Connected Cities Lab
a laboratory designed to address the challenges that city leadership faces, and the information it needs, in an interconnected and increasingly urbanised planet.
Cities are on the frontlines of the current coronavirus pandemic crisis.
COVID-19 has imposed exceptional measures of unprecedented impact in recent history and is shaking the foundations of our daily lives, from social interactions to economic relations and everyday wellbeing, in major centres the world over. It is the very ‘connected cities’ nature of our urbanised planet that facilitated the global spread of COVID-19 and foregrounds some of our biggest challenges, but city leaders are also stepping up to the test posed by the coronavirus whilst digital, social and political connections are being recast in settlements in the Global North and South.
Building on existing efforts in the areas of urban policy and health, as well as wellbeing and cities, the Connected Cities Lab is engaging in a number of ways in the current response to COVID-19, advocating for an evidence-based, equitable and inclusive, and innovation-oriented approach to the crisis. On this page, you will find a repository of these engagements.
We also encourage consulting the work of the University’s Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, at the forefront of COVID-19 response.
We work with key stakeholders in urban governance to provide evidence, build capacity and offer advice on the global dynamics shaping the leadership of cities. We offer reliable and innovative sources of applied urban research, producing both policy material, practice-oriented education and scholarly reviews. Connected Cities Lab specialises on the ways networks, international processes and information influence urban governance, and strives to link academic research to practical needs.
News & Events
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Covid-19 should spur us to think like cities
Pandemic outbreaks regularly surface global lessons in urban health and planning. Michele Acuto looks at what the covid-19 pandemic can teach us
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From crisis to crisis? Melbourne in the midst of COVID-19
Michele Acuto, Lab Director, explores how managing a global city like Melbourne in the midst of overlapping crises might just be the new state of affairs.
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Greening our grey cities: here’s how green roofs and walls can flourish in Australia
Tomorrow is the first World Green Roof Day. Cities around the world will celebrate the well-documented environmental, economic and social benefits of green roofs. New ground-level green spaces are difficult to create in high-density urban areas. As a result, other forms of city greening – green roofs, green walls and vegetated facades – are increasingly popular.
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Migrants Hold the Key to Urban Resilience and COVID-19 Recovery
Michele Acuto and Daniel Pejic from Connected Cities Lab explain why addressing urban migrant vulnerability strengthens the resilience of cities and fast-tracks our recovery from COVID-19.
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How will the travel bubble work?
Plans for the Trans-Tasman bubble are gathering pace with suggestions it could be up and running by July. Saturday AM asks how travel is going to change and whether Pacific nations will be included.
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Coronavirus will reshape our cities – we just don't know how yet
The development of cities has been by affected by disease for centuries, so what legacy will Covid-19 leave on urban life?
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U.S. cities are at a coronavirus crossroads. How can they become more resilient?
The COVID-19 pandemic has given us a glimpse of the best and the worst that cities have to offer. But how can we make them more resilient to future pandemics and infectious diseases?
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Local and international cities announced as our SDGs Cities Challenge begins
Ten cities across Oceania and the Asia-Pacific region have come together to undertake the SDGs Cities Challenge run by Connected Cities Lab and the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne with partners the Business Council for Sustainable Development Australia (BCSDA) and Banksia Foundation.
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Flushing is our next weapon against COVID-19, if you’re happy to have your sewage scrutinised
Anna Kosovac, Research Fellow, and Erin O'Donnell show we may have a surprising new ally in the bid to contain the COVID-19 outbreak: your sewage.
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How cities around the world are handling COVID-19 - and why we need to measure their preparedness
Michele Acuto, Lab Director, contributes in this article to the continued discussion of how cities, hubs for transnational business and movement, have the potential to amplify pandemic risk and could benefit from a pandemic preparedness index to better plan for and respond to epidemic outbreaks. There is currently no such map of city-preparedness around the world.
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What's happening in our cities at night?
How our cities function at night, and the associated economy, is becoming an increasingly important focus for urban planners and city leaders both overseas and in Australia. We talked to ABC RN Life Matters.
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A not so silent night
Understanding what happens in cities after dark is crucial to global sustainable development, but will also help create a fairer society that values the night-time economy
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Actionable Research
Should city research be led by cities?
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Cities and the UN
What place do cities have in the United Nations?
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City Diplomacy
Do cities need foreign policies?
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City Networks
The networked frontier of city leadership
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City Resilience Strategies
City actions contributing to resilient urban futures
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Comparative Imaginations
How do cities think of each other?
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Critical Geographies of Urban Philanthropy
What is the role of philanthropic institutions in the future of cities?
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Environment Politics Beyond Environment
How can environment politics go beyond the essentialist morality of ‘protecting nature’?
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Evidence 2 Action
How can we enable healthy child-friendly cities?
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Great Powers and Urbanization Project
How is geopolitics being shaped in the ‘urban age’?
