A Post Growth Approach to Urban Planning with Michael Buxton

08/13/24 • 48 min

The way we design and plan our cities and towns significantly influences our daily lives, which, in turn, affects our carbon emissions and ecological footprints. Australia's continually expanding cities are a striking example of this, illustrating the consequences of an unrelenting pursuit of growth.

Fortunately, there are a few urban planners who recognise that transitioning to a degrowth, steady-state system is imperative for the future of urban planning. Our special guest, Emeritus Professor Michael Buxton (OAM) is one such expert.

Michael Buxton is one of the most well known and most quoted planning professors in Australia and has taught thousands of planning students over the years at RMIT University and Monash University, as well as working in the public service for 12 years. Despite officially being retired, Michael continues to play a huge role in town planning issues, including being interviewed for podcasts such as PGAP.

As a resident of Melbourne, Michael discusses his home city as a case study throughout the interview to illustrate the current state of urban planning. In particular, he draws attention to the Victorian government’s obsession with ‘growth at all cost’ and their ongoing deregulation of the urban planning sector.

This episode provided us with an opportunity to discuss the importance of systemic change towards a post growth society and why this will lead to much better planning and development outcomes.

We invite you to share this very important episode among your networks and rate and review PGAP on Apple Podcast, or contact us with your thoughts and ideas. PGAP is made possible by the support of Sustainable Population Australia (SPA). All opinions, views and legacies past and present of our guests are exclusive theirs and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of PGAP or SPA.

Speaking of Sustainable Population Australia, PGAP co-hosts Mark Allen and Michael Bayliss worked with SPA on an animated video, "The Endless Growth Paradigm", launched in 2019. The animation explores why we need to break from a system of endless economic and population growth. Otherwise, our neighbourhoods will never be dense enough, our cities will never stop sprawling and we will never catch up with the infrastructure backlog. The video has amassed ten thousand views on YouTube and we believe it is still very relevant five years later.

If you are keen to revolutionise the town planning sector, we encourage you to check out Town Planning Rebellion or, if you are a resident of Victoria, Planning Democracy, chaired by Kelvin Thomson.

PGAP has explored the issue of urban planning and overdevelopment several times. If you would like to find out more, we recommend our interviews with Kelvin Thomson, Alex Baumann and David Holmgren. Looking outside Victoria, we interviewed several Western Australian groups fighting overdevelopment. You may also be interested in your co-hosts Mark and Michael’s own perspectives in the episode: “Housing Crisis?? What Housing Crisis!!”

Special Guest: Michael Buxton.

This episode provided us with an opportunity to discuss the importance of systemic change towards a post growth society and why this will lead to much better planning and development outcomes.

If you are keen to revolutionise the town planning sector, we encourage you to check out Town Planning Rebellion or, if you are a resident of Victoria, Planning Democracy, chaired by Kelvin Thomson.

Special Guest: Michael Buxton.

Previous Episode

Mini Episode: Shane Simonsen on Farming, Podcasts, Books and Population

In this mini episode, Post-Growth Australia Podcast reunites with Dr. Shane Simonson.

Last time we spoke with Shane in PGAP season 3, he gave us a tour of his 'Zero Input Agriculture' farm in Queensland.

We caught up with Shane to get an update of the farm - including the addition of some new four legged residents - only to discover that Shane has branched out accross many projects including:

Cohosting the Going To Seed Podcast.. This podcast is of special interest to anyone wanting to explore deeply into alternative and revolutionary crop breeders from around the world. The episode with Bruce Pascoe will be of particular interest to Australian listeners.

Shane has written a biological hard scifi novel "Our Vitreous Womb", under the author name Haldane B. Doyle. You can find more about Shane's impressive work of fiction here.

Shane has also written a non fiction novel "Taming the Apocalypse", a short novella exploring the potential of novel domestications and low tech biotechnology to guide humanity through the end of industrial civilisation. Find out more here.

Shane's two articles mentioned in the interview, are The City Is A Lion and The Genie in the Bottleneck. These articles will be of interest to anyone interested in overpopulation and seeking an original, perspective on the issue.

PGAP is made possible by the kind support of Sustainable Population Australia. All guest opinions, perspectives and past and present legacies are exclusively their own and may not always reflects those of PGAP or SPA. PGAP's official position on the population debate may be read at our [BLOG HERE].(https://pgap.fireside.fm/articles/population)

Please rate and review PGAP on Apple Podcast

Special Guest: Dr. Shane Simonsen.

Next Episode

Season Six Finale with Degrowth Network Australia

For the season six finale, PGAP welcomes three core members of Degrowth Network Australia: Sandy Gonzalez de la Vega Gonzalez, Tonié Field and Jess Prescott.

According to the Degrowth blog: "As degrowth becomes a more familiar term worldwide, a loose informal network of Australian degrowth activists, scholars and advocates has emerged into the formal Degrowth Network Australia (DNA)."

Although a new collective, DNA has already made their mark through workshops, Degrowth themed festivals, and at the New Economy Network Australia 2023 conference, through theatrical degrowth scenario skits. It was through this interactive workshop at the 'Life After Capitalism' conference that PGAP co-host Michael Bayliss was inspired to invite DNA as esteemed PGAP guests.

During this episode, we explore the emerging popularity of the Degrowth movement and how presenting Degrowth concepts within fun and interactive ways such as theatrical skits is a means of broadening the movement beyond the academic sphere and include younger generations, local communities and mainstream society. Our guests each share their stories of how they arrived at the Degrowth movement and their perspectives on why we can't have infinite growth on a finite planet.

To contribute, join the DNA network or get more details, contact Anisa Rogers at [email protected] or Natalie Lowrey at [email protected] or [email protected]

Remember to RATE and REVIEW PGAP on APPLE PODCAST or on your favourite platform. You can also SUBSCRIBE to PGAP or CONTACT US with your thoughts, feedback or suggestions for future topics and guests. As we take a short break, we would really love to hear from you, our valued listeners and PGAP community.

In the meantime, you may also be interest in PGAP's coverage of the NENA conference HERE (Michael is still kicking himself for not recording the DNA workshop at the conference). You can find out more about your co-hosts Michael Bayliss HERE and Mark Allen[ HERE].(https://holisticactivism.net/)

Special Guests: Sandy Gonzalez de la Vega Gonzalez and Tonié Field.