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Assoc. Prof. Phil McManus, BA, Grad Dip, MES, PhD

Associate Professor

Madsen Building (F09), Rm 435
Phone: +61 2 9351 4242
Fax: +61 2 9351 3644
Email:

Research Interests

My current research focuses on sustainable cities, urban forestry and representations of nature in the construction of a range of environmental issues. Within the area of sustainable cities I am researching the potential to develop Industrial Ecology, the use of metrics such as Ecological Footprints and migration issues such as the tree-change phenomenon in Australia. My research on nature includes thoroughbred breeding and the uses of nature. My work combines urban environmental history with policy and planning research that is future-oriented.

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Selected Publications

Books

  • McManus, P. (2005 reprinted 2008) Vortex Cities to Sustainable Cities: Australia’s Urban Challenge, UNSW Press.
  • McManus, P., O’Neill, P., and Loughran, R., (eds) (2000), Journeys: The Making of the Hunter Region. Allen & Unwin, Sydney
  • Pritchard, W. and McManus, P. (eds) (2000), Land of Discontent: The Dynamics of Change in Regional and Rural Australia, UNSW Press, Sydney

Book chapters

  • McManus, P. Albrecht, G. and Graham, R.: (forthcoming) “Constructing Thoroughbred Breeding Landscapes: Manufactured Idylls in the Upper Hunter Region of Australia” in Stanley D. Brunn (Ed.) Engineering Earth: The Impacts of Megaengineering Projects. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer Science+Business Media. Chapter 63
  • McManus, P. (2010) Planning with and for trees in Perth: Yesterday, today and tomorrow. In Alexander, I., Hedgcock, D. and Greive, S. (eds) Urban and Regional Development in Western Australia : Progress in Planning? Fremantle Press, Fremantle, 340-353.
  • Gleeson, B. and McManus, P. (2008) Urban Settlements. In Lindenmayer, D., Dovers, S., Harriss Olson, M. and Morton, S.(eds.) 10 Commitments: Reshaping the Lucky Country's Environment CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne. 37-42.
  • Barrett, J. and McManus, P. (2007) Civilising nature: museums and the environment. In G. Birch (ed.) Water wind art and debate, University of Sydney Press, Sydney, pp. 319-344.
  • McManus, P. (2005) “In whose interest? Consent, dissent and the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games” in Cryle, D. and Hillier, J. (eds) Consent and consensus: Politics, media and governance in twentieth century Australia, API Network, Perth, pp.179-196.
  • McManus, P. (2004) “Geography” in Blewitt, J. and Cullingford, C. (eds) The Sustainability Curriculum: The challenge for higher education, Earthscan, London, pp.218-231.
  • McManus, P. (2002) "Your Car Is As Welcome As You Are: A History of Transportation and Planning in the Perth Metropolitan Region" in Haebich, A., Trinca, M. & Gaynor, A., Country: Visions of Land and People in Western Australia, Western Australia Museum/Centre for Western Australia History at the University of Western Australia, pp. pp.187-211.
  • McManus, P., (2002) “One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: Communities, Urban Policy and Urban Planning in England” in Yiftachel, O., Little, J., Hedgcock, D., & Alexander, I. (eds) The Power of Planning: States, Communities and Social Change, Kluwer Academic Publications, the Hague. pp.45-55.
  • McManus, P., (2001), "Sustaining Unsustainability: Sausages, Actant Networks and the Australian Beef Industry" in Lockie, S. and Pritchard, B. (eds) - Consuming Foods, Sustaining Environments, Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, pp. 47-62.

