The difficulties that lower-paid public sector employees are experiencing in accessing affordable housing in high-cost locations have provoked a policy debate in a number of countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States. The UK Government has responded by providing different forms of financial assistance to eligible workers through its Key Worker Living programme and national planning policies. The provision of equity loans and new rental developments targeted at key workers also exist in the United States. However, there remain some fundamental problems in pursuing key worker housing policies, not least in defining and drawing boundaries of key worker entitlement, measuring the causes and extent of the problem as well as evaluating policy effectiveness.

Affordable homeownership schemes aim to mitigate housing inequalities and broaden access to homeownership among low-to-middle-income households. In urban China, affordable homeownership governance followed a path-dependent market logic institutionalised since the late 1990s, frequently generating dysfunctions and conflicts. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed these governance failures and necessitated renewed state intervention, constituting a critical juncture. Building on a case study of Xinjia Yuan, a state-led affordable homeownership scheme in Shanghai, this article examines how governance practices evolved and adapted to China's broader governance transformations before, during, and after the pandemic. The study draws on historical institutionalism to analyse how grassroots actors developed informal practices amid the path dependence of state entrepreneurialism and the critical juncture of state reassertion. The findings reveal how informal practices among grassroots actors gained legitimacy over time. While direct state intervention sustained market-oriented governance frameworks, the pandemic outbreak reasserted grassroots party-state authority, further facilitating the state-led mobilisation of active residents to address market limitations in the post-pandemic era. This article offers critical insights into governance transitions in affordable housing management by highlighting the grassroots state's role as an essential safety net and extending the analytical lens to grassroots adaptive practices.

The climate emergency has brought sustainability to the forefront of urban development, reshaping political priorities and professional responsibilities. Independent Design Review Panels (DRPs), while not formalised within statutory planning systems, are gaining international recognition for their role in integrating sustainability alongside the architectural design of projects. The Cambridgeshire Quality Panel in England illustrates how DRPs can champion sustainability through a collaborative urban design approach, helping local planning authorities maintain high standards despite development pressures to expedite delivery. In contrast, the potential of DRPs to drive sustainability outcomes in Australia remains underexplored. This paper examines the challenges facing Australian DRPs, particularly the political resistance to sustainability in a market-driven development system where cost and delivery speed often overshadow environmental and social priorities. It proposes redefining DRPs to embed climate and sustainability expertise alongside planning and design professionals, shifting their remit beyond project aesthetics and fast-tracking schemes towards long-term resilience. In doing so, DRPs can help reconcile development pressures with design integrity and sustainability goals. Expanding the role of DRPs and strengthening their support for local planning authorities could enhance their credibility and effectiveness, promoting a more balanced, collaborative, and sustainable approach to urban development.

Gated communities have become the prevalent residential form in Chinese cities, following China's housing reforms. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, these gated communities became the basic unit for spatial lockdowns, as they offered an effective means to ensure quarantine control and provide basic necessities to residents behind the gates, as well as allow testing and calculating COVID-19 cases. This research focuses on affordable gated communities in Gucun, Shanghai, populated by comparatively disadvantaged households who were also disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 outbreaks. Drawing on new institutionalism as a theoretical framework, we examine the formal and informal rules adopted among the actors tasked with governing these communities before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper provides critical insights into how the pandemic has affected the different actors' power relations and governance practices, intensifying control and support towards these marginalised urban poor. We conclude, raising whether the state's enhanced presence, through its residents' committees, in neighbourhood governance will endure in Chinese post-pandemic cities.

