1. Urban Low Carbon Transitions: Housing and Urban Change

The central question for this chapter is: how can urban and transitions perspectives assist understandings of low carbon housing and urban change? Current ‘urban’ and ‘transitions’ perspectives are presented along with recent and current attempts to bring urban and spatial perspectives to transitions studies. Australia as a site for urban transitions studies is considered, and three aspects of low carbon housing and urban change are highlighted: policy settings and governance, spatial/urban dimensions and carbon and consumption context. Contributions of urban and transitions perspectives to understanding low carbon housing and urban change are explored through two case examples of low carbon housing and urban change in Australia: photovoltaic panels on domestic rooftops and broader retrofitting and renovation activity towards low carbon housing. Transitions perspectives include the multilevel perspective and Transition Management. While these vary, the focus here is that they can each provide useful insights when coupled with other perspectives of urban and social change. Power, space and consumption all feature in practices of urban low carbon transitions, and it is essential that further analytical tools are brought to bear in these domains. They offer a scale for the study of cultural projects where change is as likely to be associated with cultural or social change as by policy settings.