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Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Lesley Head

Selected Works

2011

Suburbs

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Changing Cultures Of Water In Eastern Australian Backyard Gardens, Lesley M. Head, Pat Muir Aug 2011

Changing Cultures Of Water In Eastern Australian Backyard Gardens, Lesley M. Head, Pat Muir

Lesley Head

Research into diverse cultural understandings of water provides important contributions to the pressing global issue of sustainable supply, particularly when combined with analysis of relationships between everyday household practice and larger sociotechnical networks of storage and distribution. Here we analyse semi-structured interviews with 298 people about their 241 backyards in the Australian east coast cities of Sydney and Wollongong, undertaken during the 2002-03 drought. Water emerged as an important issue in both consciousness and practice. In contrast to a number of other environmental issues which stimulate more polarised responses, a commitment to reducing water consumption was shared across the study …


Retrofitting The Suburban Garden: Morphologies And Some Elements Of Sustainability Potential Of Two Australian Residential Suburbs Compared, Sumita Ghosh, Lesley M. Head Aug 2011

Retrofitting The Suburban Garden: Morphologies And Some Elements Of Sustainability Potential Of Two Australian Residential Suburbs Compared, Sumita Ghosh, Lesley M. Head

Lesley Head

No abstract provided.


Suburban Life And The Boundaries Of Nature: Resilience And Rupture In Australian Backyard Gardens, Lesley M. Head, Pat Muir Aug 2011

Suburban Life And The Boundaries Of Nature: Resilience And Rupture In Australian Backyard Gardens, Lesley M. Head, Pat Muir

Lesley Head

Despite an academic shift from dualistic to hybrid frameworks of culture/nature relations, separationist paradigms of environmental management have great resilience and vernacular appeal. The conditions under which they are reinforced, maintained or ruptured need more detailed attention because of the urgent environmental challenges of a humanly transformed earth. We draw on research in 265 Australian backyard gardens, focusing on two themes where conceptual and material bounding practices intertwine; spatial boundary-making and native plants. We trace the resilience of separationist approaches in the Australian context to the overlay of indigeneity/ non-indigeneity atop other dualisms, and their rupture to situations of close …