Issues relating to urban form and density continue to fuel worldwide debate. Low-density urban sprawl is identified by some as a symptom of unsustainable urban development and various solutions aimed at achieving a more compact urban form have been offered, whereas others argue that there is little to be gained from higher urban densities.

This paper examines the changes in policy and governance style favoured by Australian governments from the 1940s to 90s, and the shifts to and away from utilization of the market, government intervention, localism and participation over that time. It proposes a set of “governance technologies” to better structure analysis and inform policy choices.

This paper explores the effects of territorial systems on the knowledge and innovation processes of industries traditionally regarded as low-knowledge intensive, in this case the steel industry.

Since the mid 1980s the character of residential development on Sydney’s urban fringe has become increasingly socially and economically differentiated from older more established outer ring suburbs.

This paper provides a new frame of reference for addressing the governance role of councils in ensuring good urban development and illustrates this with examples drawn from a four week study tour of 18 new urbanist developments in the USA undertaken by the author in February and March 2003.