This CURE / cities@manchester Forum will address the question - “How can future-oriented research help pro-visioning UK cities build resilience & prosperity in the coming decades?”
Keynote: Professor Sir Alan Wilson, UCL (Chair of Lead Expert Group of the Government Office of Science Foresight on Future of Cities).
Contributing speakers on the panel:
Cllr Derek Antrobus (Salford)
Mark Atherton (AGMA)
Stefan Bouzarovski (CURE)
Nicola Headlam (Liverpool)
Nicola Kane (TFGM)
Andrew Karvonen (cities@manchester)
Ian Miles (Manchester Business School)
Kevin Morgan (Cardiff)
New Economy Manchester
Saska Petrova (CURE)
Sally Randles (MBS)
Colin Talbot (policy@manchester)
Mark Tewdwr-Jones (Newcastle)
Prof. Karel Williams (Manchester Business School)
Chair: Joe Ravetz (CURE)
There are aspirations that our cities can re-emerge as ‘powerhouses’. But behind the rhetoric there are deep concerns – political distrust, low productivity, divided communities, crumbling infrastructure, and structural inequalities. Cities may trade a little more power for a big drop in resources, and for some the outcome may be as ‘poorhouses’.
In an age of scarcity and change, this calls not only for hard infrastructure, but creative rethinking of how global-local economies and communities can work. This calls for ‘pro-visioning’ future-oriented thinking and strategy, combined with present day social learning and policy innovation.
This is the role of the toolkit known as Foresight. At present, the UK Foresight on ‘Future of Cities’, run by the Government Office of Science, brings together 21 city demonstrations, 24 science-policy studies, national spatial modelling, and multi-level policy advice.
We are now looking at ways to build on this, for the next phase of City Foresight. There are many possibilities: strategic policy intelligence, universities in the knowledge economy, new research paradigms, smart / ‘wise’ socio-technical systems, promises / perils of big data, new models for complexity and social learning, and so on.
In this Forum we bring together some of the most active players from around the UK to explore this space of opportunities. We invite speakers to (briefly) address the question - ‘how can future-oriented research help pro-visioning UK cities build resilience and prosperity in the coming decades’? An open discussion explores ways forward: followed by a review of work around the UK, with next steps in the shape of the City Foresight Platform.
Forum followed by drinks reception
All welcome, please RSVP to joe.ravetz@manchester.ac.uk
