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Hei Puāwaitanga: Sustainability, Citizenship and Civic Imagination Research Group

18 October 2023

Hei Puāwaitanga: Sustainability, Citizenship and Civic Imagination is a multidisciplinary international research team and civics lab at UC.

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Hei Puāwaitanga investigates citizenship and civic governance, participation, and democratic urbanisation.

About the 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.

The 21st century is the century of the city. By 2050, seven in ten people will live in an urbanizing area. Against this dynamic background, the research team, led by Professor Bronwyn Hayward investigates citizenship and civic governance, participation and democratic urbanization, with a particular focus on sustainability and issues for children and future generations.

Hei Puāwaitanga: Sustainability, Citizenship and Civic Imagination Research Group. 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: Sustainable Citizenship and Civic Imagination Research Group is a cluster of researchers drawn from across faculties at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. We work with 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 interdisciplinary study to generate new understanding about how communities learn to take far-reaching, transformative action for a more sustainable future.

"Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini.” My success is not mine alone but the success of a collective.