Nicholas Low

Nicholas Low is a Professorial Fellow of the University of Melbourne. After qualifying as an architect at the Architectural Association in London, he took his Master of Urban Planning degree at Strathclyde University, Glasgow. Tutored by sociologist, Dr Sean Damer, he found that there was much more to town planning than drawing patterns on maps. At the core of planning lay political doctrines and institutions. Nick then worked as a city planner in the outer London Borough of Hillingdon. After...See more

Nicholas Low is a Professorial Fellow of the University of Melbourne. After qualifying as an architect at the Architectural Association in London, he took his Master of Urban Planning degree at Strathclyde University, Glasgow. Tutored by sociologist, Dr Sean Damer, he found that there was much more to town planning than drawing patterns on maps. At the core of planning lay political doctrines and institutions. Nick then worked as a city planner in the outer London Borough of Hillingdon. After moving to Melbourne University in 1974 as a lecturer in planning, he studied the evolution of cities, planning, and environments and their political contexts - with growing concern for the substitution of the market and politicians for professional planning. In the 1990s turning towards environmental planning, he found that democracies were failing to prepare for an overheating world. In 1997 he convened the first international conference on environmental justice ( Environmental Justice: Global Ethics for the 21st Century ). He has authored, co-authored, or edited 11 books including Planning, Politics and the State (sole author, 1991), Justice, Society and Nature: An Exploration of Political Ecology (1998 with Brendan Gleeson), The Green City: Sustainable Homes, Sustainable Suburbs (2005, with Gleeson, Green, and Radovic), Transforming Urban Transport: The Ethics, Politics and Practices of Sustainable Mobility (ed. 2013), and Being a Planner in Society: For People, Planet, Place (sole author, 2020). His work is also published in many international refereed journals and book chapters. See less