Urban spaces and social lives

Our research explores the union of social life and urban spaces and examines what is existing and developing in modern urban life.

Students in the quad

We consider the many lived experiences of social spaces, inequality and social difference (race, class, gender, age, sexuality), and the potential for progressive change in the worlds we inhabit.

Our investigations also study the social experiences of a range of more-than-urban spaces and processes; from households to asylums, migration, post-disaster, and cultural diversity. We draw on ideas and approaches from geography and the broader social sciences to ask what creates the intersection and divergence of the urban and the social in analytical, practical and political terms.

Our research topics

  • Cities and the mobility of policy ideas 
  • Temporary migration and urban incorporation in Auckland 
  • Urban food networks in Auckland 
  • Finance capital and the built environment 
  • Resilient urban futures
  • Ageing well: independence, housing tenure and wellbeing
  • Acceptability' and access to primary care

Our researchers