Melbourne Centre for Cities
designed to foster responsible and cosmopolitan city leadership, and the information it needs, in an interconnected and increasingly urbanised planet
Cities are on the frontline of today’s most pressing global challenges. The way we manage and study cities, and how city leadership is thought of in an interconnected but disrupted world, are critical to our collective futures. This is where the University of Melbourne’s new Melbourne Centre for Cities comes in with an explicit focus on urban governance as its main area of research, action and training, and a distinct purpose to foster and foreground cities research in and from Melbourne with a clear cosmopolitan outlook.
Building on the work of its predecessor, the Connected Cities Lab in operation through 2018 to 2020 specialising in the ways networks, international processes and information influence urban governance, the Centre focuses on the role of cities in major societal challenges, how city leadership can address them, and the information needed to do so in a connected but also disrupted and unequal time.
The Centre takes an explicit international point of view on pressing questions for urban governance. It does so by aiming to work with peers and places around the globe, explicitly connecting cities, urban researchers and key stakeholders in city leadership.
Our Partners
The below map is a live listing of all current collaborations across Melbourne Centre for Cities.
Click any icon for more details on our research partners or view the side menu for a complete listing of Partners organised by categories of: academic institutions, local and national governments, NGOs, business & philanthropy, IGOs, and fieldwork or site engagements.
Centre Management
![Profile picture of Sarah Bell](https://www.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/image/0010/4335958/Sarah-Bell-2021.jpeg)
Sarah Bell
Professional Staff
![Profile picture of Marita Doak](https://www.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/image/0007/4358005/DSC_5507.jpg)
Marita Doak
Centre Fellows
Centre Fellows are a committed, multi-disciplinary, and engaged community forming the Centre’s core team of scholars and practitioners.
![Profile picture of Sarah Bell](https://www.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/image/0010/4335958/Sarah-Bell-2021.jpeg)
Sarah Bell
![Profile picture of Enzo Lara - Hamilton](https://www.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/image/0004/4290277/Enzo-Lara-Hamilton_Garden.jpg)
Enzo Lara - Hamilton
![Profile picture of William Ridge](https://www.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/image/0004/4806400/William-Ridge-Headshot.jpg)
William Ridge
Graduate Researchers
![Profile picture of Chethna Ben](https://www.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/image/0008/4633046/chethna-ben.jpeg)
Chethna Ben
![Profile picture of Sophie Devine](https://www.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/image/0005/4998128/SOPHIE-DEVINE.png)
Sophie Devine
![Profile picture of Hannah Fairlamb](https://www.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/image/0003/4115640/hannah-fairlamb.jpeg)
Hannah Fairlamb
![Profile picture of Uly Faoziyah](https://www.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/image/0004/4680292/ULY.jpg)
Uly Faoziyah
![Profile picture of Anastasia Gramatakos](https://www.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/image/0006/4115670/Anastasia-Gramatakos.jpeg)
Anastasia Gramatakos
![Profile picture of Samuel Holleran](https://www.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/image/0006/4115697/Sam-Holleran.-headshot.jpg)
Samuel Holleran
![Profile picture of Kajsa Lundberg](https://www.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/image/0003/4031877/Kajsa-Lundberg.jpg)
Kajsa Lundberg
![Profile picture of Carolina Mayen Huerta](https://www.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/image/0006/3979104/Carolina-Mayen-Heurta.jpg)
Carolina Mayen Huerta
Hannah McNicol
![Profile picture of Merrick Morley](https://www.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/image/0020/4031345/Merrick-Morley_2022.jpg)
Merrick Morley
![Profile picture of Emily Ross](https://cms.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/image/0009/3262545/pattern-library-staff-placeholder.png)
Emily Ross
![Profile picture of Alana Scully](https://www.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/image/0020/4102526/alana-scully.png)
Alana Scully
![Profile picture of Joanna Stubbs](https://www.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/image/0019/4115701/jo-stubbs.jpeg)
Joanna Stubbs
Visiting Fellows
Visiting Fellows are engaging practitioners and scholars outside of the University of Melbourne who join the Centre community for a mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and culture, plus enriching collaborations.
![Profile picture of Maya Costa Pinto](https://www.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/image/0007/4116058/maya-costa-pinto.jpeg)
Maya Costa Pinto
Pablo Fuentenebro Alonso
![Profile picture of Kris Hartley](https://www.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/image/0018/3481101/kris-hartley.png)
Kris Hartley
Centre Honoraries
![Profile picture of Louise Johnson](https://www.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/image/0005/3967358/Screen-Shot-2021-12-06-at-2.42.59-pm.png)
Louise Johnson
Advisory Board
The Centre’s advisory board provides strategic input into our direction and focus, and supports the Centre’s Management Team and Director in ensure we address pressing and impactful urban issues locally, domestically and internationally.