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Healthy City Leadership
Supporting the World Health Organization in driving healthy and sustainable urban governance
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Innovate4Cities
What knowledge do cities need to meet their climate action ambitions?
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Knowledge in Action for Urban Equality
Can we co-produce more equal cities?
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Leading Cities
Is urban governance delivering on its promises?
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Science and the Future of Cities
A Nature Sustainability Expert Panel
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SDGs Cities Challenge
A collaborative project seeking to contribute to the implementation of key urban Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets and indicators.
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Urban Observatories
Leveraging urban data to shape cities
Recent outputs
Trundle, A. (2020). Resilient cities in a Sea of Islands: Informality and climate change in the South Pacific. Cities, 97, 102496.
Acuto, M. (2020). Engaging with global urban governance in the midst of a crisis. Dialogues in Human Geography 10(2): 221-224.
Jon, I. (2020). A manifesto for planning after the coronavirus: Towards planning of care. Planning Theory, 19:3.
Rogers, D., Herbert, M., Murray, K. et al. (2020). The city under COVID: Podcasting as a digital methodology. Journal of Economic and Social Geography, 111: 434-450.
Acuto, M. (2020). COVID-19: Lessons for an Urban (izing) World. One Earth, 2(4), 317-319.
Jon, I. (2020). Scales of Political Action in the Anthropocene: Gaia, Networks, and Cities as Frontiers of Doing Earthly Politics. Global Society, 1-23.
Hensley, M., Mateo-Babiano, D., Minnery, J., & Pojani, D. (2020). How diverging interests in public health and urban planning can lead to less healthy cities. Journal of Planning History, 19(2), 71-89.
Professor Michele Acuto, Lab Director and Professor of Global Urban Politics
Kate Murray, Lab Coordinator
Jessie Briggs, Research Fellow in Urban Sustainability
Geoffrey Browne, Postdoctoral Research Fellow In International Urban Development
Stephanie Butcher, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in International Urban Politics
Jennifer Dam, Project Coordinator on Botnar Evidence to Action
Kazi Nazrul Fattah, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in International Urban Politics
Pablo Fuentenebro Alonso, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in International Urban Politics
Paris Hadfield, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Urban Innovation
Thomas Jacobs, Project Officer in SDGs Cities Challenge and Innovate4Cities
Ihnji Jon, Lecturer in International Urban Politics
Hyung Min Kim, Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning
Anna Kosovac, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in International Urban Politics
Inderlina Mateo-Babiano, Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning
Alexei Trundle, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Sustainable Urban Development
Enterprise Fellows
Joyati Das, Enterprise Principal Fellow in International Urban Development
Cathy Oke, Melbourne Enterprise Senior Fellow in Informed Cities
Project Researchers
Ariana Dickey, Research Assistant in Urban Innovation
Shelby Bassett, Research Assistant in Urban Policy
Doctoral Researchers
Sombol Mohkles - "Climate Change Experimentation in International City Networks” University Graduate Research Scholarship
Caitlin Morrissey - “Making Up the Global City” Dual Melbourne-Manchester PhD Award
Daniel Pejic - "City as Group Agent in Global Migration Governance" Lab Scholarship
Jana Perkovic -"Form Follows Finance: Redesigning Housing Markets" Lab Scholarship
Partners
The Business of Cities, The Comparative Imagination
Chicago Council on Global Affairs, City Diplomacy, Great Powers and Urbanization Project
The Economist Intelligence Unit, The Comparative Imagination
Fondation Botnar, Evidence to Action
Global Covenant of Mayors, Innovate4Cities
International Sustainability Unit, Science and the Future of Cities
Nature Sustainability, Science and the Future of Cities
University College London, Knowledge in Action for Urban Equality
UCL Grand Challenge for Sustainable Cities, Science and the Future of Cities
We deliver education that builds upon Lab research to inform the next generation of city leaders and encourage research-led education.
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Studio N: Managing Cities at Night
This intensive studio tackles the ‘night time’ challenge for built environment practitioners and offers a venue to further refine interdisciplinary and policy-relevant skills of urban planning, urban design and architecture professionals.
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Studio R: Urban Resilience
The ultimate learning purpose of this studio is to enhance the general understanding of ‘resilience’ and to seek proper applications of this concept in ecological/sustainable urbanism projects, with special focus on water-resiliency and climate-led disaster mitigation.
Get in touch: urban research is an inherently collaborative endeavour!
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Collaborate
Propose a project or raise a pressing issue for the Lab’s team to tackle via quantitative and qualitative urban analysis: testing methods with real-world applications. Propose a Melbourne School of Design studio partnership on a key issue of international urban planning/governance for your city, industry or program
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Connect
Join the conversation and keep up with all the Lab happenings through our Twitter account @networkedcities
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Support
Engage with the Lab’s professional education in city leadership, urban governance and negotiation. Support a Melbourne School of Design doctoral or master scholar to work on a pressing challenge that currently shapes your practice.