Handbook

This course will introduce students to key concepts concerned with urban spatial dynamics; the drivers and processes of urban spatial restructuring; and the potential roles and forms of state intervention in influencing such restructuring. Students will become familiar with the evolution of official thinking on renewing Australia’s cities to the present day; its changing goals, terminology and financing. They will also gain an appreciation of the range of stakeholders with interests in urban renewal, and of their contrasting roles and perspectives. Framing themes running through the course will include system governance and the distributional consequences of urban restructuring. While its coverage of urban renewal practice will have a particular focus on Sydney, the course will also acknowledge and explain respects in which urban processes and policy approaches have differed in other Australian capital cities. Additionally, it will contain an international comparative dimension especially to help explain the emergence of policy thinking in Europe and North America which has often come to have an influence here in Australia.