Aidan Davison

Stuck in a Cul-de-Sac? Suburban History and Urban Sustainability in Australia

Debate about urban sustainability is in some danger of splitting into narrow, technical disagreements in which value-laden questions about the purposes, meanings and lived reality of cities are easily lost. As one way of anchoring debate about urban futures in foundational questions, this article focuses on the history of suburban ambivalence towards modern development that has helped shape Australian cities. This history offers important insights into contemporary suburban aspirations and environmentalist critique of them. It is presented here as a contribution to efforts to constitute urban sustainability as viable democratic projects built on more than expert discourses of efficiency and risk.

“What Do You Think about Genetic Medicine?” Facilitating Sociable Public Discourse on Developments in the New Genetics:

An important aspect of any meaningful public discussion about developments in gene technology is the provision of opportunities for interested publics to engage in sociable public discourse with other lay people and with experts. This article reports on a series of peer group conversations conducted in late 1996 and early 1997 with sixteen community groups in Perth, Western Australia, interested in gene therapy technology. With the case of cystic fibrosis as a particular focus, and using background resource material as a stimulus for discussion, the participating groups explored a range of value issues arising from the new genetic medicine. This more discursive context enabled participants to express a number of background or life-world concerns about genetic medicine, concerns that are often obscured by the dominant biomedical and bioethical discourses.

Using communities of practice to enhance interdisciplinary teaching: lessons from four Australian institutions

We report on the establishment of communities of practice at four Australian institutions and evaluate their effectiveness and durability as a means of building staff and institutional capacity for interdisciplinary teaching. A community of practice approach is a potentially valuable methodology for overcoming dynamics of fragmentation, isolation and competition within universities. The communities we established were anchored by a shared focus on the topic of climate change and they worked collaboratively to build relationships of trust and reciprocity between teachers in a wide range of disciplines. The aim of each community was to improve the teaching of climate change through enabling members to integrate diverse disciplinary perspectives, to teach collaboratively, to promote innovation through exchange and to demonstrate leadership within their institutions. The key factors that made our communities effective and durable are: (1) designation of two leadership roles, activator and facilitator, (2) provision for institutional autonomy in domesticating the model to fit local circumstances and (3) a pragmatic emphasis on opportunities for teaching innovation and leadership within existing administrative structures, teaching programs and workloads. We conclude that suitably designed and resourced communities of practice are a viable means of improving interdisciplinary teaching of complex problems by facilitating both staff development and institutional learning.

Contesting sustainability in theory-practice: In praise of ambivalence

A great deal has been written about the complexity and multiplicity of the essentially contested concept of sustainability (Becker and Jahn 1999; Dobson 1999; Harris et al. 2001; recent contributions include Baker 2006; Connelly 2007; Newman 2007; Redclift 2005). Many have lamented the slippery, shape-shifting nature of this concept and that it has accumulated an absurd number of definitions. As early as 1988, Richard Norgaard (1988, 607) observed that, with the concept meaning ‘something different to everyone, the quest for sustainable development is off to a cacophonous start’. This quest has been not only noisy but impassioned. Sustainability is a preoccupation that simultaneously engages powers of reason, belief and feeling, messing up any neat separation of descriptive and normative claims. An extraordinarily elastic concept, it is not surprising that ‘public discussion concerning the environment has become primarily a discourse of sustainability’ (Torgerson 1995, 10).

Roots, rupture and remembrance: The Tasmanian Lives of the Monterey Pine

Why do certain landscapes become contested sites for claims about identity? In responding to this question, we approach landscapes as assemblages of human and non-human elements that reach beyond the confines of their immediate physical and temporal locations. Our empirical focus is a small group of pine trees in a Tasmanian suburb, where remnants of human and non-human migration are inscribed and live on in the landscape and in human memory. We demonstrate how the trees simultaneously invite and resist purification through binaries such as nature and culture, wild and domestic, then and now. The histories and futures of belonging assembled in and through these trees are nothing less than active, idiosyncratic and ongoing processes of differentiation that shed light on the working out of postcolonial, globalizing societies and ecologies.

