Nicholas Low

The Green City: Sustainable homes, sustainable suburbs

Authors Acknowledgments 1. What does sustainability mean for cities? 2. Sustainable homes and suburbs 3. Nature in the city 4. Sustainable workplaces 5. Sustainable transport 6. Making the green city 7. Green-shaded cities Notes and references Index

Making Urban Transport Sustainable

List of Figures and Tables Notes on the Contributors Acknowledgements Internet Websites Is Urban Transport Sustainable? N.Low PART I: GLOBAL ISSUES IN TRANSPORT SUSTAINABILITY Global Cities, Transport, Energy and the Future: Will Ecosocialization Reverse the Historic Trends? P.Newman The Peak of Oil: An Economic and Political Turning Point for the World C.Campbell The Effect of E-commerce on Transportation Demand H.Stiller Automotive Pollution Control Technologies C.Destefani & E.Siores PART II: REGIONAL AND NATIONAL STUDIES Towards Sustainable Transportation Policy in the United States: A Grassroots Perspective C.Yee Transport in the European Union: Time to Decide J.Whitelegg Transport Sustainability in Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands E.Tengstrom The Privatization of the Japan National Railways: The Myth of Neo-liberal Reform and Spatial Configurations of the Rail Network in Japan - A View from Critical Geography I.Takeda & F.Mizuoka Developing Public Transport Systems in Indian Cities: Towards a Sustainable Future S.Banerjee-Guha Transport and Land Use in Chinese Cities: International Comparisons G.Hu Barriers to Sustainable Transport in Australia B.Gleeson, C.Curtis & N.Low PART III: BEST PRACTICE IN SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT Towards Sustainable Urban Transportation in the European Union I.Elander & R.Lidskog Managing Transport Demand in European Countries J.Whitelegg & N.Low Lessons from Asia on Sustainable Urban Transport P.Barter, J.Kenworthy & F.Laube Bibliography Index

‘Unfinished Business’: Neoliberal Planning Reform in Australia

Abstract This paper reviews the recent and contemporary neoliberal reform agendas that have sought a reduced role for planning in Australia. Our aim is to describe these reform paths and to theorise their broader implications for urban governance in Australia. Our analysis focuses on two initiatives: first, the broad reform framework embodied in National Competition Policy that is now affecting planning regulation at the state level; and second, the new vision for a standardised development control system that has been put forward by the Property Council of Australia. As we will show, neoliberal reforms have the potential both to reduce the possibility for spatial regulation and also to undermine the other recent reform agendas that have sought a positive transformation of planning; namely, community democratic movements and environmentalism.

Situating Justice in the Environment: The Case of BHP at the Ok Tedi Copper Mine

The rubric of sustainable development has now gained wide theoretical and political acceptance in the global community. However, after the Rio Declaration, each nation must now confront the specific question of how to decide between those industries and activities that are sustainable and those that are not when conflicting social and ecological interests are at stake. Any fundamental change to resource allocation will have social distributional consequences, and the issue of justice therefore becomes a critical element of any sustainability formulation. This paper contributes to this debate by exploring the potential for a politically grounded theory of justice in and to the environment. More specifically, we argue for a situated analysis that nevertheless retains the postulate of a neo-Kantian universal ethic as the foundation for global institutions that could integrate and safeguard the principles of justice and ecological responsibility underpinning most notions of sustainability. We show this by locating the question of justice in a particular conflict of interest, that between the Australian mining giant Broken Hill Proprietary, Ltd., and the traditional landowners of an area on the Ok Tedi river in Papua New Guinea.

A Fast Track Recovery Program Significantly Reduces Hospital Length of Stay Following Uncomplicated Pancreaticoduodenectomy

