Description
Ownership or tenancy of a residential property in master-planned estates is emblematic of middle-class urban life. Such density and scale of living inevitably lead to two consequences: the need to collectively contribute to property maintenance, and the rise of property-related disputes at the neighbourhood level. Does the experience of urban living in these respects vary according to the local constitution of the nation-state or the larger political system within which it could be found? To this end, the present article examines the provisions for deliberations on property-related matters that are relevant to the Australian city of Sydney, and the Chinese city of Suzhou. Focus is placed on the corresponding legislative and regulatory frameworks plus the reasons for their adaptations. Included in the analysis are changes to frameworks and also their adaptations in practice. In so doing, not only can recent parts of the trajectories taken by two politically contrasting nation-states be tracked, questions are raised as to how such apparently polar opposites as the official versus the civil, the public versus the private, and lifeworld versus the system, and the liberal versus the undemocratic may co-exist in the same local governance system.| Period | 2017 |
|---|---|
| Event title | Deliberative Democracy Conference |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Melbourne, AustraliaShow on map |