Hei Puāwaitanga: Sustainability, Citizenship and Civic Imagination Research Group

Hei Puāwaitanga: Sustainability, Citizenship and Civic Imagination is a multidisciplinary international research team and ‘civics-lab’, at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.

We investigate citizenship, civic governance, youth participation, and democratic urbanisation in the context of sustainability, intergenerational justice, and climate resilient development.

The 21st century is the century of the city. By 2050, seven in ten people will live in an urbanizing area and almost 70 percent of the world’s young people will live in cities. The IPCC (2023) notes an increasing share of global emissions can be attributed to urban areas (about 70 percent). Against this dynamic background, the research team, led by Professor Bronwyn Hayward investigates opportunities for transformation with a particular focus on children and future generations.

Hei Puāwaitanga, to flourish and live well into the future is a vision that inspires our collective research. Our aim is to identify, understand and strengthen the long-term conditions of intergenerational justice that enable communities to flourish in the context of environmental, social and economic change. Hei Puāwaitanga: Sustainability,  Citizenship and Civic Imagination Research Group works with local, national and international collaborators to support communities to flourish. From our diverse backgrounds, our research effort is Influenced by He Awa Whiria, the Braided Rivers approach (Macfarlane et al 2019). We aim to braid new knowledge from the insights of Mātauranga Māori, and transdisciplinary study to generate new understanding about how communities learn to take far-reaching, transformative action for a more sustainable future.