ABSTRACT
The chapter aims is to capture representative language, terminology and topics that tend to dominate studies related to housing sustainability in low carbon cities, using distinct clusters: physical and environmental sciences, building science, engineering and construction management; housing studies, affordability, markets, rights and access; households and home, cultural geography, material culture and sociology of consumption; and urban planning, policy and administration, policy innovation, transition management. Coherence emerges from logics, methodologies and methods that are recognisable and commonly used, and that relate to implicit or explicit theories favoured within each cluster of perspectives. A combination of New Urbanism and the burst of environmental concern since the publication of Silent Spring has prompted widespread concern about urban sustainability. The chapter presents multiple and sometimes competing academic perspectives on housing and urban sustainability. The main point to emphasise is the need to supplement technical expertise with interdisciplinary approaches that include institutional insight, understanding and analyses informed by sound political and social theory.