Professor Michael Wesley | Deputy Vice-Chancellor Global, Culture and Engagement | University of Melbourne |
Professor Mark Hargreaves | Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research) | University of Melbourne |
Alison Leighton | Chief Executive Officer | City of Melbourne |
Mark Melvin | Chief Executive Officer | Committee for Melbourne |
Professor Winston Chow | Associate Professor of Urban Climate | Singapore Management University |
Rachel Huxley | Head of Mitigation and Climate and Health | Wellcome Trust |
Anthony F. Pipa | Senior Fellow in the Centre for Sustainable Development | Brookings Institution |
Aromar Revi | Director | Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) |
Malcom Smith | Australasian Cities Leader | ARUP |
Molly Whelan | Acting CEO | Foundation for Young Australians (FYA) |
Kelly Grigsby | Chief Executive Officer | Municipal Association of Victoria |
Centre Associates
Centre Associates represent the Centre as champions in their respective academic divisions and are active participants in our community.
Simon Batterbury, Faculty of Science | Matthew Champion, Faculty of Arts |
Annisa Beta, Faculty of Arts | Una McIlvenna, Faculty of Arts |
Amy Hahs, Faculty of Science | Hannah Robertson, Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning |
Jeff Garmany, Faculty of Arts | Peter Rush, Faculty of Law |
James Murphy, Faculty of Arts | Theresa Jones, Faculty of Science |
Kirsten Parris, Faculty of Science | Stephen Livesley, Faculty of Science |
Catherine Phillips, Faculty of Science | Claire Maree, Faculty of Arts |
Ariane Utomo, Faculty of Science | Megan Sharp, Faculty of Arts |
Mark Yaolin Wang, Faculty of Science |
Projects
-
Actionable Research
-
Cities and International Engagement Survey
Conducting a global survey of ‘city diplomacy’
-
City Diplomacy
Do cities need foreign policies?
-
City of Melbourne Chair in Urban Resilience and Innovation
Fostering research and training in the field of city resilience and innovation.
-
Communities, kava, court orders: Ways of possessing the Pacific city
Possession is which fraction of customary law?
-
Disinformation in the City
What does rising disinformation mean for cities?
-
Evidence to Action
A Framework for Evidence Building and Learning from Local to Global
-
Innovate4Cities
What knowledge do cities need to meet their climate action ambitions?
-
Innovation Infrastructure: Planning for Growth
The civilisation of human societies is underpinned by innovation
-
Justice for Multispecies Ecologies
Visibilising forgotten spaces through counter-mapping methods
-
Map of the Month
Delivering a monthly ‘map’ of greater Melbourne
-
Night Shift
Planning and designing night-time economies for night shift workers in Australian Cities
-
Philanthropy and the City
What is the role of philanthropic institutions in the future of cities?
-
Playbook for Urban Biodiversity
Playbook intended to inform practice and policy on biodiversity in cities
-
The Retrofit Lab
The Retrofit Lab is a Research and Innovation Laboratory activating the transition of Melbourne's buildings, infrastructure and landscapes for a healthy, sustainable, and resilient city
-
Spatial Justice
Investigating legal, municipal and social responses to political protesters and to the visibly homeless in city streets
-
Urban Migration
What powers do cities have to govern the inclusion of migrants and refugees?
-
Urban Surfaces
The role of urban surfaces in developing public cultures and equitable cities
Current projects
Past projects
At Melbourne Centre for Cities we go beyond traditional text-based research outputs. Through the Connected Cities podcast we bring you urban experts from around the globe offering prompts, provocations, and casual conversations around city life and governance.
Our show notes deliver links to companion publications and references made in each episode, plus transcripts for accessibility.
Climate Talks
Join hosts Professor Jackie Peel, Associate Professor Cathy Oke and Bek Markey Towler as they bring you the information you need to know in the lead up to the annual United Nations Climate Change Conferences – or ‘COPs’.
Climate Talks is produced by Melbourne Climate Futures and Melbourne Centre for Cities at the University of Melbourne. Podcast Producers: Greta Robenstone, Andi Xu, Ben Chandler, Cathy Oke, Jackie Peel and Bek Markey Towler.
City Resilience in Melbourne
Host Lukas Petridis explores what city resilience looks like in practice by exploring case studies in Melbourne and across the world. Supported by the City of Melbourne and the University of Melbourne.
Listen to City Resilience episodes below or subscribe on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Cities After Dark
Cities don't stop as the sun goes down. Join hosts Michele Acuto, Shelby Bassett and Andreina Seijas as they speak to night-time experts on what makes urban spaces tick after dark, their challenges, and the amazing world of the night-time cities.
![](https://www.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/image/0011/3247769/varieties/medium.png)
Coffee with...the Connected Cities Coffee Chats
Let's make academic talk accessible... here you will find a series of Melbourne-style caffeinated conversations we have hosted at the Centre around cities and pressing contemporary challenges for the built environment with international guests.
More podcasts
Featured content
-
City Leadership
A two-week summer intensive designed to tackle the ‘international’ aspects of city governance and planning, with a focus on city leadership, the institutions and trends that underpin it.
