Amelia Thorpe is Associate Professor in Law. Amelia works in planning, property and environmental law, focusing on mobility and urban governance. Her approach is sociolegal and interdisciplinary, drawing on professional experience in planning and urban development and in public interest environmental law. Amelia has a particular interest in the governance of streets and is currently leading research on food delivery cyclists funded by the James Martin Institute for Public Policy.
Amelia is the author of Owning the Street: The Everyday Life of Property (MIT Press, 2020), which is reviewed in Canadian Journal of Law & Jurisprudence, City & Community, Contemporary Sociology, Emotion, Space & Society, Journal of Sociology, Landscape Journal, Law & Social Inquiry, Legalities, Planning Theory and Town Planning Review. Amelia's essays and commentary have appeared in The Conversation, Griffith Review, The Guardian and The Sydney Morning Herald, among other venues. Some of her publications can be downloaded freely at: http://ssrn.com/author=2832516.
Amelia has held fellowships and visiting appointments at UC Berkeley, McGill and the Centre for Canadian Architecture, and her research has been funded by organisations including the Australian Research Council, James Martin Institute, and the federal Office of Road Safety. She is co-editor of Australian Planner, the journal of record for the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA), and serves on the editorial board of Environmental & Planning Law Journal. Amelia also serves on the Board of Shelter NSW and on several planning and design review panels, including the Sydney Eastern City District Planning Panel and the Fairfield Local Planning Panel. Amelia was founding co-chair of the PIA NSW Women in Planning Network, leading the development of Australia’s first national gender equity policy for the planning profession. She has served on numerous bodies focused on inclusion and diversity at UNSW, including as Deputy Academic Lead of the Athena Swan Self-Assessment Team, co-chair of the UNSW Women in Research Network, and chair of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee in Law.
Amelia joined UNSW Law in 2012, having worked previously as a director at the Environmental Defender’s Office, Australia’s largest and oldest public interest environmental law organisation. She led the EDO’s legal outreach programs, including indigenous and community engagement in NSW and a capacity-building program for environmental law in the Pacific region, working primarily on climate change at national and international levels.
Before Law Amelia studied Architecture and City Policy, and worked for the planning, transport and housing departments in Western Australia. This included the award-winning TravelSmart and Liveable Neighbourhoods programs, as well as New Metro Rail, then the largest infrastructure project ever undertaken in the state, and Dialogue with the City, a deliberative planning process involving more than 1,000 people. A particular interest in the policy and regulatory aspects of urban development led her to study law. Amelia completed law degrees at the University of Oxford and at Harvard Law School and, later, a PhD at ANU.
Amelia has three young children and has worked part time throughout her academic career.
Book Chapters
Thorpe A, 2024, 'Disrupting Infrastructure: Space, Speed and Street Governance', in Addie J-PD; Glass MR; Nelles J (ed.), Infrastructural Times Temporality and the Making of Global Urban Worlds, Bristol University Press, https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/infrastructural-times
Thorpe A, 2022, 'Property and planning', in The Routledge Handbook of Property, Law and Society, Routledge, pp. 389 - 398, http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003139614-37
Flynn A; Thorpe A, 2021, 'Pandemic pop-ups and the performance of legality', in Doucet B; van Melik R; Filion P (ed.), Volume 3: Public Space and Mobility, Bristol University Press, Bristol, https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/volume-3-public-space-and-mobility
