- Thursday 1 October
What role do utopias and imagination play in urban planning? And how much of what we are presented with as official visions of the future and growth strategies is, in fact, also a form of fiction — even when it is framed as fact?
This panel explores how we can create more democratic and hopeful visions of the future.
Urban planning is always about imagining something that does not yet exist. Yet the ways we imagine the future are rarely questioned. In this panel, we take a closer look at how utopian thinking and speculative fiction can help both planners and citizens challenge current assumptions — and open up new ways of living and shaping the future together.
Through provocations and examples from their own work, panelists discuss uses of openly fictional means such as novels, immersive exhibitions, theatrical performances and guidebooks to cities not yet built. They ask what do these approaches make possible? What critical purchase do they offer on contemporary urban problems and challenges? What forms of hope can they carry?
The panel will open up questions about whose futures are being addressed in urban planning and how, while underlining how utopian imagination is not a luxury or a distraction from planning’s work. On the contrary, it is essential to it, if that work is to do more than reproduce what already exists.
Participants
- TBA
Language: English
The session is presented by David Pinder & RUC