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Humans use space as a lens to navigate and make sense of the world, thus successfully applying spatial concepts is an important life skill. Spatial thinking and developing spatial concepts are core components of school Geography curricula. Teachers teach geographical skills systematically aligning to the curriculum; however, students can struggle to understand and apply some spatial concepts and less is known about how students use conceptual skills in open-ended tasks. Set alongside a larger study (Kriewaldt et al., 2021), this paper reports on how young people were challenged to employ and develop spatial thinking during an open-ended task situated in place. We examine how students approached two challenging geospatial concepts: scale and slope. This article argues that Year 7 students were less consistent and precise in applying scale than the Year 9 cohort, with Year 9 students more advanced in awareness and comprehension of slope than those in Year 7. As well, it points to the actions of teachers to foster the long-term understanding of geographical concepts.

Block mode delivery is widely practised in higher education institutions across the world. It is popular at postgraduate level, such as in business and management fields, but is less common at undergraduate level, especially for studio design teaching. There is a lack of literature on the block mode delivery for studio design teaching. The aim of this paper is to identify the favourable attributes and challenges of the block mode delivery for studio design teaching through the analysis of three undergraduate design studio units at an Australian university as case studies. Students' written feedback of studying these three units were collected and reviewed to evaluate strategies for enhancing student engagement. Challenges of block teaching to students and staff are discussed. The findings suggest that there are various ways to engage with students for active learning in block teaching, which are valuable for curriculum design and continuous improvement.

The profession of urban planning contributes to the design and spatial arrangement of cities, and has been recognized as a key potential facilitator of action on climate change. Yet, there has been limited research to understand if, or how, urban planning students are being educated for climate change competency. This paper investigates the coverage of climate change in the curriculum of professionally accredited urban planning university degrees in Australia. Climate change coverage was assessed across three fields: (1) explicit climate change issues; (2) sustainable urban form issues (e.g. contributing to climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions), and (3) education for sustainability (with links to professional competencies relevant to climate change action). A content analysis was undertaken of: (1) the Planning Institute of Australia's "Policy for the Accreditation of Urban Planning Qualifications," and (2) a sample of nine accredited urban planning degrees. Limited coverage of explicit climate change issues and sustainable urban form issues was found. Coverage of education for sustainability themes (liberal education; civics; interdisciplinarity; cosmopolitism) was stronger. Results indicate that the professional accreditation policy, and the content of urban planning degrees should be revised to include greater coverage of explicit climate change issues.

This paper presents a co-teaching mentor model, which improved the teaching of academics and enhanced student satisfaction and retention. Two research-focused lecturers responsible for first-year units were partnered with a co-teaching mentor to offer guidance on how the content (urban and regional planning) could be delivered more effectively with an emphasis on student engagement and motivation. These two case studies are discussed and the findings demonstrate the effective transfer of teaching awareness and skills through this process. Five key educational theories underpin the substantive changes made to the way that classes were delivered. The applied relevance and transfer of these ideas can be demonstrated in the reflections from the participating staff through a pedagogical analysis of the before and after changes in their teaching practices, and in the improved student evaluation and retention results.

This paper discusses the issues and realities presented by the casualisation of higher education teaching staff. It uses a case study from the University of New South Wales [UNSW] in Sydney Australia. The research presents and analyses perspectives from two key stakeholders in a university [students and academic management] on the use of sessional [also called casual or part-time] teachers in a professional faculty--the Built Environment. The strength of this paper lies in the presentation of the student voice and the reflections of an Associate Dean of Education who is ultimately responsible for ensuring quality learning and teaching in a faculty. Both of these are perspectives that are rarely heard in the current literature on this issue. Although this paper uses an Australian case study, the discussion of the issues and challenges of the casualisation of higher education teaching staff has transcending value to universities and colleges around the world. Questions posed throughout the paper challenge traditional ideas of engaging part-time teachers in universities and thus, by default, set a framework for further study on this contentious practice. (Contains 4 tables.)

This paper explores how neo-liberal education policy change and urban renewal in inner Sydney and London has interacted with "raced" and classed educational identities. I draw on two examples of policy change, the "Building the Future" policy development in the inner city area of Sydney and the "Excellence in Cities" partnership programme in East London. The paper outlines, and applies, a spatial education policy sociology framework to explore the interplay of space, place, "race" and education policy. This paper suggests that in inner Sydney and London "whiteness" as a racial construct is present but noticeably absent and that this absent presence creates a "white veneer" around educational policy change and urban renewal. (Contains 8 notes.)

Work placements (including internships) are common in urban and regional planning education but the relevant literature has largely overlooked their assessment and academic standards. To address this gap, the paper presents a study of this topic undertaken within the Australian context. The research involved systematically scoping the status of work placements in planning education in Australia, and exploring the perspectives of participating educators, practitioners and students on appropriate assessment methods and academic standards. We found significant and problematic divergence in these three key stakeholders' perspectives. The implications of these findings are discussed in a national and international context. The consequent proposition is an approach to assessment and standards that promotes a shared understanding across these key stakeholders.

