Towards Australian Regional Turnaround: Insights into Sustainably Accommodating Post-Pandemic Urban Growth in Regional Towns and Cities

Mirko Guaralda, Greg Hearn, Marcus Foth, Tan Yigitcanlar, Severine Mayere and Lisa Law
Additional contact information
Mirko Guaralda: QUT Design Lab, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane 4000, Australia
Greg Hearn: QUT Design Lab, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane 4000, Australia
Marcus Foth: QUT Design Lab, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane 4000, Australia
Tan Yigitcanlar: School of Built Environment, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane 4000, Australia
Severine Mayere: School of Built Environment, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane 4000, Australia
Lisa Law: Division of Tropical Environment and Societies, James Cook University, PO Box 6811, Cairns 4870, Australia

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 24, 1-13

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has made many urban policymakers, planners, and scholars, all around the globe, rethink conventional, neoliberal growth strategies of cities. The trend of rapid urbanization, particularly around capital cities, has been questioned, and alternative growth models and locations have been the subjects of countless discussions. This is particularly the case for the Australian context: The COVID-19 pandemic heightened the debates in urban circles on post-pandemic urban growth strategies and boosting the growth of towns and cities across regional Australia is a popular alternative strategy. While some scholars argue that regional Australia poses an invaluable opportunity for post-pandemic growth by ‘taking off the pressure from the capital cities’; others warn us about the risks of growing regional towns and cities without carefully designed national, regional, and local planning, design, and development strategies. Superimposing planning and development policies meant for metropolitan cities could simply result in transferring the ills of capital cities to regions and exacerbate unsustainable development and heightened socioeconomic inequalities. This opinion piece, by keeping both of these perspectives in mind, explores approaches to regional community and economic development of Australia’s towns and cities, along with identifying sustainable urban growth locations in the post-pandemic era. It also offers new insights that could help re-shape the policy debate on regional growth and development.

Keywords: regional towns; regional cities; regional Australia; regional lifestyle location; regional innovation system; regional turnaround; post-pandemic urban growth; COVID-19 impact; regional planning; sustainable urban development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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