A growing number of Australians are experiencing challenges accessing and affording healthy food due to climate-related disasters, global supply chain disruptions, and rapid inflation that is affecting the cost of healthy food (1) . There is limited understanding of how participation community-based food cooperatives can address these challenges and improve food security and dietary intake. This study investigated the motivations for joining and impact of participation in a community-based food cooperative called Box Divvy on self-reported food security status and intake of fruits and vegetables among a sample of Australian adults. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among Box Divvy members, that measured sociodemographic characteristics, motivations for joining, self-reported fruit and vegetable intake (serves/week), and food insecurity status (USDA 6-item short form (2) ) before and while using Box Divvy. Participants were classified as being food secure, or experiencing marginal, moderate, or severe food insecurity. Logistic regression assessed demographic predictors and self-reported change in food security status, and ANOVA examined changes in dietary intake before joining and while using Box Divvy. Of participants (n = 2764, 37% aged 35–44 years, 83% European ethnicity, 92% New South Wales residents), most joined Box Divvy to support local farmers (87.3%), and save money on healthy foods (70.6%). Around half of respondents (50.8%) reported experiencing food insecurity before joining Box Divvy (24.5% marginal, 18.4% moderate, 7.9% severe food insecurity). Univariate logistic regression identified age, household structure, and income as significant predictors of food insecurity (p < 0.001). Participants experiencing food insecurity reported significantly lower consumption of fruits and vegetables prior to joining Box Divvy compared to those who were food secure (p < 0.001). While using Box Divvy, 28.2% of participants reported experiencing food insecurity (16.6% marginal, 9.6% moderate, 2.1% severe food insecurity). The odds of food insecurity while using Box Divvy were 62% lower than before joining (OR: 0.38; 95% CI 0.34–0.43; p < 0.001). On average, participants reported their fruit intake increased by 2.5 ± 5.6 serves/week (p < 0.001), and vegetable intake increased by 3.3 ± 5.7 serves/week (p < 0.001). The mean increase was significantly greater among moderately food insecure (fruit mean difference 3.2 ± 6.5 serves/week; vegetable mean difference 3.9 ± 6.9 serves/week) and severely food insecure groups (fruit mean difference 4.4 ± 6.9 serves/week; vegetable mean difference 5.5 ± 7.7 serves/week; p < 0.001). Participation in Box Divvy significantly improved self-reported food security status and fruit and vegetable intake among a large sample of Australian adults. Notably, fruit and vegetable intake significantly increased among those experiencing moderate and severe food insecurity. This underscores the potential of community-based food cooperatives to improve food security and promote healthier eating habits among Australian adults, especially households experiencing food insecurity.

Climate change poses a clear and growing threat to human health. While local governments are widely recognised as the key level of government responsible for climate change adaptation, they have faced challenges in effectively addressing this critical issue. This research focuses on Western Sydney, a rapidly growing urban region in Australia that is frequently affected by extreme weather events. We conducted stakeholder interviews and document analysis, using an adaptive capacity framework to identify the barriers and enablers to implementing climate-and health-related strategies across the region. A range of barriers were identified, both spatially proximate and contemporary, as well as remote and legacy-related. The central finding was the critical need for increased collaboration within and between agencies, and with the communities they serve, in order to overcome adaptation barriers and implement solutions. This collaboration is seen as essential in addressing numerous immediate and current challenges, including the inconsistent framing of climate and health issues in local strategies, limited knowledge-sharing, and siloed working practices. Collaboration can also help address historical and more systemic barriers, particularly the prioritisation of economic development over climate resilience and the insufficient allocation of federal and state resources to local governments. Ultimately, fostering collaboration among professionals, communities, and political stakeholders is crucial for building adaptive capacity and implementing effective climate adaptation strategies. These strategies can mitigate climate-related health impacts throughout the region and ensure that communities are better prepared for future challenges.

Dementia-friendly communities can increase community participation and social wellbeing for people impacted by dementia. However, culturally and linguistically diverse people have typically been excluded or underrepresented from dementia-friendly community design processes. This study aimed to establish the factors that affect community engagement for culturally and linguistically diverse people impacted by dementia, and their suggestions for a dementia-friendly community in Canterbury-Bankstown, Australia. Bilingual researchers conducted semi-structured interviews (N = 17) in three languages: seven were in English (dyads n = 6; former carer n = 1); five were in Arabic (person with dementia n = 1; dyads n = 3; former carer n = 1) and five were in Vietnamese (dyads n = 4; former carer n = 1). These interviews explored barriers and facilitators to community engagement and design considerations for a culturally inclusive dementia-friendly community. Interview transcripts were thematically analysed, inductively. Factors that affected participation included community perceptions of dementia, family support, and the accessibility of transport and public environments. Members of the Arabic and Vietnamese groups faced language barriers and cultural stigma, which increased a sense of exclusion and isolation. In response, they emphasised the need for accessible transport, inclusive social groups, and community-wide dementia education to create a more dementia-friendly environment. Their suggestions aligned with traditional dementia-friendly community principles and were subsequently adopted by the local dementia alliance in designing a more inclusive and culturally responsive dementia-friendly community.

Amid rapid inflation, a growing number of Australians are experiencing challenges affording healthy food, impacting dietary behaviours. Community-based food cooperatives are an emerging alternative to mainstream supermarkets for accessing more affordable, healthy foods. This study explored how participation in a community-based food cooperative (Box Divvy) impacted self-reported food insecurity and fruit and vegetable intake among Australian adults. A cross-sectional online survey of Box Divvy members measured sociodemographics, fruit and vegetable intake (serves/week), and food security status (USDA 6-item short form) reflecting on their status before and while using the cooperative. Participants were classified as food secure, or food insecure (marginally, moderately, and severely food insecure). Logistic regression assessed demographic predictors of food insecurity, paired proportions tests assessed change in food security status and ANOVA examined changes in diet. Of participants (n = 2277, 37 % aged 35-44 years, 83 % European ethnicity), 50.8 % reported food insecurity before joining Box Divvy (24.5 % marginal, 18.4 % moderate and 7.9 % severe food insecurity). Younger age, single parent households and lower income were significant predictors of food insecurity. While using Box Divvy, a significantly smaller proportion of participants reported food insecurity (-22.6 %; 95 % CI: 20.7 %, 24.5 %; p < 0.001). Higher fruit (+2.5 ± 5.6 serves/week p < 0.001) and vegetable (+3.3 ± 5.7 serves/week (p < 0.001) intake was reported while using Box Divvy, which was significantly greater among moderately and severely food insecure groups compared to the food secure group (p < 0.001). Our study highlights how community-based food cooperatives can positively influence dietary behaviours and food security by improving access to healthy foods.

