Suzanne Vallance

Biography

Dr Vallance completed her Masters degree on neighbor's responses to infill housing and urban intensification, and this sparked an enduring interest in the ways in which cities influence and are influenced by people. She began teaching full-time at Lincoln University in 2008 having completing her PhD on the topic of urban sustainability in New Zealand and has since continued exploring the ways in which people, collectively, make and remake cities, even under conditions of uncertainty.

Research Interest

Dr Vallance has long-standing interest in (urban) everyday life, collective efforts to shape cities and the broader frameworks through which these efforts are mediated. Through her own work and supervision, she has explored various aspects of urban sustainability and resilience, such as gardens, homekill networks, vacant spaces, house and home, GMOs, seafood gathering, and the commodification of community. She is currently PI on two recent research projects, the first of which explores the role of communities in earthquake recovery and their interactions with formal recovery agencies. The second is a Marsden-funded participant action research project exploring the ‘contingent planning’ strategies, tactics and practices of networks involved in temporary use installations in the inner city, and the epistemological politics that differentiate them from ‘formal’ modes of knowing and acting in an uncertain world.