Doctor Louise Crabtree

Biography

Dr Crabtree was awarded her PhD in Human Geography from Macquarie University in 2007 and has been with the Urban Research Centre since 2007. Her research focuses on the social, ecological and economic sustainability of community-driven housing developments in urban Australia; on the uptake of housing innovation in practice and policy; on complex adaptive systems theory in urban contexts; and, on the interfaces between sustainability, property rights, institutional design and democracy. She is interested in the translation of the community land trust model of land stewardship from the US and UK into an Australian context, and in challenges encountered in scaling up or replicating innovation in housing design and delivery.

Current research focuses on complex adaptive systems theory in housing, and on models of perpetually affordable housing, multifunctional land use and adaptive comanagement.

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Areas of Research / Teaching Expertise

Urban studies, Sustainability, Human geography, Housing, Community land trusts, Adaptive comanagement, Resilience

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Grants / Current Projects

2010-2011 'Community land trusts and indigenous housing options', AHURI research grant.

2008-09 'Housing affordability, adaptive comanagement and resilience: an audit of innovative housing in Australia'. University of Western Sydney Research Seed Grant Scheme.

2008 'Shared equity housing: contemporary models of land stewardship in the USA'. Urban Research Centre seed grant.

2000-2005 'Messy humans, dirty economies and leaky houses: citizenship, sustainability and housing'. Australian Postgraduate Award.

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Awards and Recognition

2009 Housing Minister's Award for Early Career Researchers

2005 Institute of Australian Geographers award for an Outstanding Postgraduate Presentation

2000 Jim Rose Prize for Honours in Human Geography, Macquarie University

1996 Global Environment Prize, Macquarie University

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Publications

Book chapters

Crabtree L (2011) 'Build it like you mean it: replicating ethical innovation in physical and institutional design' in Gorman-Murray A and R Lane (eds) Material Geographies of Household Consumption. Surrey: Ashgate, forthcoming.

Crabtree L (2011) 'Watch where that went, we may need it later: reflections on material flows in and through home' in Gorman-Murray A and R Lane (eds) Material Geographies of Household Consumption. Surrey: Ashgate, forthcoming.

Crabtree L (2010) 'CLT applications in Australia', in Davis J (ed.) Common Ground: the Community Land Trust Reader. Cambridge, MA: the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 464-474.

Crabtree L (2009) 'Sub/urban dream(ing): land speculation and the quarter acre block', in de Souza K and Begg Z (eds) There Goes the Neighbourhood: Redfern and the Politics of Urban Space. Sydney: You Are Here, 102-105.

Journal articles

Crabtree L (forthcoming) 'Housing as a complex adaptive system: the capacity and roles of social networks and governance in sustainable and affordable housing in Australia', Housing, Theory and Society, under review.

Crabtree L and Hes D (2009) 'Sustainability uptake in housing in metropolitan Australia: an institutional problem, not a technological one', Housing Studies, 24(2), 203-224.

Crabtree L (2008) 'The role of tenure, work and cooperativism in sustainable urban livelihoods', Acme, 7(2), 260-282.

Crabtree L (2006) 'Sustainability begins at home? An ecological exploration of sub/urban Australian community-focussed housing initiatives', Geoforum, 37(4), 519-535.

Crabtree L (2006) 'Disintegrated houses: exploring ecofeminist housing and urban design options', Antipode, 38(4), 711-734.

Crabtree L (2005) 'Sustainable Housing Development in Urban Australia: exploring obstacles to and opportunities for ecocity efforts', Australian Geographer, 36(3), 333-350.

Refereed conference papers

Crabtree L (2009) 'Housing as a social-ecological system: resilience, adaptive capacity and governance considerations', Randolph B, Burke T, Hulse K and Milligan V (eds) Refereed papers presented at the 4th Australasian Housing Researchers Conference, Sydney, 5th - 7th August 2009. Sydney: City Futures Research Centre, University of New South Wales. http://www.fbe.unsw.edu.au/cf/apnhr/papers/Attachments/Crabtree.pdf

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Professional activities

Dr Crabtree has acted as a reviewer for Australian Geographer, Business Strategy and the Environment, Environment and Planning A, Environment Design Guide, Geoforum, Housing Studies, Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, Transforming Cultures, Urban Policy and Research. 

Dr Crabtree was a member of the Board of Directors, Association to Resource Cooperative Housing, 2007-09 and Common Equity NSW, 2009-2010. In 2010 Dr Crabtree was pivotal in the establishment of the Waratah Community Land Trust Association.

Dr Crabtree maintains a website to disseminate her research at http://www.thirdangel.com/sustainability and occasionally blogs at http://urbansustainability.wordpress.com/.

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