Social-ecological systems are breaking down at local, regional, and global scales, and sustainability seems an increasingly distant aspiration. Social harmony and economic systems are connected to ecological systems and climate, in multiple complex ways, at many scales.

This paper examines the history of the ‘100 years of inaction’ in Soloman Heights urban planning. With particular attention to the efforts by the current responsible Local Government Authority to broker a satisfactory outcome for all stakeholders.

This paper locates the origins of New Zealand’s low-density urban settlement pattern or sprawl in capitalist social relations and the cultural practices of the first settlers during the 1840s and 1850s. While the grid plans of towns conveyed notions of order and regularity, the commercial imperative to maximise the profit-making potential of urban land created...

This paper extracts key findings from a larger research project investigating three cases studies of medium density housing in Auckland. The project investigated the efficacy of the underlying urban planning tools to deliver the compact urban form; resident perceptions of living in their medium density accommodation and the associated town centres; and understanding the price...

This paper presents some preliminary results from PhD research being undertaken which, more broadly, considers infrastructure costs associated with differing forms of urban development available to policy makers within Australia. It is thus a component of the ‘compact’ versus ‘dispersed’ city debate.