This paper explores multi-disciplinary concepts and looks at ways these can be linked to community engagement in planning, particularly in larger urban Councils. In this brief glimpse at the wide variety of disciplines that could be drawn on, the paper uses information systems, teaching models, organisational theory and public policy to highlight the potential for...

At SOAC 2011, the Victorian Department of Health North and West Metropolitan Region (DH) outlined its Regional Health and Wellbeing Implementation Strategy. Using a Community Capacity Framework, this paper will outline the initiatives implemented and resulting changes to community capacity at the individual, civic engagement, organisational, inter-organisational and community-levels of analysis.

This paper examines digital engagement through local e-government. Drawing from a local government case study, it suggests that limitations to online civic involvement are often the result of insufficient government reception of, and responses to, citizens’ views. Interviews with local representatives illustrate inadequate digital education and broad reluctance towards civic inclusion in political processes. Nevertheless...

The Heart of the Matter identifies three overarching goals: 1) to educate Americans in the knowledge, skills, and understanding they will need to thrive in a twenty-first-century democracy; 2) to foster a society that is innovative, competitive, and strong; and 3) to equip the nation for leadership in an interconnected world. These goals cannot be...

The implications of climate change and the end of the fossil fuel era suggest that we are entering a period of major, transformative, change requiring the restructure of the most fundamental systems for urban living. But rapid structural change is hard to negotiate within existing communities.