DISCURSIVE & INSTITUTIONAL BARRIERS TO URBAN ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF INFRASTRUCTURE POLICY IN SYDNEY, MELBOURNE & PERTH

Abstract

This research project will discover what stands in the way of adoption of a new policy paradigm: ?environmental sustainability?. Through our case studies in transport policy we will be able to explain how structures of reasoning, together with institutions and discursive networks, persistently influence decision makers, creating barriers to paradigmatic change. Our work will make an internationally important theoretical contribution to the field of public policy, urban environmental politics and the theory of ecological modernisation. On a practical level the work will provide new analytical tools and concepts for urban planning, enabling improvement to policy making and implementation.