Journal articles

  • Pritchard, B., Argent, N., Baum, S., Bourke, L., Martin, J., McManus, P., Sorensen, A., & Walmsley, J. (acccepted) “Local-if-possible: How the spatial networking of economic relations amongst farm enterprises aids small town survival in rural Australia”, Regional Studies.
  • Haughton, G. and McManus, P. (forthcoming) “Neoliberal experiments with urban infrastructure: The Cross City Tunnel, Sydney, Journal of International Urban and Regional Research.
  • McManus, P. (2008) A hot topic: Australia and the challenge of climate change. Nihon University journal. 3-16
  • McManus, P., (2008), Mines, wines and thoroughbreds: Towards regional sustainability in the Upper Hunter, Australia, Regional Studies. 42 (9), 1275-1290.
  • McManus, P. and Gibbs, D., (2008), Industrial Ecosystems? The Use of Tropes in the Industrial Ecology and Eco-Industrial Park Literature, Progress in Human Geography. 32 (4), 525-540.
  • Lawrence, K. and McManus, P. (2008) Towards Household Sustainability in Sydney? Impacts of Two Sustainable Lifestyle Workshop Programs on Water Consumption in Existing Homes, Geographical Research, 46 (3).314-332.
  • McManus, P. and Connell, J. (2008) Country Week – Bringing the City to the Country? Australian Humanities Review. 45, 53-66.
  • Shrestha, K. and McManus, P. (2008) The politics of community participation in natural resource management: Lessons from community forestry in Nepal. Australian Forestry Journal, 71 (2), 135-146.
  • McManus, P., (2008), Their grass is greener but ours is sweeter – Thoroughbred breeding and water management in the Upper Hunter region of New South Wales, Australia, Geoforum, 39 (3), 1296-1307.
  • Shrestha, K and McManus, P., (2007), The embeddedness of collective action in Nepalese community forestry, Small –scale Forestry, 6 (3), 273-290
  • Newell, B., Proust, K., Dyball, R. and McManus, P. (2007) Seeing obesity as a systems problem. NSW Public Health Bulletin 18 (11-12), 214-218.
  • McManus, P. and Haughton, G. (2006), “Planning with Ecological Footprints: a sympathetic critique of theory and practice”, Environment and Urbanization, 18 (1) 113-127.
  • Schweinsberg, S. and McManus, P., (2006) “Exploring the Transition: Coursework to Research Based Study in the Geography Honours Year”, Geographical Research, 44 (1) 52-62.
  • McManus, P., (2006) “Mangrove Battlelines: culture/nature and ecological restoration”, Australian Geographer, 2006, 37 (1), 57-71.
  • Bicknell, S. and McManus, P., (2006) “The canary in the coalmine: Australian ski resorts and their response to climate change”, Geographical Research, 44 (4), 386-400.
  • McManus, P. (2004) “Writing the palimpsest, again; Rozelle Bay and the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games", Urban Policy and Research. 157-167.
  • McManus, P., (2002), “The potential and limits of progressive neo-pluralism: a comparative study of forest politics in Coastal British Columbia and South East New South Wales during the 1990s”, Environment and Planning A, 34, pp.845-865.
  • McManus, P., (2000), "Beyond Kyoto? The media construction of a non-issue", Australian Geographical Studies, 38, 3, pp. 306-319.
  • McManus, P. and Pritchard, W., (2000), "Geography and the emergence of rural and regional Australia", Australian Geographer, 31, 3, pp.383-391.
  • Bridge, G. and McManus, P., (2000), “Sticks and Stones: Environmental Narratives and Regulation in the Forestry and Mining Sectors”, Antipode, 32, 1, pp.10-47.

Refereed Conference papers

  • McManus, P. (2007) “The changing port-city interface: moving towards sustainability? State of Australian Cities National Conference 2007, Volume 3, Adelaide, pp427-433.
  • McManus, P. (2005) “Sydney sucks! (chews and spits): Defining and measuring vortex cities and sustainable cities”, State of Australian Cities 2nd Conference, Paper: Environment 05, 30 November-2 December, 2005, Brisbane, pp1-11.
  • Shrestha, K. and McManus, P (2005) “Sustaining inequity? Rethinking the history of Nepalese forest policy” in Calver, M. et al (eds) Proceedings of the 6th National Conference of the Australian Forest History Society Inc., Millpress, Rotterdam, pp.681-692.

Encyclopedia/Dictionary entries

  • Dictionary of Human Geography, 5th Edition, (2009), D. Gregory, et al, (eds), Blackwell, Oxford.
    Entries: acid rain; common property regimes; deep ecology; energy; environmental audit; environmental economics; environmental impact assessment; environmental hazard; global commons; global warming (& greenhouse effect); pollution; recycling
  • Encyclopedia of Global Change: Environmental Change and Human Society, 2nd edition, in press, Oxford University Press, New York.
    Entry: Environmental Impact Assessment
  • International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, in press, Elsevier, London.
    Entries: Environmental Regulation; ecology
  • Encyclopedia of Global Warming and Climate Change, Sage, London.
    Entries: Australia; ecological footprint; sustainability.
  • Encyclopedia of Environment and Society, 2007, P. Robbins (ed.), SAGE, London.
    Entries: Australia; Cities; Ecological Modernization; Industrial Ecology; Sustainability; Sustainable Cities (Urbanism); Urban Sprawl.

Major reviews

  • Bridge, G, McManus, P and Marsden T, (2003), “The next new thing: Biotechnology and its discontents” in Geoforum 34: pp.165-174.
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Units Taught

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Supervision

3 PhD students, 1 Master student and 23 honours students completed.

Currently supervising 9 PhD students.

Completed PhD students:
Krishna Shrestha, 2005, Collective action and equity in Nepalese community forestry

Alison Gates, 2007, Acclimatisation as embryonic environmentalism: The role of acclimatisation societies in south-eastern Australia

Daniel Montoya, 2009, Rethinking relationships in natural resource management: A case study of the Murrumbidgee catchment between 1984 and 2006

PhD students and general topics:
Robin Branson – Industrial symbiosis
Virginia Brunton – An environmental history of agriculture in Sydney
Gareth Edwards – Urban water use and management
Raewyn Graham – The thoroughbred industry and the use of festivals
Paolo Mazzi – Greening government
Fiona McKenzie - Ongoing innovation among primary producers
C. Y. (Young) Ng – Geoparks and Geotourism in China and Hong Kong
Rob Renew – Urban bushland regeneration and its relationship to urban development
Dong Xing - Green rooftops in Beijing