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Articles by Kurt Iveson
People Power in Cities
Can people power confront global urban injustices and create alternative urban futures? This book focuses on collective action at the city scale that seeks to address urban issues and democratize urban governance, and explores how people power strategies evolve over time and space. The opening chapters provide a framework for understanding urban people power.
Sydney’s shiny new Metro service is great - now can we fix the city’s busted bus stops?
Multi-billion-dollar transport projects create headlines, and politicians love to bask in the glow of a successfully completed project such as Sydney’s new Metro. This service will change many people’s lives for the better. In stark contrast with the shiny new Metro stations, the bus network is suffering from under-investment. Our survey of thousands of suburban bus stops, conducted with advocacy group Sweltering Cities, found many lack shelter, seating, signage and even stable surfaces.
Sydney’s shiny new Metro service is great - now can we fix the city’s busted bus stops?
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Sydney’s shiny new Metro service is great - now can we fix the city’s busted bus stops?
Multi-billion-dollar transport projects create headlines, and politicians love to bask in the glow of a successfully completed project such as Sydney’s new Metro. This service will change many people’s lives for the better. In stark contrast with the shiny new Metro stations, the bus network is suffering from under-investment. Our survey of thousands of suburban bus stops, conducted with advocacy group Sweltering Cities, found many lack shelter, seating, signage and even stable surfaces.
PREFIGURING PRAGMATICALLY? Prefigurative Politics and the Constellation of People Power Strategies for Winning Affordable Housing in Cape Town
Introduction In March 2017 the inner city of Cape Town, South Africa, was engulfed in a battle over affordable housing that drew its political representatives and its people into a struggle over who the city served. Reclaim the City (RTC), a new movement of Black working-class and poor communities, had been agitating for under-used or vacant government land in the inner city to be converted into affordable housing.
Navigating the dilemmas of mutual aid: International student organising in Sydney during the COVID‐19 pandemic
Key insights Mutual aid can be considered as a form of alternative care infrastructure. While the mutual aid organised by international students and their supporters in Sydney maintained a critical distance from charity and welfare, it was part of a broader infrastructural ecology involving market, service, and state actors. Students and their supporters sought ways to institutionalise their care infrastructures that might hold space for these newly established relationships beyond the pandemic.
The city on the horizon
In the early 1970s, urban politics got pretty wild in Sydney. As the decade began, the city was in the throes of a construction boom, with new office blocks shooting upwards in the central business district and plenty of apartment and house construction in the expanding suburbs. Developers were reeling in profits, and a conservative State Government was egging them on with sympathetic planning arrangements.
Transmission and territory: Urban bordering during COVID-19
Skip to main page content Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation Save citation to file Format: Add to My Bibliography Your saved search Name of saved search: Search terms: Frequency: Which day? Which day? Report format: Send at most: Send even when there aren't any new results Optional text in email: Create a file for external citation management software doi: 10.1016/j.polgeo.2023.102910.
Everybody strike! The urban environmental politics of Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140
Note: This post contains some spoilers about the novel New York 2140. Kim Stanley Robinson will deliver the 14th Annual Wheelwright Lecture (online) on Thursday 25 November 2021. Full details here. How can we develop a program and movement for climate justice that will address the pathologies of our toxic capitalist present?
How urban soundscapes affect humans and wildlife - and what may have changed in the hush of lockdown
The dull roar of traffic, the barking of dogs in backyards and the screeching of cockatoos at dusk. The shattering of early morning quiet by the first plane overhead or the garbage truck on its rounds. The squealed delights and occasional fights of a children’s playground. These sounds and many more create what Canadian composer R Murray Schafer famously called a “soundscape”. Schafer, who passed away last month, helped us realise we experience cities with our ears as well as our eyes.
How urban soundscapes affect humans and wildlife, and what may have changed in the hush of lockdown
Black-tufted marmosets in Brazil avoid noisy habitats even when there’s plenty of food. Credit: Shutterstock The dull roar of traffic, the barking of dogs in backyards and the screeching of cockatoos at dusk. The shattering of early morning quiet by the first plane overhead or the garbage truck on its rounds. The squealed delights and occasional fights of a children's playground. These sounds and many more create what Canadian composer R Murray Schafer famously called a "soundscape".
How urban soundscapes affect humans and wildlife - and what may have changed in the hush of lockdown
The dull roar of traffic, the barking of dogs in backyards and the screeching of cockatoos at dusk. The shattering of early morning quiet by the first plane overhead or the garbage truck on its rounds. The squealed delights and occasional fights of a children’s playground. These sounds and many more create what Canadian composer R Murray Schafer famously called a “soundscape”. Schafer, who passed away last month, helped us realise we experience cities with our ears as well as our eyes.
The Sydney “Green Bans” Show How We Can Transform Our Cities
Fifty years ago, in June 1971, the New South Wales branch of the Builders Labourers Federation (NSWBLF) voted to ban construction of a luxury housing development in the Sydney harborside suburb of Hunters Hill. Their bulldozer-driving comrades in the Federated Engine Drivers and Firemen’s Association followed suit. The goal was to protect Kelly’s Bush, one of the last undeveloped areas of bushland on Sydney Harbour.
Cramming cities full of electric vehicles means we're still depending on cars — and that's a huge problem
This week, the NSW government announced almost A$500 million towards boosting the uptake of electric vehicles. In its new electric vehicle strategy, the government will waive stamp duty for cars under $78,000, develop more charging infrastructure, offer rebates to 25,000 drivers, and more. Given the transport sector is Australia’s second-largest polluter, it’s a good thing Australian governments are starting to plan for a transition to electric vehicles (EVs).
