Titled, Pacific futures: Australasian cities in transition, SOAC 2023 considers the future identity of Australasian cities in relation to indigenous communities, trans-Tasman networks, and the wider Asia-Pacific.

Seen in this context there is a need to revitalise indigenous knowledges, confront colonial legacies, and support inclusive, progressive city identities more explicitly linked to our place in the world. Key challenges include established themes such as social inequality, demographic shifts, population mobility, infrastructure, the growing housing crisis and climate change. These are overlaid by the fall-out from the Covid pandemic which is forcing a rethink about what matters, and is also initiating new forms of urban living and being. For people with deep ancestral roots in Aotearoa and Australia, those currently living in Australasian cities, and people in the wider Asia-Pacific, cities will remain key sites of connection. But many city-dwellers are also integrally linked to rural communities, regional towns and island nations where scale and complexity are vastly different, with further implications for changing demographic, economic and cultural processes. Responding to these intertwined urban futures also means recognising that Australasian cities and communities are increasingly ‘living on the edge’, with coastal adaptation and development, disaster preparedness and the growing instability of biological and environmental systems placing new stresses on living and demanding new ways of framing life. 

SOAC2023 examines our indigenous, trans-Tasman and Asia-Pacific futures, exploring the transitions and transformations necessary for creating cities and communities that respond to Australasian challenges and reflect our distinctive geographies. The documents catalogued here contain abstracts for 250 research papers and under nine conference tracks.