Making in the Margins: Socio-cultural Networks, Spatial Pressure, and Planning in Urban Garment Production — The Cases of Buenos Aires and Melbourne

This dissertation puts into dialogue small-scale garment production in Buenos Aires and Melbourne to examine how socio-cultural networks, spatial conditions, and planning regimes shape urban manufacturing geographies. Drawing on interviews, ethnographic observations, and policy analysis, it traces how production is simultaneously embedded in community relations and conditioned by regulatory and spatial pressures. The analysis is organised through four lenses—relational infrastructures, spatial anchoring, growth trajectories, and the politics of visibility—which together illuminate how producers navigate risk, recognition, and spatial constraint. The study offers a relational, situated understanding of small-scale urban production, which sheds light on directions for more equitable planning.