Urban Futures brings together commentaries from a wide range of contemporary disciplines and fields relevant to urban culture, form and society. The book concerns cities in the broadest sense, not just as buildings and spaces, but also as processes and events or sites of occupation, in which meanings are constructed in many ways. The contributors draw on their specialist areas of research to inform current debate, but they also speculate as to how cities will be shaped in the 21st century. Not all the contributors share the same viewpoint, but they are all concerned with underlying issues such as social inclusion, cultural expression, and the contingency of readings of the city. Each chapter is a free-standing text, but the twelve contributions have been grouped to enable cross-reference and comparison. It is structured into four sections: framing, moving, practising and shaping. Chapters cover aspects of visual art, architecture, transport, open and public space, ecologies, and technologies; and introduce understandings around gender, ethnicity and engagement.
Specific areas of research include homeless people's organisations and restoration ecology in brownfield sites in the USA, post-industrial urban landscapes, post-industrial economics, tourism and cultural planning. The book allows each writer to state their own conclusions, but together they suggest that tomorrow's cities will, while remaining locations of difference and contestation, be rapidly evolving systems in which dwellers assume increasing responsibilities and power. Iain Borden, University College, London, UK Nigel Clark, Open University, UK Tim Collins, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA Graeme Evans, Central St Martins