The six papers in this special issue describe a deep schism in the relationships between research, teaching and practice, with a focus on Australia. There are many reasons why translating urban research and pedagogy into practice has increased in importance in recent years. This introduction provides three negative factors—decreasing funding, relevance and voice—and two more positive factors—the rise of the ‘pracademic’ and increasing social media forms of interaction. The papers describe how the empirical and theoretical foci of planning research are symbiotic, presenting challenges and opportunities for linking practice, teaching and research into positive change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The affinity for tech-driven solutions of 'smart cities' has been critiqued at length, as has the gender disparity in technology firms. This paper draws these literatures together along with our own data on Australia's innovation economy – one that includes its spaces (incubators, accelerators and co-working hubs), events ('hackathons'), and places (innovation districts). These three components are ubiquitous among smart city strategies across all levels of government. In this paper we examine the gendered landscape of the innovation economy and the strategic urban agenda to which it is tied. The paper draws on data collected through interviews conducted with women entrepreneurs around their experiences in Australia's innovation economy. Drawing from policy documents and further interviews, our discussion mirrors their vignettes with an examination of the three innovation economy components using case studies from Australian smart city planning. In doing so, we illuminate how the gendered experiences of women in the innovation economy are entwined with the smart urbanism imperatives of high-growth, technology-focus, and the attraction of 'talent'. Existing attempts to grapple with discrimination in the innovation economy are shown to reinforce gendered hierarchies, resulting in 'smart cities' designed for men. We argue that the gendered nature of the tech industries that underpin the innovation economy has implications for who the smart city is for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing student perceptions and opinions of their university education is now standard in quality assurance processes for learning and teaching. In Australia, the Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) has been institutionalised as a national survey of graduand opinion and is used as the key indicator of tertiary teaching quality. A little-used variant called the Work Experience Questionnaire (WEQ) provides an adaptation to the specific case of work-based learning. Work-based learning is a vital component of many professional degrees. It is a staple of urban planning education and yet there are few reported evaluations of specific student learning experiences. This paper illustrates the utility of the WEQ methodology when applied to codify the views of undergraduate urban planning students following a "sandwich year" of industry training. The specific results are discussed and the wider implications of the model are assessed. (Contains 3 tables.)

Copyright of Urban Policy & Research is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Urban Policy & Research is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Smart infrastructure is positioned as central to the liveability and viability of rural and regional towns in Australia. The Australian Government's Smart Cities Plan and Regional Connectivity Program includes Smart Investment in regional areas and the New South Wales Government has prioritised connectivity and telecommunications infrastructural development through the Regional Digital Connectivity program. And yet regional and rural communities are typically excluded from the evidence base for smart technologies and services. Local Aboriginal Land Councils are also important stakeholders in managing the digital processes associated with information and infrastructure moving across different Countries. This paper draws on data from the 'It just works!': Regional and rural consumer understandings of smart technologies in North West New South Wales project, including over 130 survey responses and interviews with shire councillors, land councillors, and consumers on smart development and Internet infrastructure in the region. In the areas surveyed, smart regional policy is variously emerging, non‐existent, or assembled from existing policy domains and regulation involving the Internet, telecommunications, regional development, First Nations, and local government. We argue that regional and rural understandings of growth and development are experienced through the infrastructuring processes of Internet quality, availability, and speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a discussion paper of the Biodiversity Position Statement by the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA), which has been created to provoke input and discussion from members into the Biodiversity Position Statement. It relies on the submission of the PIA June 2009 on the National Biodiversity Strategy draft. In the October 2008 submission to the Inquiry into the Environment Protection Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 operation, PIA states that development of cities can be a threat to ecological communities and endangered species in Australia and that the role played by planning in the management of urban development is critical. It says that biodiversity underpins the well-being of people and the challenge is to search and have a better relation with the land.

