Conference

8th State of Australian Cities National Conference, 28-30 November 2017, Adelaide, Australia

Owning Institution

The State of Australian Cities (SOAC) national conferences have been held biennially since 2003 to support interdisciplinary policy-related urban research. SOAC 2017 was jointly hosted in Adelaide by the University of South Australia, the University of Adelaide and Flinders University.

Refereed papers at SOAC 2017 were organized across the seven well-established themes of Economy, Environment, Governance, Structure, Movement and Infrastructure, Housing and Social, and Health. There were also three significant plenary panel sessions on Housing Affordability, Urban Resilience and the continuing challenge of achieving more productive relationships between academic researchers and urban policymakers.

Papers from all past and subsequent SOAC conferences can be found at the State of Australian Cities Conferences Collection on APO.

Conference paper

Male, stale and pale? Gender representation in metropolitan local government in Western Australia

18 Jun 2018

Paul J. Maginn,

Fiona Haslam McKenzie,

Ben Radford,

Jacquie Hutchinson

8th State of Australian Cities National Conference, 28-30 November 2017, Adelaide, Australia

This paper explores the historical and contemporary socio-spatial patterns of political representation across the various local government areas within the Perth metropolitan region. In particular, analysis is focused on the gendered composition of (i) candidates who stand for local government elections; (ii) those elected as local councillors; and (iii) those who hold the highest office...

Conference paper

Harness the ‘love’ – using social connections to re-frame how we manage urban nature reserves

18 Jun 2018

Kathryn Eyles

8th State of Australian Cities National Conference, 28-30 November 2017, Adelaide, Australia

Australian cities are increasingly important for the conservation of threatened species and their habitat, supporting more species per unit area than non-urban regions. Canberra is a case in point with its existing suburbs and greenfield developments occurring alongside nationally threatened ecological communities and species in the urban reserve network, Canberra Nature Park. At the same...

Conference paper

Healthy built environments and strategic planning: the role of discourse

18 Jun 2018

8th State of Australian Cities National Conference, 28-30 November 2017, Adelaide, Australia

The promotion of human health was explicitly positioned as one of four goals in Sydney’s most recent metropolitan strategy: ‘A Plan for Growing Sydney’ (released December 2014). This is a first for metropolitan strategic planning in New South Wales. It presents a timely and unique opportunity to investigate the way a new concern can emerge...

Conference paper

Adjudicating faith: 20 years of secular decision-making for religious spaces

18 Jun 2018

Andrew Butt,

Julie Rudner,

Michele Lobo

8th State of Australian Cities National Conference, 28-30 November 2017, Adelaide, Australia

Despite a legacy of seemingly enlightened non-sectarian provision of sites and space for religious worship, current planning systems appear to create conditions in which many religious development proposals are problematic, conflict-ridden and politicised. Indeed, the planning system is a primary site for community conflicts that are often expressions of broader social anxieties and discord -...

Conference paper

Are our coastal managment strategies inspired by nature-based solutions? A review of the Moolap development framework plan

18 Jun 2018

Sareh Moosavi,

Marcus Lancaster

8th State of Australian Cities National Conference, 28-30 November 2017, Adelaide, Australia

With around 85% of Australia’s population living in coastal areas, rising sea levels and increasing storm surges will continue to have significant impacts on many of the continent’s coastal communities and landscapes. This presents great challenges to urban planners, urban designers and landscape architects responsible for creating safe, functional, and robust built environments for coastal...