Place Agency — Collective Action with Justine Clark AM + Cara Wood — Part 1
In this episode our conversation partners are engaged by host Angelique Edmonds in discussion of the theme of collective action. There's a lot of shared ground in Justine and Cara's work to create change through collective action. Less than a month after recording, Justine was honoured with an Order of Australia Award.
In this episode the conversation covers:
- What led each of them into collective action and systems change
- The origin story of Parlour and its evolution from research to organisation
- Building communities of practice including principles, preconditions, and pitfalls
- Asset-based approaches and facilitating from a place of humility
- Relationality as the underlying requirement — not a soft skill
About the guests
Justine Clark is an architectural editor, writer, researcher, advisor and advocate. She is co-founder and director of Parlour, a small but mighty non-profit association focussed on improving equity in architecture and the built environment professions. She is active in public discussions of architecture; she has convened many events, curated exhibitions and sat on national and international juries. From 2000–2011 Justine worked on Architecture Australia, and was editor of the journal for seven years. Her work has won awards for architecture in the media and her broader contribution to the profession was recognised with the 2015 Marion Mahony Prize and the 2019 President's Prize from the Australian Institute of Architects Victorian Chapter. Her writing appears in both the scholarly and professional press, and she has worked on topics including gender and architecture, architectural criticism, architectural drawing and postwar modernism. She is co-author, with Dr Paul Walker, of the book Looking for the Local: Architecture and the New Zealand Modern (2000). Justine is an honorary Principal Fellow at the University of Melbourne.
Cara Wood is a social scientist working across large, complex systems using relationship-based, Country-centred approaches to planning and delivery. Her experience spans stakeholder engagement for major state transport infrastructure, mixed-use developments with Lendlease, and community development within local government, alongside fundraising and advocacy roles in non-profits. Through whole-system practice across government, industry, and community, Cara focuses on strengthening relationships, adaptive capacity, and pathways toward more just and resilient futures. As an imperfect ally, she is grateful to work on Dharug Country, learning from First Nations representatives whose enduring knowledge systems continue to guide more equitable practice.
Our host Angelique Edmonds has a passion for design education, social value and public engagement. Trained as an architect, she operates professionally as a Senior Lecturer in Architecture & Sustainable Design at UniSA and independently as the founder and Creative Director of the School for Creating Change. Her 2020 book Connecting People, Place & Design (published by Intellect UK) draws together fifteen years of practice and research regarding human relationships to place, our capacities to connect with one another and place, and the extent to which contemporary public design mechanisms allow public participation.
Links discussed in this episode
Credits
Justine Clark:
Instagram: @_justineclark
Cara Wood:
LinkedIn
This program has been made possible with support from the Alastair Swayn Foundation. Find out more at alastairswaynfoundation.org
Angelique Edmonds:
Instagram: @angelique.edmonds
LinkedIn: @angelique.edmonds
Website: schoolforcreatingchange.com
Production + Editing: @apenning_