View -
City Diplomacy
An intensive training program for early career city diplomats and those who work on cities’ international affairs. Delivered online and in-person.
View
Featured content
-
Horizons Program
The Horizons Program is an internationalisation program for early career researchers enrolled at the University of Melbourne. It is designed to expand internationally the horizon of career development imagination for graduate and early career researchers.
View -
Studio N: Managing Cities at Night
This intensive studio focuses on night-time governance, planning and policy for built environment practitioners and offers a venue gain an interdisciplinary and policy-relevant understanding of urban planning, urban design and architecture at night.
View
Thursday 24th October 2024 9:00 - 4:00 pm
The Old Quad | The University of Melbourne
Parkville Campus
Urban spaces offer unparalleled opportunities for leading the transformation toward a connected, sustainable and equitable urban era.
The Melbourne Centre for Cities' annual symposium, themed “Rethinking an Urban Era,” explores the optimistic narrative surrounding our complex urban spaces. We are shifting away from the belief that growth is inherently negative and are adopting a mindset focused on climate resilience. This approach centres on multilayered, holistic governance; and sustainability for humans, non humans and the environment they both rely. While pursuing these positive changes, we must also address the pressing need to tackle inequality in decision-making and outcomes within our cities.
At the symposium, the Centre's researchers and key partners from industry and government will present their perspectives on the theme and provide real-world examples - demonstrating how we can rethink and transition from a development focused era.
Our discussions will explore collaborative strategies that emphasise the core themes of the Melbourne Centre for Cities: urban sustainability, connectivity, leadership, and equity.
We are also pleased to announce our keynote lecture " She had this big, wide city all to herself: Taylor Swift and non-economic legacies in a time of music sector crisis in Melbourne "— with Olivia Hally, Dr Anna Kosovac and Dr Philippa Chandler – as a timely way to bring together all elements of the symposium’s theme, of rethinking an urban era.
Keynote
She had this big, wide city all to herself:
Taylor Swift and non-economic legacies in a time of music sector crisis in Melbourne
Abstract
When tickets went on sale for Taylor Swift’s Australian tour, over 4 million people attempted to purchase presale tickets. News outlets interviewed fans who had taken the day off from work to buy tickets or spent a cold winter evening in outdoor queues to ensure their spot for physical sales. This devotion suggests that international touring events can have a huge cultural impact here in Australia. But how might Taylor Swift’s visit shape Melbourne itself, and how might this be different from the impacts of other large pop performances or sporting events?
A dynamic body of scholarly work on event legacies has highlighted various impacts of hosting large events, including non-economic benefits. And long after the event has finished and the clean-up is complete, events can leave attitudinal, cultural and knowledge legacies.
Drawing on academic literature about events’ impacts on cities, combined with media reports about Taylor Swift’s impacts on other cities, this presentation examines the impact of Taylor Swift on Melbourne especially in context of a local music sector in crisis.
Program
-
Symposium Schedule
9:00 – 09:50 am
Networking breakfast and registration
9:50 – 10:30 am
Welcome to Country – Wurundjeri Elder
First Nations Rethinking an Urban Era
Georgia Birks – Associate editor Architecture Media (media partner)
Maddison Miller School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences Faculty of Science
10:30 – 11:00 am
Opening Panel Session – Rethinking an Urban Era: Insights from University of Melbourne Faculties
11:15 – 11:45 am
Morning Tea
11:45 – 12:00 pm
Pecha Kucha
12:00 – 12:30 pm
Second Session – Leading Era
- Centre fellow – Anna Edwards
12:30 – 12:40 pm
Interactive moment – discussion with the audience
12:40 – 1:10 pm
Third Session – Sustainable Era
Exploring sustainable development, future prospects, and prosperity in an era of rapid growth, construction, and global mobility. What are the critical opportunities in aligning development with environmental priorities?- Centre fellow – Dr Melissa Pineda Pinto
- Centre partner (Tiffany Crawford, City of Melbourne
1:10 – 1:20 pm
Interactive moment – discussion with the audience
1:20 – 2:10 pm
Lunch
2:10 – 2:40 pm
Keynote – " She had this big, wide city all to herself: Taylor Swift and non-economic legacies in a time of music sector crisis in Melbourne".
- Dr Anna Kosovac - Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences
- Dr Olivia Hally
- Dr Philippa Chandler
2:40 – 3:10 pm
Fourth Session – Equitable Era
In the new urban era, success depends on ensuring equal opportunity and access to resources for all residents, human and non-human. What are our greatest challenges, and how can we prioritise equity as a central theme in rethinking an urban era?
- Centre fellow Dr Renee Miller Yeaman
- Centre partner – Kelly Grisby(MAV)
3:10 – 3:20 pm
Interactive moment – discussion with the audience
3:20– 3:50 pm
Fifth Session – Connected Era
Pecha Kucha: Centre PhD candidate
- Centre fellow –Dr Rebekah Plueckhahn
3:50 – 4:00 pm
Interactive moment – discussion with the audience
4:00 pm Close
Thank you