The Australian Government's attempts at national urban policy have been sporadic and inconsistent, under the constraints of constitutional, financial, ideological and political factors. This paper concerns the recent resurgence of national urban policy under the rubric of "smart cities" adopted by the Turnbull Government and carried on by the incumbent Morrison Government. It investigates how this round of smart cities agenda articulates with Australia's political tradition of national urban policy to seek continuity and change, through comparing historical policies, unpacking major smart cities programmes, identifying explanatory factors and critically commenting on its innovation and legacy. Drawing upon these analyses, this paper argues that understanding the smart cities agenda needs to move beyond the political, ideological "to‐and‐fro" pendulum to national urban policy observed in history. Rather, it resonates with a globalised policy norm established upon the city‐based global integration and competition, driven by an imperative of transitioning to a knowledge economy and pursuing innovation capacity. It is too early to judge whether the smart cities agenda will bring changes to Australian cities in the way it wishes, since it involves long‐term infrastructure investment and urban development projects. However, a comprehensive and consistent national urban policy to govern the Australian system of cities and towns has not been established yet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the relationship between economic openness, development and urbanisation in sustainable ecosystems. The investigation is based on the balanced panel data for QUAD countries from 1991 to 2019. By using PMG-ARDL, this paper follows affiliation amid sustainability and openness. The results reported indicate the existence of an encouraging association between sustainability and urbanisation both in the case of Australia and India. The ECT value for all the panels is negative and noteworthy, confirming the existence of short-term affiliation too. The granger causality analysis also reveals that in the case of the US and India, there existed bidirectional causation amid sustainability and urbanisation. Knowing well that the countries are party to the “Kyoto Protocol and Paris agreement”, but there is still a necessity to preserve and promote the impetus concerning sustainability in arousing inclusive awareness concerning the realisation of sustainable ecosystems. More so, subsidising schemes and promoting awareness programmes are recommended, such as incentivising sustainable urban planning and green power purchase agreement and adoption of green bonds for energy infrastructure needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities are under intensifying pressure to respond to climate change and growing social inequities. Integrating nature-based solutions, as part of essential city infrastructure, contributes to resilient, liveable and equitable cities, as well as provision of biodiversity habitat. There is increasing focus on how concepts of justice can be embedded in these planning and governance processes. This paper proposes a framework to inform planning for just nature-based cities. It brings together concepts of just city, environmental and climate justice and more-than-human thinking, with research on urban nature-based solutions. It highlights the centrality of epistemic justice, and the importance of Traditional Ecological Knowledge in just nature-based city planning and governance. The just nature-based city framework is applied to the case study of the Yarra River (Melbourne, Australia). In 2017, the Yarra River Protection (Wilip-gin Birrarung murron) Act, the first legislation in Australia to be co-titled in the Traditional Owners' language, legally recognised the river as a single living and integrated natural entity. Applying the just nature-based city framework, we find that there are both opportunities and challenges in this new approach to planning. While the Act and associated programs represent substantial and innovative advances, their scope is limited by exclusion of key policy domains and a focus on waterway corridor rather than catchment. The paper concludes by reinforcing the importance of a broadened understanding of justice, that spans both human and non-human considerations, and foregrounds Traditional Owners' perspectives and aspirations in designing, planning and governing just nature-based cities. • 'Just nature-based cities' integrate theories of just cities, nature-based solutions and epistemic justice. • The 'just nature-based city' framework can be applied as both a planning and an analytical tool. • Yarra River-Birrarung is a case study of new approaches to just nature-based city governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing number of cities around the world have now developed urban digital strategies to speed up the pace of change, and more importantly to move their digital planning and policymaking from ad-hoc to an integrated and strategic approach. The paper provides a cross-national comparative study, based on recently developed urban digital strategies in Brisbane, Australia and Vancouver, Canada. The aim is to understand if and how urban digital strategies align with broader strategic planning in the two cities. To do so, the paper combines policy analysis with interviews of a selection of stakeholders in both cities. The lessons learned can be transferred to all cities interested in integrated digital planning for successful strategic urban outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how particular interests shape urban policy debate and reform in Australia. With a particular emphasis on proposed planning system reforms in the nation's largest state of New South Wales, we examine written submissions from development industry sectors, resident groups, and professional associations. We then compare these submissions to government responses, finding these responses heavily reflect industry narratives. In the context of an ongoing microeconomic reform agenda oriented towards deregulation and competition policy, housing development is framed as central to delivering economic growth, while the planning system is portrayed as a constraint holding back investment and new housing production. Through this prism, a series of rhetorical strategies reframe community concerns about housing affordability and the impact of new development to fit the growth agenda, while environmental and social considerations are largely sidelined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New digital and remote work practices challenge city planning and urban design as they move economic activities from city centres to residential suburbs. Little is known about the spatial impact of these new work patterns on suburbia. This paper addresses this knowledge gap through a design charrette conducted in the City of Gold Coast, Australia. Despite often working individually, remote workers favour design interventions that facilitate a transformation of suburbia towards multi-use. Urban design strategies supporting