Thorpe AL; Stickells L; Moore T, 2017, 'Pop-up justice? Reflecting on relationships in the temporary city', in Hennebury J (ed.), Transience and Permanence in Urban Development, Wiley, pp. 151 - 169, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781119055662.ch10
Thorpe AL, 2017, 'Between rights in the city and the right to the city: Heritage, character and public participation in urban planning', in Durbach A; Lixinski L (ed.), Heritage, Culture and Rights: Challenging legal discourses, Hart
Thorpe AL, 2016, 'Land Use Planning', in The Environmental Law Handbook - Planning and Land Use in New South Wales, Thomson Reuters
Journal articles
Cohen AJ; Morgan B, 2023, 'Prefigurative Legality', Law and Social Inquiry, 48, pp. 1053 - 1082, http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/lsi.2023.4
2023, 'PREFIGURATIVE INFRASTRUCTURE: Mobility, Citizenship, and the Agency of Objects', , http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.13141
2023, 'Mapping the frontiers of private property in New South Wales, Australia', , http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1745-5871.12581
Beck B; Thorpe A; Timperio A; Giles-Corti B; William C; de Leeuw E; Christian H; Corben K; Stevenson M; Backhouse M; Ivers R; Hayek R; Raven R; Bolton S; Ameratunga S; Shilton T; Zapata-Diomedi B, 2022, 'Active transport research priorities for Australia', Journal of Transport and Health, 24, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2021.101288
2022, 'Prefigurative Legality: Rethinking Municipal Jurisdiction', , http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00420980221107767
Morgan B; Thorpe A, 2022, 'Place-based pedagogies of hope', International Journal of Law in Context, 18, pp. 427 - 439, http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1744552322000325
Morgan B; Thorpe A; Cooper D, 2021, 'The hopeful edges of power: Radical governance and acting ‘as if’', Griffith Review, 73, pp. 233 - 245, http://dx.doi.org/10.25904/1912/4266
Thorpe A, 2021, 'Regulatory Gentrification: Documents, displacement and the loss of low-income housing', Urban Studies, 58, pp. 2623 - 2639, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0042098020960569
Thorpe A, 2021, '"This Land is Yours": Ownership and Agency in the Sharing City', Journal of Law and Society, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1111/(ISSN)1467-6478.2021-SLSA-Conference
Thorpe A, 2021, 'Reclaiming the Streets? Possibilities for Post-Pandemic Public Space', Town Planning Review, 92, http://dx.doi.org/10.3828/tpr.2020.36
2021, 'Trusted institutions: Expertise, gender, and legitimacy on planning panels', , http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8500.12511
Morgan B; Thorpe A, 2018, 'Introduction: Law for a new economy: Enterprise, sharing, regulation', Journal of Law and Society, 45, pp. 1 - 9, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jols.12075
Thorpe A, 2018, 'Pop-up Property: Enacting ownership from San Francisco to Sydney', Law and Society Review, 52, pp. 740 - 772, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12347
Thorpe A, 2018, 'Hegel's Hipsters: Claiming Ownership in the Contemporary City', SOCIAL & LEGAL STUDIES, 27, pp. 25 - 48, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0964663917701304
Thorpe A, 2018, '"This Land is Yours": Ownership and Agency in the Sharing City', Journal of Law and Society, 45, pp. 99 - 115, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jols.12081
Thorpe A, 2017, 'Rethinking Participation, Rethinking Planning', Planning Theory & Practice, 18, pp. 566 - 582, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14649357.2017.1371788
Thorpe AL, 2013, 'Public participation in planning: Lessons from the green bans', Environmental and Planning Law Journal, 30, pp. 93 - 105
Thorpe AL, 2013, 'Planning with the Public? Participation in the reform of the NSW planning system', Alternative Law Journal, pp. 272 - 272
Thorpe A, 2013, 'Planning with the Public?', Alternative Law Journal, 38, pp. 272 - 273, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1037969x1303800415
Thorpe AL; Hart MA, 2013, 'Changing Climates, Changing Cities? Planning Reform and Urban Sustainability in New South Wales', The Australasian Journal of Natural Resources Law and Policy, 16, pp. 133 - 156, http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=204711638848451;res=IELHSS
