Urban Futures
Planning for City Foresight and City Visions
By Timothy J. Dixon and Mark Tewdwr-Jones
Published
Oct 17, 2023Page count
300 pagesISBN
978-1447371670Dimensions
234 x 156 mmImprint
Policy PressPublished
May 19, 2021Page count
300 pagesISBN
978-1447330936Dimensions
234 x 156 mmImprint
Policy PressPublished
May 19, 2021Page count
300 pagesISBN
978-1447336303Imprint
Policy PressPublished
May 19, 2021Page count
300 pagesISBN
978-1447336303Imprint
Policy Press
Urban Futures
Winner of the Urban Affairs Association Best Book in Urban Affairs 2022. Watch the author's acceptance video:
Watch the authors talk about their book.
In the media
'Beyond COVID-19 – the importance of ‘urban futures’ thinking for our towns and cities' on Connecting Research
On our blog
Can city visions help transcend net zero politics and shape our urban future?
Winner of the 2022 Urban Affairs Association Best Book Award.
City visions represent shared, and often desirable, expectations about our urban futures. This book explores the history and evolution of city visions, placing them in the wider context of art, culture, science, foresight and urban theory.
It highlights and critically reviews examples of city visions from around the world, contrasting their development and outlining the key benefits and challenges in planning such visions.
The authors show how important it is to think about the future of cities in objective and strategic ways, engaging with a range of stakeholders – something more important than ever as we look to visions of a sustainable future beyond the COVID-19 crisis.
“I highly recommend this book to academics, researchers, professionals and students who work in planning, policy-making, and urban design. Dixon and Tewdwr-Jones thoughtfully recommend a participatory-based city visioning tool that is crucial to protect our democratic values in planning for the future.” Planning Theory
“The book provides a framework to discuss visioning and strategizing for cities and urban regions, not only from an academic but also even more so from a planning practice point of view, developing an analysis, design and policy perspective.” European Planning Studies
“This book is scholarly, rich in ideas, and offers a toolkit for city and regional governments and communities to build visions and explore ways of achieving them. It will be part of the foundations of future city planning.” Sir Alan Wilson, The Alan Turing Institute
“This is an inspirational intervention in thinking about cities of tomorrow. Ethically committed, practical and scholarly in avoiding the hubris of too many soothsayers of urban futures.” Michael Keith, University of Oxford
“Too often planners, fearing to impose top-down solutions, fail to offer needed expertise. This important volume both envisions desirable futures and provides designs for reaching them without insisting on any one solution.” Susan S. Fainstein, Harvard University
"This excellent book exposes important ideas in an accessible way, while remaining practical because it doesn't limit itself to theoretical discussions. It deals with issues that are at the heart of urban planning." Revue d’Économie Régionale & Urbaine
Timothy J. Dixon is Professor of Sustainable Futures in the Built Environment at the University of Reading.
Mark Tewdwr-Jones is Professor of Cities and Regions at the Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis at University College London.
Urban futures: planning for city foresight and city visions
Cities and integrated urban challenges
Reimagining the city: views of the future from the past and present
Planning and governing the future city
Future narratives for the city: smart and sustainable?
Theoretical approaches to urban futures
Using city foresight methods to develop city visions
Shaping the future: city vision case studies
The innovative and experimental city
Visioning and planning the city in an urban age: a reality check
Conclusions: facing the urban future to 2050 and beyond
