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Conference

The State of Australian Cities (SOAC) national conferences have been held biennially since 2003 to support interdisciplinary policy-related urban research. SOAC 2021 was hosted collaboratively and online by RMIT University, Monash University, Swinburne University and the University of Melbourne.

Refereed papers and extended abstracts at SOAC 2021 focus on urban and regional transitions in the COVID recovery era to report and appraise the social, spatial, and economic consequences for equity, inclusion and justice. The conference aims to connect these questions to urban practice and inform more robust policy and public discussions about the emerging new futures of Australasian cities and regions. In keeping with past SOAC conferences, SOAC 2021 papers are organised into broad thematic tracks: City Economics & Economies, City Governance, City Health & Liveability, City & Nature, City Movement & Infrastructure, City Structure, City Social & Housing and, for the first time this conference, a track called 'Reckoning with Settler Colonial Cities'.

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

Conference paper

Beyond ‘mobility reductionism’: striking new paradigms for the wellbeing of Wheeled Mobility Device (WMD) users in the public realm


This presented paper is an exercise in reforming policy planning on disability and ensuring the participation of WMD users in communities. It is critical of the conventional placemaking approaches that focus solely on meeting mobility needs and are ‘mobility reductionist’.
Conference proceedings

City movement and infrastructure: SOAC 2021 conference track and abstracts


Our cities need big thinking, new conceptual and methodological practices, as well as research and advocacy to place just infrastructure transitions at the centre of urban and regional planning. To that end, this track includes research outputs that address these complex challenges.
Conference proceedings

Reckoning with settler colonial cities: SOAC 2021 conference track and abstracts


This SOAC 2021 conference track includes research papers, provocations, panel discussions, or other forms of knowledge sharing and creation related to understanding the conditions, mechanisms, practices and experiences of settler-colonial urbanism.
Conference paper

Growing pains: the crisis in Melbourne’s growth area planning


This paper examines the governance failures which have led to this failure of planning in Melbourne’s growth areas. It shows that none of the objectives of the Victorian government’s Precinct Structure Planning Guidelines are being met and demonstrates how the design of residential areas and activity centres, and planning for movement and infrastructure can be...
Conference paper

Can planning incentives deliver affordable housing in our cities and regions? Evidence from NSW


This paper examines evidence of the outcomes of a NSW planning policy that provides a state-wide density bonus for infill, multi-unit housing projects that dedicate at least 20% of gross floor area for affordable rental housing.