new work practices in residential neighbourhoods can enable better collaboration and innovation, create new opportunities for third spaces, and unlock a city's competitive advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Urban Policy & Research is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Despite academic and practitioner debate surrounding public involvement in planning, little is actually known about the extent to which the public is aware of the planning process. The focus of this paper is the examination of the underlying, latent public knowledge of the planning system in Australia. This latent knowledge (or more accurately, the absence of this knowledge) emerges as a barrier to public involvement. This paper examines public perceptions of the importance of metropolitan and local strategic plans, knowledge of these plans, the main sources of this knowledge, and the extent to which the public is likely to become involved with strategic planning process. The paper concludes that despite large segments of the population viewing strategic planning as important, only a small proportion is actually aware of the plans themselves, while an even smaller proportion is likely to become involved in the planning process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through a comparative study of political activism in Millers Point, Dawes Point, and The Rocks in Sydney from 1971 to 1974 and from 2014 to 2017, this paper examines the more‐than‐human force of bodies and buildings in redemocratising cities. The paper brings theoretical insights from urban assemblage and Deleuzian scholarship into dialogue with post‐political theory. In doing so, it shifts the focus in urban political geography from a concern with diverse social groups to the political potential in more‐than‐human assemblages. Through a re‐reading of Sydney's Green Bans in Millers Point, Dawes Point, and The Rocks, the paper first shows how the withdrawal of labour and stilled building sites comprise informal pathways of planning rejection that centralise social and ecological concerns in decision‐making in urban development. That first case is then contrasted with the contemporary case of privatisation and displacement at the same sites, showing how aged bodies can energise latent deliberative spaces across diverse (if repressed) institutions in liberal democracies. Given the capacities of materials and bodies to produce planning outcomes, the paper conceptualises planning as a more‐than‐human process enhanced by immersion in the experimental materialism of political movements—and this materialism is inherently geographical. The paper concludes with my reflecting on whether the proximity of workers and residents to the materials of the built environment in social movement activism of the 1970s intensified the reach of the event compared with the uncertain struggle over Millers Point today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing body of literature suggests that the segregation of infrastructure and urban/regional planning is at the root of contemporary problems facing many of the world's metropolitan areas. More recently, the introduction of new telecommunication infrastructure highlights the invisible borders that exist within critical infrastructure that provide advantages to some areas such as transportation and disadvantages to others. This paper attempts to understand the nature of inter-sectoral and intra-sectoral borders across infrastructure in Australia and the US. It examines the sometimes contradicting market-led vs. government-led models adopted in the two countries to deliver broadband communications and transportation. The findings identify similarities and differences between the two countries, and reiterate that in order to achieve social equity, and enhance the provision of infrastructure to non-profitable areas, government intervention is required. The paper concludes with a call for performance-based policies that go beyond traditional borders in an effort to better address the contemporary wicked planning problems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper seeks to better understand the possible paradox of frontrunners in experimental climate governance. This paradox refers to the situation where frontrunners are required to push boundaries in terms of developing governance innovations and to experiment with these, but where, at the same time, a too strong focus on frontrunners may result in a situation where lessons from these experiments and the innovations developed do not resonate with the majority. In such a situation, an innovation may not be capable of being scaled up or of being transferred to another context. This paper draws lessons from a series of nine experimental and innovative governance instruments for low-carbon building development and transformation in Australia. It points out that for these instruments the frontrunners paradox provides a partial explanation as to why they have not yet been able to scale up from a small group of industry leaders to the large majority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper brings together two disparate but critical bodies of literature about contemporary citizen participation in the Australian city: transport politics and post-politics. The argument is advanced that state and citizen actor relations--as they exist in the governance and management of Australian urban transport--have taken on characteristics of post-politics. By conceiving of citizen participation in this manner, new ways of understanding it are generated and it is possible to appreciate how such participation is shaped by state actors both across time and in response to the politicisation of transport proposals. The paper illustrates the extent to which citizen engagement has become a new focal point in transport politics, particularly given citizens' capacities to politicise proposals and transport trajectories. It achieves such ends by drawing upon key-informant interviews conducted between 2013 and 2016 with public transport advocates, select resident groups, and local and state level planning officials from Melbourne, Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities all over the world have activated policy support for urban consolidation in recent decades. Rationales for urban consolidation focus on its perceived ability to achieve sustainability goals, including decreased automobile dependence, increased social cohesion and greater walkability. Despite this, there are few international examples of urban consolidation policy implementation that has achieved its stated aims. This paper explores the nature and character of perceptions of urban consolidation held by urban planners, developers, architects and local politicians. The perspectives held by these ‘city shapers’ are integral to urban consolidation debates and delivery, yet the nature and character of their specific views are underexplored in urban studies literature. This paper combines the theoretical lens of Social Representations Theory with the methodological approach of Q-methodology to understand the common sense