Distributed leadership: building capacity for interdisciplinary climate change teaching at four universities

Purpose – Interdisciplinary approaches to climate change teaching are well justified and arise from the complexity of climate change challenges and the integrated problem-solving responses they demand. These approaches require academic teachers to collaborate across disciplines. Yet, the fragmentation typical of universities impedes collaborative teaching practice. This paper aims to report on the outcomes of a distributed leadership project in four Australian universities aimed at enhancing interdisciplinary climate change teaching. Design/methodology/approach – Communities of teaching practice were established at four Australian universities with participants drawn from a wide range of disciplines. The establishment and operation of these communities relied on a distributed leadership methodology which facilitates acts of initiative, innovation, vision and courage through group interaction rather than through designated hierarchical roles. Findings – Each community of practice found the distributed leadership approach overcame barriers to interdisciplinary climate change teaching. Cultivating distributed leadership enabled community members to engage in peer-led professional learning, collaborative curriculum and pedagogical development, and to facilitate wider institutional change. The detailed outcomes achieved by each community were tailored to their specific institutional context. They included the transformation of climate change curriculum, professional development in interdisciplinary pedagogy, innovation in student-led learning activities, and participation in institutional decision-making related to curriculum reform. Originality/value – Collaborative, non-traditional leadership practices have attracted little attention in research about sustainability education in university curricula. This paper demonstrates that the distributed leadership model for sustainability education reported here is effective in building capacity for interdisciplinary climate change teaching within disciplines. The model is flexible enough for a variety of institutional settings.

A precautionary tale: Y2K and the politics of foresight

In the wake of the minimal disruption to computer systems arising from the Y2K Millennium Bug, there has been a notable lack of discussion about whether the huge expenditures devoted to solving the problem were justified. The most common response was that they were worth it ‘just to be on the safe side’. Furthermore, there were many related benefits in upgraded infrastructure and improved systems. We argue that in fact Y2K activity is an important if unexpected example of the ‘precautionary principle’ at work, i.e. acting in advance to ward off potential danger despite a lack of full scientific certainty about the extent of danger. It was unexpected because it was championed by corporations and governments who routinely oppose precautionary policies directed at environmental issues such as global warming. The paper outlines several reasons why Y2K was acted upon so swiftly while environmental issues are not, and explores what lessons may be learnt from the Y2K episode in terms of future strategies for dealing with environmental danger.

Could urban greening mitigate suburban thermal inequity?: the role of residents’ dispositions and household practices

Over the past decade research on urban thermal inequity has grown, with a focus on denser built environments. In this letter we examine thermal inequity associated with climate change impacts and changes to urban form in a comparatively socio-economically disadvantaged Australian suburb. Local urban densification policies designed to counteract sprawl have reduced block sizes, increased height limits, and diminished urban tree canopy cover (UTC). Little attention has been given to the combined effects of lower UTC and increased heat on disadvantaged residents. Such impacts include rising energy expenditure to maintain thermal comfort (i.e. cooling dwellings). We used a survey of residents (n=230) to determine their perceptions of climate change impacts; household energy costs; household thermal comfort practices; and dispositions towards using green infrastructure to combat heat. Results suggest that while comparatively disadvantaged residents spend more on energy as a proportion of their income, they appear to have reduced capacity to adapt to climate change at the household scale. We found most residents favoured more urban greening and supported tree planting in local parks and streets. Findings have implications for policy responses aimed at achieving urban climate justice.

Beyond the Mirrored Horizon: Modern Ontology and Amodern Possibilities in the Anthropocene

Early talk of the Anthropocene has been prompted by material evidence of the incoherence of ontological divisions between humanity and the rest of Earth. Yet, ironically, it has also been dominated by modern narratives about human distinction, autonomy and dominion. Along with recrimination about the death of nature, the modern Anthropocene carries hope of human redemption through natural evolution or technological progress. The resulting narratives of enlightened planetary stewardship reduce earthly multitudes to a common denominator, shoring up the mirrored horizons within which modern human agents encounter only themselves. In response, I explore amodern possibilities for action in an Anthropocene beyond modern referents of nature and culture. These possibilities open up choices within planetary dynamics that are inherently human but not reducible to human agency. This is a politics of sustenance attuned to difference and relation and directed to the multitude of human-other-than-human collectives, to specific shared projects of existence, in which human interests are composed.

Re-inventing the urban forest: The rise of Arboriculture in Australia

Reform for urban sustainability has commonly focused on either technological efficiency or ecosystem health. Elements of cities that do not fit neatly into either of these concerns, such as trees in urban environments, have often been disregarded. We use thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with eastern Australian urban tree professionals to document the rise of arboriculture over the last 30 years and the implications of this rise for urban sustainability. The framing of urban trees has shifted from adornment or obstruction to a key asset in the delivery of ecological, economic and social services. This transition has been interwoven with the rise of the profession of arboriculture from the ash bed of tree lopping and naive nativism. Arborists are working to improve the sustainability of Australian cities by integrating the management of grey (built) and green (living) infrastructure in a context in which space for trees is in a severe decline. They are pioneering a way of managing urban ecosocial systems that unsettles dichotomies of nature and culture, a way relevant to other urban professions.