CONTEXT Factors affecting length of hospital stay after uncomplicated pancreaticoduodenectomy have not been reported. We hypothesized that patients undergoing uncomplicated pancreaticoduodenectomy treated by fast track recovery program would have a shorter length of hospital stay compared to those managed by a standard program. METHODS Patients without surgical or medical complications following pancreaticoduodenectomy managed by fast track or standard protocols, between 2005 and 2011, were identified and prognostic predictors for length of hospital stay determined. RESULTS Forty-one patients treated by pancreaticoduodenectomy had no medical or surgical complications during this period. Of these patients, 20 underwent fast track recovery program compared to 21 who underwent standard care. Patients in the standard group were more likely to have a feeding jejunostomy tube (P<0.001), pylorus preserving procedure (P=0.001) and a nasogastric tube in place longer than 24 hours postoperatively (P<0.001). The median postoperative length of stay was shorter in the fast track recovery program group (8 days, range: 7-16 days) versus 14 days, range: 8-29 days; P<0.001). There were three readmissions in the fast track recovery program related to abdominal pain and none in the standard group. The overall length of stay, accounting for readmissions, still remained significantly shorter in the fast track recovery program group (median 9 days, range: 7-17 days versus median14 days, range: 8-29 days ; P<0.001). There were no significant differences in discharge destination between groups. On multivariate analysis, the only factor independently associated with postoperative discharge by day 8 was fast track recovery program (OR: 37.1, 95% CI: 4.08-338; P<0.001). CONCLUSION Fast track recovery program achieved significantly shorter length of stay following uncomplicated pancreaticoduodenectomy.

Institutional barriers to sustainable transport

Contents: Preface Introduction Sustainable transport and institutional barriers The irrationality of path dependence Transport planning in Australia How organizations shape infrastructure: roads organizations How organizations shape infrastructure: public transport organizations Transport plans in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth The discourse of roads The discourse of public transport Stakeholder groups Contemporary mental models Overcoming the barriers Bibliography Appendices Index.

Ecosocialisation and Environmental Planning: A Polanyian Approach

Karl Polanyi provided a theoretically astute guide to the political economy of the developed world in the 20th century. He left us with important concepts that can inform thought and action in the 21st century. Most importantly his work brings together a critical understanding of society, nature, and economy and can therefore provide conceptual keys to placing that elusive concept ‘ecologically sustainable development’ in the broad flow of social change. In this paper I sketch a Polanyian approach to environmental planning, foregrounding the concept of ‘ecosocialisation’. I move from a discussion of our present situation through an analysis of ecological modernisation and eco-Marxist theory, retrieving some insights and revealing some lacunae. A Polanyian analysis of questions of social change is then outlined. Its implications for environmental planning are explored.

Governing for the Environment: Global Problems, Ethics & Democracy

List of Tables and Figures List of Abbreviations Global Capitalism, Ethics and Governance N.Low & B.Gleeson PART I: ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES, ETHICAL DILEMMAS Towards Sustainability J.Spangenberg The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: Beyond Monitoring E.Edmondson The International Politics of Declining Forests M.Jokela Maximising Justice for Environmental Refugees: A Transnational Institution on Behalf of the Deterritorialised A.Semmens Environmental Accountability and Transnational Corporations D.Humphreys PART II: TOWARDS A GLOBAL ETHICS An Environmentalist Grand Narrative A.Gare Human Rights and the Environment: Redefining Fundamental Principles? K.Bosselman Planetary Citizenship, Definition and Defence of an Ideal J.Thompson An Ethics of Care for the Environment in Conditions of Conflict J.Tully Environmental Ethics and the Obsolescence of Existing Political Institutions P.Laslett PART III: HUMANE GOVERNMENT FOR THE ENVIRONMENT Environmental Justice and Global Democracy W.Achterberg Cosmopolitan Democracy D.Archibugi An International Court of the Environment A.Postiglione Humane Governance and the Environment R.Falk Index

Knowing and steering: Mediatization, planning and democracy in Victoria, Australia

Habermas suggests that democracy means that a society is able to know itself and steer itself. This article builds on Habermas’ conception that mediatization is a central impediment to the realization of democracy, while recognizing the locally particular resolution of democratic dilemmas represented by any planning system. Using Victoria, Australia as an example, the article seeks to demonstrate that Habermas’ project offers a means of critiquing existing planning systems. Rather than communicative planning remaining an unattainable ideal, the possibility is explored of Habermasian critique offering practical directions for enhancing the democracy of existing planning systems.

A multivalent conception of path dependence: The case of transport planning in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia

Abstract It seems certain that achieving the scale of change in the production of the built environment necessary to save the world from the threat of rapid global warming, and consequent climate shocks, will require profound institutional change over a range of policy domains. Such change must encompass more than organizational structures, and includes a change in assumptive worlds and embedded funding programmes. The institutional momentum behind existing policies is strong. Policies are produced in a manner that can be described as ‘path dependent’. In this paper, we argue for a multivalent conception of path dependence containing three interwoven strands: technical, institutional, and discursive path dependence. The empirical focus of this paper is the discursive aspect of path dependence in transport planning with reference to research in Melbourne, Australia.