This paper describes an evaluation of the effectiveness of a key piece of cycling infrastructure in a sub-regional city in Sydney, Australia. Despite significant investment and political support, the usage of the infrastructure is low and variable. Direct experiences and observations revealed substantial design and implementation deficiencies, indicating that even with good policy intentions, cyclists' needs may not be well-addressed and hard-won investment may be wasted. This situation could be common in other car-centric cities lacking a robust cycling culture. Our detailed research assessment, also drawing on the lens of Sustainable Mobility Theory (which emphasises the importance of safe, accessible and environmentally sustainable transport systems) pinpoints specific deficiencies and provides recommendations for improvement. Ten criteria were identified from the literature as important to effective cycling infrastructure: route pathing, mode separation, gradients, widths, speed humps, sightlines, intersection design, signage, end-of-trip facilities and bicycle counters. Metrics were established to guide both on-ground and desk-top surveys. It is anticipated that this process, with local variations, will be useful in similar situations elsewhere. Several reasons were identified for the low cycling volumes and the failure of the route to meet initial policy objectives of increasing the modal split towards cycling. These include overly steep gradients, unsafe widths and sightlines, lack of priority at intersections and circuitous paths. Recommendations for action to improve effectiveness were developed. The discussion highlights the need to address associated organisational and political structural limitations.

Large scale urban development projects, marketed as “new cities,” are emerging across the African continent. However, there is a limited empirical insight into how their partnerships, involving foreign investors and the local African landowners, are brokered, and the extent to which local communities are engaged in such projects. Using the Appolonia City project in Ghana and drawing analytical insights from the DEDA urban governance framework, this paper scrutinizes the partnership between Rendeavour, the foreign investor, and the Appolonia community, the owners of the land used for the project, to interrogate the extent to which the community has been involved, and the benefits that have accrued. We find that the traditional rulers saw the project as an opportunity to secure community lands against ongoing unauthorized encroachments, and to assist the local economy. We argue that the 99-year lease granted to Rendeavour in return for a 10% equity stake does not reflect a partnership where concessions and benefits are equally distributed. The paper concludes by reflecting on the implications of the unequal partnership arrangements and the ensuing entangled urban governance process that set in motion project outcomes that do not necessarily reflect the needs of urban citizens.

This paper examines how common property is produced and delineated in contractual communities in China. Shanghai, one of the most developed Chinese cities with a burgeoning housing market, is used as a case study. The research analyses the power relations between land, construction and housing departments within Shanghai district governments and with developers, specifically, during the development phases of land leasing, construction permission and ownership registration. Drawing on the theoretical framework of new institutionalism, and its conception of path dependency in urban space, the article sheds light on what has led to the infringement on homeowners' common property by developers. In a weak legal and regulatory system for property development, the departments within district governments shirk responsibility to each other, whereas developers hold considerable power. The article concludes that common property bears the imprint of power dynamics set in motion in the development phase and thus requires greater recognition.

Objectives: Some geographic regions in high-income countries (HIC), including Australia, have poor healthy food access and a high burden of diet-related chronic disease. Scalable and sustainable strategies to strengthen community food systems have the potential to address these inequities. To inform future interventions in regions with poor healthy food access in Sydney, Australia, and beyond, we systematically reviewed randomised controlled trials of community-based food access interventions in HIC, to identify effects on dietary behaviours and health outcomes. Methods: Four electronic databases were searched. Studies involving community-based healthy food access strategies (solely or combined with education/behaviour change) and measuring effects on dietary behaviours and/or health outcomes were identified. Data on dietary behaviours, health outcomes and intervention descriptions were extracted, and the risk of bias was assessed. Results: Seven studies met inclusion criteria, with most conducted in the US (n = 6). Intervention strategies included food pantry-based interventions (n = 2), mobile produce markets (n = 2) and community farms (n = 3). Most interventions (n = 6, 85%) incorporated educational and/or behavioural change aspects. All studies measured fruit and vegetable (F&V) intake, with nearly all (n =6, 85%) reporting significant beneficial effects. Conclusion: Preliminary evidence in our synthesis demonstrates that multicomponent community-based food system interventions promise to improve F&V intake in regions of HICs. Recommendations for improving future evaluations are identified to build evidence for policymakers and urban planners to enact upstream and downstream strategies to strengthen community healthy food, particularly in geographic regions with the greatest health inequities.