understandings of urban consolidation held by city shapers in Brisbane, Australia. It identifies, synthesises and critically discusses the social representations employed by city shapers to understand, promote and communicate about urban consolidation. Findings indicate that urban consolidation debates and justifications diverge significantly from stated policy intentions and are based on differing views on ‘good’ urban form, the role of planning and community consultation and the value of higher density housing. We conclude that there is utility and value in identifying how urban consolidation strategies are influenced by the shared beliefs, myths and perceptions held by city shapers. Understanding these narratives and their influence is fundamental to understanding the power-laden manipulation of policy definitions and development outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, architecture in mining settlements often acted as a measure of wealth, as if to arouse confidence and longevity in places with an infamously brief lifespan. Arguably, recent planning for upgraded town centres in the Pilbara region of Western Australia has similarly employed urban form to provide reassurance to current and potential future residents of these settlements. Using Karratha, the largest urban centre in the Pilbara, as a case study, this paper explores the ways in which urban form has been used to further a narrative of longevity through references to traditional cities characterized by urban density, spatial delineation and economic diversification. While only six years has elapsed since the launch of a plan to guide Karratha’s transformation from a town into a city, the current mining downturn highlights the limits of urban design interventions in relation to broader issues facing the mining industry. The paper concludes by pointing to the implications of such urban design efforts for the development of cities in Northern Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New development often necessitates upgrading existing - or constructing entirely new - infrastructure. It is generally acknowledged that developers should bear a portion of these costs. However, exactly what constitutes a fair and efficient mechanism for the levying of development contributions is disputed and poorly understood, reflected by significant variation between user-pays contribution systems in Australia. After briefly detailing the current framework in each state, this paper evaluates each with respect to a set of good practice principles, and on this basis, outlines several pathways towards improvement. Key issues identified include the prohibitive complexity of current cost apportionment methods, inadequate measures to prevent councils from levying for non-essential projects, and a lack of developer certainty with respect to levy particulars. It is argued that measures to counter these system imbalances should include the reservation of full cost apportionment to significant development only, the pursuit of more transparent and robust apportionment methods using modern modelling capabilities, greater emphasis on leviable item lists, and the restriction of items contained therein to those objectively essential for development. Ultimately, this paper highlights both points of failure and avenues for improvement within the patchwork of Australian contribution systems, helping to inform the debate surrounding developer levies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many different claims about the planning system and its impact on development and the wider economy are made by different interest groups, particularly in the context of planning system reform. This paper uses discourse analysis to examine claims made by New South Wales (NSW) Treasury in response to proposals for a new planning system in NSW. The analysis shows that many claims are based on questionable evidence consistent with a wider ideological critique of the planning system, rather than examining which specific aspects of the planning system are generating particular problems, or whether previous reforms enacted over the past decade in NSW have proved effective. Instead, the tendency is to present generalised criticism of planning supported by tenuous links to development trends, undermining prospects for effective and positive planning system reform. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Australia's natural capital is under growing cumulative pressure from land use change and intensive agriculture, fishery, forestry, and urban sprawl. This consequently reduces the benefits and services that it provides. This paper firstly assessed how current trends of land-use change have an impact on the natural capital loss in South Victoria, Australia during 2006-2016. Then in order to increase natural capital inherent value and to ensure that natural capital is multifunctional, a system of Blue-Green Infrastructure is designed within the current natural capital of Tarwin Lower, in Victoria. Given that natural capital area is declining in Australia, incorporating designed elements into existing natural capital to create multifunctional natural capital, enables maximising the supply and value of ecosystem services in order to meet the demands of a growing population. Here, three ecosystem services (stormwater abatement, water quality improvement, and water supply services) were compared in terms of existing natural capital or with integrated Blue-Green Infrastructure elements to create multifunctional natural capital system. The results indicate that planning Blue-Green Infrastructure will enhance multiple aspects of regional sustainability and resilience in the Tarwin catchment and will maximise the multifunctionality of the natural capital. Finally, the paper simulates the cost-benefit analysis for the implementation of Blue-Green Infrastructure to show that it is a cost-effective and sustainable solution to cope with the current demographic, economic and agricultural trends, which affect natural capital. This paper confirms that in order to provide ecosystem services for extra demands of growing inhabitants, Blue-Green Infrastructure networks require to be extended in the Victoria State of Australia to compensate natural capital and ecosystem service losses due to the regional and urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia's cities and regions are the envy of the world for their natural beauty and lifestyle amenities and attractions. Not only has this sustained the tree-change and sea-change movement, with broadband connectivity and the COVID-19 pandemic so-called 'e-changers' and 'flee-changers' are part of the populus seeking to combine career aspirations with lifestyle destinations. This paper discusses the growing popularity of remote, particularly home-based work, and planning and design responses that accommodate this type of work in residential neighbourhoods. The issues are exemplified through a case study of the City of Gold Coast drawing on mixed methods including survey instruments and a design charrette facilitated by the authors. The design charrette is reported via