Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning

Associate Professor Nicholas Low

MSc (Strath) ARIBA MRTPI MRAPI

Associate Professor of Environmental Planning

Email: npl@unimelb.edu.au

 

Associate Professor Nicholas Low received his Master of Science in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Strathclyde, Scotland, in 1971, where he won the year prize of the Royal Town Planning Institute. He has taught planning theory, urban studies and environmental ethics in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning since 1974. He has published many international journal articles and books including Planning, Politics and the State (Unwin-Hyman, 1991). In 1997 he organised the University of Melbourne Conference on Environmental Justice. His book (with Dr Brendan Gleeson) Justice, Society and Nature (Routledge, 1998) won the Harold and Margaret Sprout Award of the International Studies Association of the USA for the year's best book on ecological politics. His book (also with Gleeson) Australian Urban Planning (Allen and Unwin, 2000) was launched by the Victorian Minister for Planning in 2000.

Associate Professor Low's interests include urban planning, politics and state theory, environmental justice, participation, decision-making and problem solving, and land markets. He is currently working on a book on the world-wide unsustainability of transport infrastructure, and a more publicly accessible text on environmental justice.

 

Current Teaching Responsibilities

702-330 Housing Sustainability

705-828 Australian Urban Planning

705-644 Planning Urban Sustainability

705-403 Research Project C

 

Research Interests

 

Funded Research

Project The Australasian Research Centre for the Governance and Management of Urban Transport
Year: 2006
Source: Volvo Research and Education Foundation

 

Project Discursive and Institutional Barriers to Urban Environmental Sustainability: a Comparative Study of Infrastructure Policy in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth (with Professor B. Gleeson ( Griffith University) and Ms C. A. Curtis ( Curtin University of Technology))
Year: 2004-2006
Source: ARC Discovery-Project grant

 

Recent Publications

Books

Low NP, Gleeson B, Green RJ & Radovic D. 2005. The Green City : Sustainable Homes Sustainable Suburbs . Sydney , Australia : University of New South Wales Press.

Low NP & Gleeson B. (eds) 2003. Making Urban Transport Sustainable. Basingstoke, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan.

Low NP & Gleeson B. (eds) 2001. Governing for the Environment: Global Problems, Ethics and Democracy. Basingstroke, United Kingdom: Palgrave Publishers Ltd.

Low, NP, Gleeson, B., Elander, I. & Lidskog. R. (eds), 2000, Consuming Cities: the Urban Environment in the Global Economy after the Rio Declaration, London, UK: Routledge.

 

Book chapters

Low NP. 2005. The Discourse Network: A Way of Understanding Policy Formation, Stability and Change in the Networked Polity. In L Albrechts & S Mandelbaum (eds), The Network Society: A New Context for Planning . London and New York , United Kingdom : Routledge, pp. 45-56.

Low NP. 2005. The Gordian Knot: Resisting Sustainability in Urban Transport in Australia . In K Williams (ed), Spatial Planning, Urban Form and Sustainable Transport . Aldershot , United Kingdom : Ashgate, pp. 171-182.

March AP & Low NP. 2005. The Democratic Culture of Victorian Urban Planning: Dilemmas, Consent and Consensus. In D Cryle & J Hillier (eds), Consent and Consensus: Politics, Media and Governance in Twentieth Century Australia . Perth , Australia : API Network, pp. 233-256.

Whitelegg J & Low NP. 2003. Managing transport demand in European countries. In NP Low & B Gleeson (eds), Making urban transport sustainable. Basingstoke, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 240-251.

Gleeson B, Curtis C & Low NP. 2003. Barriers to sustainable transport in Australia. In NP Low & B Gleeson (eds), Making urban transport sustainable. Basingstoke, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 201-220.

Gleeson B & Low NP. 2003. Environmental justice. In J Agnew, K Mitchell & G Toal (eds), A companion to political geography. Malden, United States of America: Blackwell Publishers, pp. 455-469.

Low NP. 2003. Is urban transport sustainable? In NP Low & B Gleeson (eds), Making urban transport sustainable. Basingstoke, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 1-22.

Low NP & Gleeson BJ. 2002. Ecosolialisation and Environmental Justice. In J Byrne, L Glover & C Martinez (eds), Environmental Justice: Discourses in International Political Economy. Unknown, United States of America: Transaction Publishers, pp. 203-229.

Low NP & Gleeson B. 2001. The Challenge of Ethical Environmental Governance. In B Gleeson & NP Low (eds), Governing for the Environment: Global Problems, Ethics and Democracy. Basingstoke, United Kingdom: Palgrave, pp. 1-29.

Christoff, P. & Low, N., 2000, 'Recent Australian Urban Policy and the Environment', in Low, NP, Gleeson, B., Elander, I. & Lidskog. R. (eds), Consuming Cities: the Urban Environment in the Global Economy after the Rio Declaration, London, UK: Routledge, pp. 241–264.

Gleeson, B. & Low, N., 2000, 'Cities as consumers of the world's environment', in Low, NP, Gleeson, B., Elander, I. & Lidskog. R. (eds), Consuming Cities: the Urban Environment in the Global Economy after the Rio Declaration, London, UK: Routledge, pp. 1–29.

Low, NP, Gleeson, B., Elander, I. & Lidskog. R., 2000, 'After Rio: Urban Environmental Governance', in Low, NP, Gleeson, B., Elander, I. & Lidskog. R. (eds), Consuming Cities: the Urban Environment in the Global Economy after the Rio Declaration, London, UK: Routledge, pp. 281–307.

Gleeson, B. & Low, N., 2000, 'Is Planning History?', in Freestone, R. (ed.) Urban Planning in a Changing World: the Twentieth Century Experience, London, UK: E & F Spon, pp. 269–284.

 

Refereed journal articles

Low NP, Gleeson B & Rush E. 2005. A Multivalent Conception of Path Dependence: the Case of Transport Planning in Metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. Environmental Sciences. 2 (4):391-408.

Muhammad I & Low NP. 2005. Sustainable Urban Transport in Pakistan : Threats and Opportunities. Management of Environmental Quality. 16 (5):505-529.

Low NP, Gleeson B & Rush EL. 2003. Making believe: Institutional and discursive barriers to sustainable transport in two Australian cities. International Planning Studies. 8(2):93-114.

Low NP. 2002. 'Ecosocialisation and environmental planning: a Polyanian approach'. Environment and Planning A. 34:43-60.

Low NP & Gleeson B. 2001. 'Ecosocialization or Countermodernization? Reviewing the Shifting 'Storylines' of Transport Planning'. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. 25(4):784-803.

Christoff, P. & Low, N., 2000, 'Consuming Cities: Recent Australian Urban Policy and the Environment', European Spatial Research and Policy 7:5–21.

Gleeson, B. & Low, N., 2000, 'Annus Horibilus for Neoliberals', Arena Journal 14:9-40.

Gleeson, B. & Low, N., 2000, 'Revaluing Planning: Rolling Back Neoliberalism in Australia', Progress in Planning 53:83-164.

Gleeson, B. & Low, N., 2000, 'Unfinished business: Neoliberal planning reform in Australia', Urban Policy and Research 18(1):7–28.

 

Refereed conference papers

Low NP. 2004. 'Planning for the Storm: How Confronting Global Warming Changes Urban Planning'. In P Troy (ed), State of Australian Cities Conference. 1-25. Sydney, Australia: Urban Frontiers Program, University of Western Sydney.

 

Research Supervision

 

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