Thorpe AT, 2012, 'Too little, too soon? An assessment of Australian carbon capture and storage legislation against the new standards set for the Clean Development Mechanism', Climate Law, 3, pp. 139 - 163, http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/CL-2012-060
Thorpe AL, 2012, 'Country Profile: Australia', Carbon and Climate Law Review, pp. 261 - 261
Thorpe AL; Graham K, 2009, 'Community-based Monitoring, Reporting and Verification of REDD Projects', Carbon and Climate Law Review, 3, pp. 303
Thorpe AL; Graham K, 2009, 'Green Buildings: Are codes, standards and targets sufficient drivers of sustainability in NSW?', Environmental and Planning Law Journal, 26, pp. 486 - 497
Thorpe A, 2008, 'Tort-Based Climate Change Litigation and the Political Question Doctrine', Journal of Land Use and Environmental Law, 24, pp. 79 - 105, https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/jluenvl24&div=6&id=&page=
Thorpe A, 1999, 'Version to Version: ARM’s Architecture Revisited for a New Landscape', Kerb, pp. 23 - 33
Thorpe A, 1999, 'Déjà vu: Memory in Architecture', Architectural Theory Review, 4, pp. 64 - 73
Conference Papers
Thorpe A; Johnson M; Hercus C; Rudge T; Boufous S, 2023, '“You exercise and you get paid for it”: insights from bicycle delivery riders', Perth, Western Australia, Australia, 6009, presented at Australasian Transport Research Forum, Perth, Western Australia, Australia, 6009, 29 November 2023 - 01 December 2023, https://australasiantransportresearchforum.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/ATRF_2023_Paper_139.pdf
Thorpe A; Johnson M; Hercus C; Rudge T; Boufous S, 2023, 'Recruiting for road safety research: vital voices, scams and safeguards', Cairns, Queensland, Australia, 4870, presented at Australasian Road Safety Conference, Cairns, Queensland, Australia, 4870, 18 September 2023 - 21 September 2023
Thorpe A; Johnson M; Hercus C; Boufous S, 2022, 'Improving road safety for food delivery cyclists', Christchurch, New Zealand, presented at Australasian Road Safety Conference 2022, Christchurch, New Zealand, 28 September 2022
Thorpe AL; Stickells L, 2014, 'Beyond Protest: Activism and participation in 1970s Sydney', in Gjerde M; Petrovic E (ed.), UHPH_14: Landscapes and Ecologies of Urban and Planning History Proceedings of the 12th Australasian Urban History/Planning History Conference, Australasian Urban History/Planning History Group and Victoria University of Wellington, Victoria University of Wellington, NZ, pp. 797 - 814, presented at 12th Australasian Urban History/Planning History Conference, Victoria University of Wellington, NZ, 02 February 2014 - 02 February 2014
Reports
Thorpe A; McCabe A; Johnson C; Hobbs E; Bailey M; Hartigan M, 2021, Developing a national gender equity policy for the planning profession: A discussion paper, Planning Institute of Australia, https://www.planning.org.au/documents/item/11266
Lee A; McCabe G; Thorpe A; Gibbs R; Bondfield R, 2021, Measuring and Evaluating Extended Outdoor Dining, Sydney
Thorpe A, 2021, Submission to the Greater Sydney Parklands White Paper
Dagraville R; Anwar M; Tomka K; Thorpe A; Kuch D; Milton A; Hasan K; McGrath B; Meegahapola L; Tirunagari S; Jalili M; Newman P; Verschuer M; Economou D; James B; Hargroves C; Mouritz M; Dwyer S; Nagrath K; Paevere P; Spak B; Pellow M; Chhaya S; Barnfather P; Jafari B; Fick J, 2021, Electric vehicles and the grid, https://www.racefor2030.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/N1-EV-Opportunity-Assessement-Report-FINAL_04112021.pdf
McCabe A; Grech E; Thorpe A, 2020, Post Approval Social Impact Management Review: Discussion Paper
2020, Creating the City We Want: Tackling the Barriers to Housing Diversity in NSW
Thorpe AL, 2017, Submission to the NSW Government on the 'Planning legislation updates 2017
Thorpe A; Holley C, 2016, Submission to the NSW Government on 'Revised Consultative Committee Guidelines for State Significant Projects'
Thorpe AL, 2014, Submission to the Productivity Commission on the 'Access to Justice Arrangements Draft Report'
Thorpe AL; Hart M, 2014, Submission to the NSW Government on the 'BASIX Target Review'