three integrative narratives of a remote worker, the neighbourhood and the city. Findings outline preferences of remote workers towards built environment and urban design features enabling collaboration and knowledge exchange and assist in a better understanding of the socio-economic factors behind the spatial distribution of home-based work. The study's findings offer a range of implications for appropriate urban planning and design responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent international trends towards urban consolidation, intended to reduce outward urban sprawl by concentrating growth within existing neighbourhoods, can cause contention in cities. Understanding how the mass media represents urban consolidation can lead to more informed and democratic planning practices. This paper employs Social Representations Theory to identify and understand representations of urban consolidation in newspaper media. The theory recognises that the media is a key purveyor of public discourse and can reflect, shape or suppress ideas circulating in society. This novel approach has not previously been applied to understanding social representations of urban consolidation strategies in the mass media. The rapidly growing and changing city of Brisbane, Australia, is utilised as a case study. Brisbane is situated in South East Queensland, the fastest growing region in Australia, and is governed by regional and local planning policies that strongly support increased densities in existing urban areas. Findings from a quantitative textual analysis of 449 articles published in Brisbane newspapers between 2007 and 2014 reveal key clusters and classes of co-occurring words that represent dominant social representations apparent in the newspaper corpus. The paper provides two key conclusions. The first is that social representations occurring in mass media represent an important source of information about ‘common sense’ understandings and evaluations of urban consolidation debates. The second is that urban consolidation is represented as a multifaceted issue, including interrelated themes of housing, sustainable population growth, investment strategies and the interplay between politics and planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As urban planners focus on creating more sustainable cities, there is an increasing need to plan for other species. Found in around 40% of Australian households, dogs have a growing, legitimate presence in urban culture and society. Dogs however remain a neglected subject of urban planning scholarship and practice. This paper critically examines the practice of strategic planning as it applies to dogs in the urban context of Melbourne, Australia. Through a narrative of the institutional voices of practising strategic planners and other institutional discourse of local government, this paper provides a critical examination of how strategic planners shape – and limit – the concern of urban planning. This paper provides a deeply critical glimpse into the modus operandi of the strategic planner negotiating controversy on planning’s frontier. Institutional ontology is shown to dominate any efforts of strategic planners to effect change to urban planning’s field of concern.ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHERCopyright of Australian Planner is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban planning and the development system are mechanisms that can provide affordable housing and alleviate the cost of housing. This paper explores the use of a specific response to housing affordability and delivery of affordable housing in Queensland through the introduction of a statutory land authority, the Urban Land Development Authority (ULDA). It provides a narrative review of an important time in Queensland’s planning and development history. The introduction of the ULDA was significant as it represents the first time that Queensland planning saw the introduction of planning-related legislation that could require affordable housing. Even more extraordinary was that the deliverables (affordable housing) sat outside the mainstream planning legislation of the time. Additionally, the establishment of the ULDA represents the first statutory land authority responsible for planning and development in Queensland. While similar authorities have been operational in many States since at least 1974, this was never the case in Queensland, but the Queensland response of the ULDA was unique in Australia in terms of its powers and structure. This paper considers that despite such extraordinary powers, the outcomes of the ULDA were not as effective as originally anticipated. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As urban planners focus on creating more sustainable cities, there is an increasing need to plan for other species. Found in around 40% of Australian households, dogs have a growing, legitimate presence in urban culture and society. Dogs however remain a neglected subject of urban planning scholarship and practice. This paper critically examines why urban planners exclude dogs as subjects of their plans through the voices of practising strategic planners in the urban context of Melbourne, Australia. This paper characterises planning as being governed by two dimensions – the ontological and epistemological – and finds that the actions of planners in excluding dogs from consideration concerns the functioning of their ontologies of gatekeeper and practitioner as they negotiate and reshape the frontier of planning and its field of concern. The importance of anthropocentrism in governing how planners exclude dogs from planning in practice is shown to be profound. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

At present, certain paradoxes and fears related to food are observable in Australian urban planning. Despite general affluence, concerns have arisen in planning discourse around food scarcity, and more specifically, ‘food security’. This paper examines two key ways in which food security has been conceptualised within public debates in relation to urban planning: (1) food security and urban and peri-urban agriculture; and, (2) food security as consumer access to food, and particularly ‘healthy food’. It then goes on to develop arguments that these two dimensions of food security discourse can be seen, respectively, as an aspect of planning's management of risk in the context of uncertainty, and as an aspect of the management of freedom within liberal polities. In addressing such questions, the paper discusses the interplay of ongoing tensions between scarcity, fear, and affluence, certain normative values around food production within urban planning thought and practice, and effective planning strategy within liberal polities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and purpose: Two hubs are designated to provide endovascular clot retrieval (ECR) for the State of Victoria, Australia. In an earlier study, Google Maps application programming interface (API) was used to perform modeling on the combination of hospitals optimizing for catchment in terms of current traveling time and road