A. (2003). Power and Place in Commodity Chains. Paper presented at the 99th Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, New Orleans, 4th–9th March.

Weller S.A. (2003). Follow-up of the Labour Market Destinations of Former Ansett Airlines Employees. Presentation to the Victorian Government Staff Seminar Series: Department of Treasury and Finance, Melbourne, February.

Weller S.A. (2002). Regional Restructuring of the Aviation Industries: the Case of Ansett Airlines. Paper presented to the Geography and Environmental Studies Seminar, Monash University, November.

Weller S.A. (2002). Power, Structures and Commodity Chains. Paper presented at the XVth World Congress of Sociology, Brisbane, 7th–13th July.

Weller S.A. (2002). Behind the Behind the Label Strategy – Clothing Outwork and Industrial Organisation. Paper presented at the Home and Away Workshop, University of Sydney, Sydney, July.

Weller S.A. (2002). Trade Policy, Export Processing and the Political Crisis in Fiji. Paper presented at the 98th Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Los Angeles, 19th–23rd March.

Working papers
Weller, S.A. (2007). The Other Side of Precariousness: The Cost of Job Loss’ CSES Working Paper No. 34, December, Centre for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University, Melbourne.

Weller, S.A. (2007). Beyond “Global Production Networks”: Australian Fashion Week’s Trans-sectoral Synergies, CSES Working Paper No. 33, October, Centre for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University, Melbourne.

Weller, S.A. (2007). Are Labour Markets Necessarily ‘Local’? Spatiality, Segmentation and Scale, CSES Working Paper No. 32, June, Centre for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University, Melbourne.

Weller, S.A. (2006). Discrimination, Labour Markets and the Labour Market Prospects of Older Workers: What Can a Legal Case Teach Us?, CSES Working Paper No. 31, December, Centre for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University, Melbourne.

Weller, S.A. (2005). Regulating Clothing Outwork: A Sceptic’s View, CSES Working Paper No. 30, May, Centre for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University, Melbourne.

Weller, S.A. (2007). Retailing, Clothing and Textiles Production in Australia’ CSES Working Paper No. 29, October, Centre for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University, Melbourne.

Weller, S.A. (2007). Power and Scale: The Shifting Geography of Industrial Relations Law in Australia, CSES Working Paper No. 28, October, Centre for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University, Melbourne.

Weller, S.A. (2007). Beyond “Global Production Networks”: Australian Fashion Week’s Trans-sectoral Synergies, CSES Working Paper No. 27, July, Centre for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University, Melbourne.