Future Cities
The compounding effects of globalization, rapid urbanization, and the steady uptick in the frequency and intensity of climate disasters present one of the most important societal challenges facing cities in the 21st century. Indeed, as the world continues to urbanize, our ability to create thriving societies is increasingly tied to how we manage cities. It is in this context, characterized by both urgency and uncertainty, that future approaches may help identify pathways towards sustainable and just transformations.
In this seminar, I will share lessons from applying anticipatory approaches to envisioning desirable urban futures based on my experience with cities and communities in the US and Latin America. I will reflect on opportunities and pitfalls in terms of futuring in terms of advancing resilience, equity, and sustainability and I will end by guiding participants through a short visioning exercise.
Dr. Marta Berbés-Blázquez is the Caivan Communities professor at the School of Planning and the Faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo, where she is part of the Future Cities Initiative. Formerly, Dr. Berbés-Blázquez was an assistant professor at the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University with whom she continues to collaborate on projects related to urban resilience in cities in the United States and Latin America. Broadly speaking, her research considers the human dimensions of environmental change in urban and regional social-ecological-technological systems with an emphasis on perspectives from marginalized populations. She is a co-lead of the Futures and Scenarios team of the Central Arizona Phoenix Long Term Ecological Research that engages with a variety of actors to envision positive urban futures in the Phoenix valley. Her international collaborations include work with the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network, NATURA, and Biosphere Futures. Locally, she has developed a variety of research partnerships with community members and organizers to catalyze change toward environmentally just futures.
We welcome friends and visitors!