conditions. It is not known if these findings would remain the same if the modeling was performed with a large-scale transport demand model such as Victorian Integrated Transport Model (VITM). This model is developed by the Victorian State Government Transport has the capability to forecast travel demand into the future including future road conditions which is not possible with a Google Maps based applications. The aim of this study is to compare the travel time to potential ECR hubs using both VITM and the Google Maps API and model stability in the next 5 and 10 years. Methods: The VITM was used to generate travel time from randomly generated addresses to four existing ECR capable hubs in Melbourne city, Australia (i.e., Royal Melbourne Hospital/RMH, Monash Medical Center/MMC, Alfred Hospital/ALF, and Austin Hospital/AUS) and the optimal service boundaries given a delivering time threshold are then determined. Results: The strategic transport model and Google map methods were similar with the R 2 of 0.86 (peak and off peak) and the Nash-Sutcliffe model of efficiency being 0.83 (peak) and 0.76 (off-peak travel). Futures modeling using VITM found that this proportion decreases to 82% after 5 years and 80% after 10 years. The combination of RMH and ALF provides coverage for 74% of cases, 68% by 5 years, and 66% by 10 years. The combination of RMH and AUS provides coverage for 70% of cases in the base case, 65% at 5 years, and 63% by 10 years. Discussion: The results from strategic transport model are similar to those from Google Maps. In this paper we illustrate how this method can be applied in designing and forecast stroke service model in different cities in Australia and around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an index for measuring experiential qualities (EQs) of urban public spaces through users' perspective. The index is underpinned by interrelated qualities of comfort, diversity and vitality, inclusiveness, and image and likeability. It is then applied to two public spaces in the Australian city of Brisbane: Queen Street Mall and South Bank Parklands. The index extends the user-centred measuring tools and can be used by practitioners, authorities and scholars to highlight users' needs and concerns. Findings from case spaces revealed deficiencies and provided a deeper insight into EQs through integrating urban design qualities, perception and management measuring items. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In 2017 the number of refugees arriving in Australia was double the intake of previous decades. In 2015 the Australian Government provided an additional 12,000 humanitarian visas specifically to Syrian and Iraqi refugees. While Australia has a robust predominantly urban system designed to settle refugees who have a high level of need, the same services may not be well suited or available to the Syrian population who are being encouraged to settle in rural and regional areas. This paper draws on empirical research that documents issues affecting Syrian refugee settlement and builds on existing research to identify keys to successful and ethical regional settlement policy. Initial findings suggest high levels of social capital but limited opportunities for employment and education are thwarting settlement efforts. We argue for working in partnership and promoting ethical social work values to address the challenges facing these newly arrived communities. Social workers and human service educators and practitioners in this space must adapt to the rapidly changing service delivery system. Working alongside refugees, in this case Syrian people, requires both co-production and transparency in order to shift perceptions of their vulnerability and lack of agency in order to foster agency and self-determination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an alternative strategy for delivering urban infill development in suburban contexts. The paper contends that the combination of upgraded streetscapes and residential densification could result in positive synergies. These include the supply of open space amenity as an incentive for resident groups to support infill development that achieves greater than usual residential densities. The capacity of this approach is tested in a research by design exercise in an Australian greyfield suburb that has high infill development targets and expansive yet typically poorly utilized street reserves. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines policy debates and empirical evidence on housing demand, supply and affordability in Australia, focusing specifically on the most populous Australian state of New South Wales (NSW). Drawing on government reports, ministerial speeches and policy documents produced over the period 2003-2014, as well as on housing market trends, the policy analysis and empirical data presented in the paper suggests that the 'planning system is constraining housing supply' narrative has served to distract from other government interventions which influence affordable housing development. Further, in contrast to the perceptions of planning as a 'constraint' to new housing supply, the empirical analysis suggests that the NSW planning system appears well able to adjust to increases in housing demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Town, social and community planning are among a broad suite of planning pathways widely understood as aiming to ensure development and associated social change is in the interest of the ‘public good’. While there are convergences in these planning approaches, they also diverge in multiple ways, including in understandings of who legitimate players are, and how planning gives voice to the knowledge and interests of such players. In this paper, we map the similarities and differences of these planning approaches in the Australian context, considering the philosophical and praxis underpinnings of each. While divergence in the knowledge, mandate and institutional legitimacy of each approach is highlighted, the extent to which they are unified in a commitment to people and ecology is also considered. Given the constraints imposed by neoliberal ideology, this paper argues there is some urgency to reposition planning approaches. We argue that converging foundational interests need to be considered and attention paid to the energetic community-based coalitions that are forming to empower communities in planning. This will ensure the continued relevance of all three planning approaches in the creation of a fair and environmentally responsible Australia – historically core mandates for all planning praxis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically considers Carmona’s Place-shaping Continuum in the context of Cairns in tropical north Australia to explore the model’s applicability across different cultures and contexts. Drawing from context analysis and interviews withknowingandunknowingurban designers, this research uses a critical policy lens to consider how the process of designing the cityforuse might apply in Cairns, a regional, tropical city quite different from where Carmona’s model of urban