Mediocre living: an ethnography of Sydney's sprawl

In this thesis I examine urban sprawl in Sydney, focusing on the Northwest Growth Corridor and its impact on urban liveability. I assess the urban outcomes against the government’s own planning criteria. Ethnographic analysis shows that despite extensive planning residents suffer from an urban liveability crisis. The issues they face appear to be of secondary importance to both developers and governments, whose main concerns are growth and profit. This focus on growth has generated poor planning policy, promoted developer greed, and shaped the values of inhabitants to regard housing as a financial asset over a safe space to live.