Thorpe AL, 2013, Submission to the NSW Government on the 'New Planning System for NSW White Paper, Planning Bill 2013 and Planning (Administration) Bill 2013'
Thorpe AL, 2013, Submission to the Productivity Commission on the 'Major Project Development Assessment Processes Issues Paper'
Thorpe A; Holley C; Sherry C, 2012, Submission to the NSW Government on the New Planning System for NSW Green Paper, Australia
Thorpe AL, 2011, Staying on Track: Tackling Corruption Risks in Climate Change, http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/librarypage/democratic-governance/anti-corruption/staying-on-track--tackling-corruption-risks-in-climate-change.html
Media
Thorpe A; Kuch D; Adams S, 2021, On an electric car road trip around NSW, we found range anxiety (and the need for more chargers) is real, , https://theconversation.com/on-an-electric-car-road-trip-around-nsw-we-found-range-anxiety-and-the-need-for-more-chargers-is-real-154071
Thorpe A; Green J, 2021, Owning the Street, , https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/blueprintforliving/owning-the-street/13235654
Thorpe A, 2020, Reclaiming the streets? We all can have a say in the ‘new normal’ after coronavirus, , https://theconversation.com/reclaiming-the-streets-we-all-can-have-a-say-in-the-new-normal-after-coronavirus-137703
Thorpe A, 2019, Labor pledges $14m funding boost to Environmental Defenders Offices – what do these services do?, , https://theconversation.com/labor-pledges-14m-funding-boost-to-environmental-defenders-offices-what-do-these-services-do-114360
Thorpe A, 2018, How to write a planning submission, , https://innersydneyvoice.org.au/wp-content/uploads/ISV_SPRING2018_web.pdf
Thorpe A, 2018, The case for parklets,
Thorpe A, 2017, Bush democracy wins out but council mergers continue in Sydney, , https://theconversation.com/bush-democracy-wins-out-but-council-mergers-continue-in-sydney-73118
Thorpe A, 2017, People love parklets, and businesses can help make them happen, , https://theconversation.com/people-love-parklets-and-businesses-can-help-make-them-happen-87172
Thorpe A, 2017, The homeless have no choice but to live life in public, , https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/the-homeless-have-no-choice-but-to-live-life-in-public-20170628-gx0cej.html#comments
Thorpe A, 2016, A Day for Turning Parking Spaces into Pop-up Parks, , https://theconversation.com/a-day-for-turning-parking-spaces-into-pop-up-parks-65164
Thorpe A, 2016, Why parking spaces are being turned into pop-up parks, , https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/sep/15/a-day-for-turning-parking-spaces-into-pop-up-parks
Thorpe A, 2015, Tiny Houses, Big Queues, , https://www.australiandesignreview.com/architecture/tiny-houses-big-queues/
Thorpe A, 2014, The Block shows up limitations in definition of ownership, , https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/the-block-shows-up-limitations-in-definition-of-ownership-20140707-zsz49.html
Thorpe A, 2012, Environmental defenders under attack: why funding must be restored, , https://theconversation.com/environmental-defenders-under-attack-why-funding-must-be-restored-10484
Other
Thorpe A, 2021, Informal urbanism in Sydney: Privilege, precarity, politics, Henry Halloran Trust, University of Sydney, , https://www.sydney.edu.au/content/dam/corporate/documents/henry-halloran-trust/festival-of-urbanism-review.pdf
Books
Thorpe A, 2020, Owning the Street: The Everyday Life of Property, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/owning-street
Preprints
Thorpe A, Hegel's Hipsters: Claiming Ownership in the Contemporary City, , http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3071552
Thorpe A, Between Rights in the City and the Right to the City: Heritage, Character and Public Participation in Urban Planning, , http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3071600
Thorpe A, Pop-up Property: Enacting Ownership from San Francisco to Sydney, , http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3503159
Thorpe A; Moore T; Stickells L, Pop-Up Justice? Reflecting on Relationships in the Temporary City, , http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3072130