design was developed from. Results indicate that in Cairns, the geopolitical, economic, environmental and cultural contexts continue to influence how things are done in the city; there is little to distinguishknowingandunknowingurban designers from one another; and that whilst urban designers consider themselves to have a role in the urban design process, few assume ownership of the process. The paper concludes that Carmona’s context elements ofplace, polityandpowerare fundamentally important in the application of the model in research practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of the Australian National Broadband Network (NBN) in 2009 raised questions about the potentials of the telecommunications infrastructure for Australian urban and regional planning. The recent decision by the Australian Federal Government to build the NBN, using a mix of technologies, has intensified the need to investigate the implications of telecommunications at the local level, as Australian local governments then need to respond differently based on the level of access provided in each case. The paper investigates such implications in the three areas of e-governance, socioeconomic development, and spatial planning. Building upon the international literature, and empirical data collected from the Australian local governments, it analyzes a raft of mostly unscrutinized policy initiatives developed, over the last few years, to guide the early rollout. The findings show some policy development regarding the socioeconomic implications of the new infrastructure, limited understanding of e-governance potentials, and lagging policy focus on spatial planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concern for urban design in Australia and its role in the creation of urban environments have increased and matured over the last decades. Placing a focussed lens on Australia, this paper aims at analysing Urban Design Guidelines (UDGs) through the three pillars of sustainability. This study set out to identify gaps in the existing UDGs at three governmental levels (national, state/territory and local) and offers avenues for future research and guideline development. This study implies that despite the abundance of guidelines, a major shift is needed to enhance the efficiency of UDGs in delivering a sustainable living environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of digital disparities have focused on socio-spatial differences across neighbourhoods, regions and other kinds of places, but the same place can produce different experiences of connectivity, a phenomenon labelled 'variable geometries of connection' by Crang, Crosbie and Graham (2006: 2551) [2006. Crang, M., Crosbie, T., & Graham, S. Variable geometries of connection: Urban digital divides and the uses of information technology. Urban Studies, 43(13), 2551–2570]. In this paper, I draw on research on the role of mobile phones and the internet for people experiencing homelessess in Australia to suggest that dependence on smartphones for access to information and communication when homeless, in combination with the design and regulation of urban spaces, structures the mobilities of homeless young people, resulting in distinctive connectivity needs and barriers. Homeless young people overcome many of their immediate difficulties of digital access through practices of 'survival infrastructuring', a term I propose to describe the practices of marginalised actors to make their media work in the face of uneven, precarious and costly connectivity. Highlighting these connectivity experiences and practices may help efforts to take action on digital exclusion and assist homeless young people by taking into account differential access needs within specific spatial and social contexts. I make this argument drawing on findings from two studies carried out between 2014 and 2016 on the access and use of the internet and mobile phones among homeless Australians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2012, a planning application for a McDonald's ‘convenience restaurant’ in Tecoma, Melbourne's Dandenong Ranges region, was approved at Victoria's planning tribunal. Although generating a high-profile backlash, the Tecoma McDonald's was far from being Australia's, Victoria's, or even the immediate region's first to encounter a campaign of place-protective opposition. The Tolstoy truism holds that ‘every happy family is alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way’. Franchised ‘family restaurants’ are premised on and perhaps defined by being recognisable alike. Yet as Massey argues, seemingly aspatial phenomena are always mediated by local context. This paper argues that local statutory planning has been central to the expansion of fast food chains, with globalisation tending to be accompanied by increasingly defensive legal boundaries. To demonstrate this, the paper explores a group of fast food outlets that experienced some form of local ‘unhappiness’ – 37 planning appeals involving opposition to fast food outlets in Victoria over 1969–2012. The paper explores how planning provisions applicable to fast food developments have shifted and how these shifts, in turn, have determined the permissible boundaries of planning decisions around them. Hall once reported finding himself describing the containment of urban England in ‘terminology appropriate to boxing or all-in wrestling’ (90). Here I borrow Hall's boxing analogy by suggesting six boxing-inspired rules, codified over time, applicable to the Tecoma McDonald's. These statutory details resemble the legal and physical boundaries within which, in boxing, blows are landed – but always by the book. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In Australia, as in other Western countries, peri-urban farmland is increasingly being considered a public good, contributing to urban sustainability and climate change mitigation. To retain local food production, advocates have called for the implementation of farmland protection policies that restrict urban development, such as exclusion zoning. Many such policies have been abandoned due to protests, often from the very people the policies are ostensibly intended to protect - farmers. Examining the failure of Sydney's latest 'green zones' through a political ecology lens, this paper challenges the prevailing narrative that these protests indicate a lack of community support for the ideal of farmland protection. The failure of the green zones was one of political process, specifically the lack of consultation with Sydney's culturally and linguistically diverse small-scale farmers, rather than community rejection of the principle of protection. Interview responses from farmers suggest that a bottom-up approach to policy-making would have yielded alternative and more successful approaches to maintaining farming on the fringe. This paper concludes that ensuring small-scale farmers have access to and agency in the environmental decision-making process generates options for farmland protection policy that move beyond a housing-versus-farming dichotomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]