COVID-19 has spread world-wide, and with multiple health, social, and economic ramifications. These present a formidable challenge for those belonging to vulnerable communities, such as those living in slums. There is now a growing literature urging attention to this challenge. However, few studies have examined the actual lived realities within these areas using direct, observational research, notwithstanding commentary elsewhere that such close attention is necessary to ensure effective action. This study took this approach in relation to a particular case-study, Kapuk Urban Village, in Jakarta, Indonesia. Drawing on an existing schema involving three spatial scales of slum areas (environs, settlement, and object), the research confirms how different built and socio-economic features can exacerbate vulnerability, and COVID-19 transmission. We also add to the body of knowledge by contributing a dimension of 'ground-level' research engagement. We conclude by discussing related ideas around ensuring community resilience and effective policy implementation, and recommend an "urban acupuncture" approach to encourage government regulations and actions better tailored to such communities.

Urban Green Infrastructure (UGI) elements help lower surface and air temperatures within cities. Parks that contain UGI can be used to countermeasure local Urban Heat Island (UHI) effects. Here we investigate the Park Cool Island (PCI) effect in an increasingly dense suburb of Sydney, Australia. At Sydney Olympic Park, we monitored environmental conditions at six sites in Bicentennial Park, and six sites in an adjacent urban precinct during the summer of 2022/23. A detailed analysis of surface and tree canopy cover was done for each site and linked with site microclimate. Despite the unusually wet and cool conditions, air temperatures across the entire summer were 0.4 degrees C lower and night-time air temperatures were frequently >5 degrees C cooler in the park compared to the urban precinct. During very hot days where maximum air temperature was >35 degrees C, ambient conditions were always cooler in the park. Increasing the cover of hard surfaces led to significant warming of air during the day in the urban precinct only, and greater tree canopy cover did not result in greater cooling during day. These findings provide new insights into PCI effects that will assist in the development of heat-resilient urban planning to addresses UHI effects in warming cities.

Affordable gated communities in Chinese cities, initiated by local governments, have targeted the urban marginalised poor, many of whom have been relocated from inner-city sites to make way for mega-projects. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, gated communities in China have become the basic unit for spatial lockdowns, as they offered an effective means to ensure quarantine control, provide food, daily necessities, and duties of care to residents behind the gates, as well as allow testing and calculating COVID-19 cases. Drawing on new institutionalism as a theoretical framework and presenting Shanghai as a case study, this paper examines the formal and informal rules adopted among the actors tasked with governing affordable gated communities before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper provides critical insights into how the pandemic has reshaped the different actors’ power relations and governance practices, effectively tightening control of these marginalised poor. It concludes, raising questions as to whether government’s measures adopted during the pandemic have overshadowed supportive duties of care and whether modes of governance will endure in Chinese post-pandemic cities.

Inclusive and enabling cities are fundamental to the wellbeing of people impacted by dementia. How we implement these ideals in multicultural communities through the built environment remains understudied. The experience of place must be considered in the context of dementia-friendly community (DFC) models to fully enable people experiencing dementia to remain autonomous, integrated, and connected. This study aimed to explore how diverse individuals with dementia perceive the built environment and its impacts on everyday activities using a mixed methods approach. This study was set in Canterbury-Bankstown, New South Wales, Australia where a high proportion of people impacted by dementia speak English, Arabic, and/or Vietnamese. Seventeen people experiencing dementia, their care partners, and former carers (English: n = 7; Arabic: n = 5; Vietnamese: n = 5) were recruited for a semi-structured interview, and two of these dyads (English: n = 1; Vietnamese n = 1) audited a local shopping centre and hospital using the DFC-environmental assessment tool (DFC-EAT). Interviews and audits were conducted in-language with bilingual researchers, who then transcribed the data into English for analysis. Similarities and differences were identified across the interview transcripts and audit data to identify issues with the existing built environment and improvement opportunities. We found that participants would limit or avoid going outdoors for everyday activities because of safety concerns (especially when using paths and carparks). Furthermore, overwhelming indoor experiences were characterised by unfamiliar designs and fittings (particularly with bathroom facilities), unsupported movement and way-finding due to excessive or insufficient signage, poor lighting, and high noise. Participants recommended greater access to door-to-door transport that caters to people experiencing dementia, establishing quiet resting areas, and improving navigation through signage that uses standardised symbols (e.g., for toilet facilities). People experiencing dementia and carers reported an array of issues concerning built environment design and accessibility features that excluded them from everyday activities. These findings were translated into an implementation plan that informed the City of Canterbury-Bankstown Council’s community planning efforts and the shopping centre’s facility operations. Critical areas for improvement in the built environment would benefit from co-design practices that are inclusive and representative of the community.