Informality from above in the governance of graffiti and street art in Sydney
A few years ago, a property owner in an inner-Sydney suburb commissioned graffiti artists to paint a large, graffiti-style mural on the wall of their home, which sat at the end of a row of terrace houses (). The wall was frequently tagged, and they decided that a mural would be nicer. Not long after the piece was completed, City Rangers employed by the City of Sydney noticed the new piece on one of their regular patrols.
The trade-offs 'smart city' apps like COVIDSafe ask us to make go well beyond privacy
The Commonwealth government says if enough of us download its COVIDSafe app, restrictions on our movements and activities can be lifted more quickly and life can return to normal. As important as it is to contain the spread of coronavirus, no government decision about how to do that is beyond question. For those of us concerned about the social and political life of our increasingly “smart” cities, the thinking behind the COVIDSafe app and other “smart city” technology must be open to challenge.
The trade-offs 'smart city' apps like COVIDSafe ask us to make go well beyond privacy
Australian government messaging is framing use of the COVIDSafe app, while voluntary, as being imperative in the public interest. Credit: Australian government/AAP The Commonwealth government says if enough of us download its COVIDSafe app, restrictions on our movements and activities can be lifted more quickly and life can return to normal. As important as it is to contain the spread of coronavirus, no government decision about how to do that is beyond question.
The Trade-Offs ‘Smart City’ Apps Like COVIDSafe Ask Us To Make Go Well Beyond Privacy
Image: Getty Images The Commonwealth government says if enough of us download its COVIDSafe app, restrictions on our movements and activities can be lifted more quickly and life can return to normal. As important as it is to contain the spread of coronavirus, no government decision about how to do that is beyond question.
The trade-offs 'smart city' apps like COVIDSafe ask us to make go well beyond privacy
The Commonwealth government says if enough of us download its COVIDSafe app, restrictions on our movements and activities can be lifted more quickly and life can return to normal. As important as it is to contain the spread of coronavirus, no government decision about how to do that is beyond question. For those of us concerned about the social and political life of our increasingly “smart” cities, the thinking behind the COVIDSafe app and other “smart city” technology must be open to challenge.
We don’t know what we’ve got till it’s gone - we must reclaim public space lost to the coronavirus crisis
Authorities have imposed significant restrictions on the size, purpose and location of gatherings in public space to slow the transmission of COVID-19. The massive impacts of these escalating restrictions over the past two months show us just how significant public spaces are for the life of our cities. A longer-term concern is the risk that living with these measures might normalise restrictions on, and surveillance of, our access to public space and one another.
Boring cities
Most of the world’s major cities are now undergirded by complicated subterranean infrastructures; buried communication networks, water and waste management systems, storage vaults, transportation corridors, and even underground housing. In the past, only states, backed by tax revenue, could afford to undertake the boring and excavation required to build such spaces. Today however, the private sector seeks to profit from building, maintaining, and owning urban undergrounds.
New minister for public spaces is welcome - now here are ten priorities for action
With the re-election of the Berejiklian government, New South Wales now has a minister for public spaces, Rob Stokes. This portfolio was first mooted in February, when the premier announced one of the new minister’s tasks would be to identify and protect publicly owned land for use as parks or public spaces. As important as this task is, we need even more ambition in this portfolio. Public space is crucial to the social, economic, political and environmental life of our towns and cities.
New minister for public spaces is welcome - now here are 10 priorities for action
Kurt Iveson | 17 April 2019 GUEST OBSERVATION With the re-election of the Berejiklian government, New South Wales now has a minister for public spaces, Rob Stokes. This portfolio was first mooted in February, when the premier announced one of the new minister’s tasks would be to identify and protect publicly owned land for use as parks or public spaces. As important as this task is, we need even more ambition in this portfolio.
New minister for public spaces is welcome - now here are ten priorities for action
With the re-election of the Berejiklian government, New South Wales now has a minister for public spaces, Rob Stokes. This portfolio was first mooted in February, when the premier announced one of the new minister’s tasks would be to identify and protect publicly owned land for use as parks or public spaces. As important as this task is, we need even more ambition in this portfolio. Public space is crucial to the social, economic, political and environmental life of our towns and cities.
To create safer cities for everyone, we need to avoid security that threatens: Kurt Iveson
The central role of public spaces in the social, cultural, political and economic life of cities makes it crucial that they’re accessible to everyone. One of the most important qualities of accessible public spaces is safety. If people do not feel safe in a public space, they are less likely to use it, let alone linger in it. Perceptions of safety are socially produced and socially variable.
To create safer cities for everyone, we need to avoid security that threatens
The central role of public spaces in the social, cultural, political and economic life of cities makes it crucial that they’re accessible to everyone. One of the most important qualities of accessible public spaces is safety. If people do not feel safe in a public space, they are less likely to use it, let alone linger in it. Perceptions of safety are socially produced and socially variable.
To create safer cities for everyone, we need to avoid security that threatens
Perceptions of safety are socially produced and socially variable. It is not simply the presence of crime – or "threatening environments" – that contributes to lack of safety or fear. All sorts of measures are put in place to make public spaces safer, from design to policing. But when we consider the effectiveness of these measures, we always have to ask: whose safety is being prioritised?
Digital labourers of the city, unite!
For growing numbers of urban inhabitants, smartphones and their mobile apps have become essential tools for everyday life. In the decade since smartphones first became popularised, many millions of people in cities around the world have grown used to using apps for finding and making our way around the city, for hooking up with friends or potential lovers, for sharing things or thoughts or pictures, for playing games, and for many more things besides.
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