In this Episode #14 Jerome Glenn, the Executive Director of the Millennium Project, shares with us some of the trends and influences that are shaping the future of urbanisation. Jerome mentions that the idea of “respect for the other” is extraordinarily important for peace in the future. According to Jerome, the urbanisation of humanity is one of the strongest trends that there is. In this interview, he explains some of the most significant accomplishments of the Millennium Project so far and ta...
Jun 11, 2024
The city of Turku has ambitious targets, it aims to become carbon neutral by 2029. On this episode, we had the pleasure to speak with Minna Arve, the Mayor of the City of Turku. During our conversation, Mayor Arve explained to us Turku’s carbon neutral plans, the vision of the smart city and the ways in which Turku deals with uncertainty and rapid change in our digital age.
Mar 26, 2024
EP.12 - Urban Density, the 15-Minute City and the Transformation of Proximities: What are the real challenges for cities in the future horizon 2030, 2040, 2050? In this episode, we speak with Professor Carlos Moreno about the need to reconsider the future of urbanisation to seek a new path. He talks about what has inspired the 15-minute city concept he pioneers, the purpose of proximities and the transformations he has observed in cities in Europe, Latin America and around the world. Professor C...
Oct 30, 2023•37 min•Season 2Ep. 12
EP. 11 – From “Smart” City to Intelligent Communities-The Espoo Story: How can the structure of the city shape its future? In this episode, we have invited Päivi Sutinen, the Director of the City as a Service Development at the City of Espoo to share the Espoo Story with us and how the network structure of her city Espoo is supporting transformation towards a sustainable future. In our talk, Päivi explains the highly participatory approach that characterizes the city strategy and how relationshi...
Nov 17, 2020•31 min•Ep. 11
EP. 10 – CITIES EMPOWERED BY SYSTEMATIC FUTURES THINKING: Sirkka Heinonen is a Professor of Futures Studies at the University of Turku and a member of the Club of Rome. She has a long trajectory in the field of Futures Research working at the crossroads of futures and city planning, applying what is called a “Systematic futures thinking;” and long-term view for making a positive impact in the future. In our discussion, She, emphasises the importance of futures thinking as an approach: “We can en...
Mar 06, 2020•36 min
EP.09 – THE CIVIC CITY IN A NOMADIC WORLD: Charles Landry is an international authority on the use of imagination and creativity in urban change. He created the concept of the Creative City in the late 1980s to help people and cities think, plan and act with imagination. Charles helps cities identify and make the most of their potential opening up the conversation about more desirable futures. During our session, Charles talks about some of the key messages of his latest project, The Civic City ...
Mar 06, 2020•47 min
In this episode we speak with Dr. Benjamin Thompson, a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Sydney to discuss the financing strategies and economic viability of Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) in the context of urban settings. In our session we discuss Ben's ecosystem services habitat restoration publication: Urban Ecosystems: A New Frontier for Payments for Ecosystem Services and dig deeper into the key considerations in terms of equity, and ecosystem disservices as potent...
Jan 19, 2020•25 min
What is a city without values? In this episode of the podcast we speak with Gotzone Sagardui, the Deputy Mayor of the City Bilbao to find out how Bilbao is planning to attain high levels of social progress and what is the next transformation the city will face. During our talk, she explains why Bilbao is focusing on values, what is called, Bilbao Charter of Values, and the importance of addressing issues of human rights in city planning. According to Gotzone, Bilbao wants to be known as a social...
Oct 08, 2019•30 min
Marja Mesimäki is an environmental sociologist at the University of Helsinki. Her research focuses on issues concerning values, meanings and the experiential dimension of urban green roofs. In this podcast, we discuss Marja’s latest work, what she calls, the fifth dimension of green roofs for urban areas. Using the method of empathy-based stories to study the green roof potential in the City of Helsinki. Marja talks about her observations when applying a human perception approach to the field of...
Sep 25, 2019•23 min
Carlos Alvarez Pereira is a member of the Club of Rome and president of the Innaxis Foundation. In this podcast, Carlos talks about the Emerging New Civilization Initiative (ENCI) within the Club of Rome towards holistic thinking and more positive outcomes for the future. He discusses a new outlook for humanity based on making human well-being compatible with a healthy biosphere and points out at the importance of changing the basic metabolism of societies as the material foundation for systemic...
Aug 27, 2019•55 min
In this episode of the Urban Futures Podcast, we speak with Travis Longcore, Associate Adjunct Professor at UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and director of The Urban Wildlands Group. During our session, Travis speaks about the essential role nature plays in cities and the critical implications on biodiversity. From an ecological perspective, he highlights the interdependences between urban and species conservation stressing the need for urban conservation to protect and pres...
Jul 19, 2019•49 min
EP.03 – Systems Intelligence & Feedback Loops Shaping the Cities of Tomorrow. In this episode, we sit with Carlo Ratti from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Senseable City Lab http://http://senseable.mit.edu to talk about the rise of urban intelligence and the creation of feedback loops between humans and the built environment. During our talk, Carlo explains how the ability to collect and use data to better understand, design and learn how we live in cities, is just the beginning o...
Jul 04, 2019•20 min
Ep. 02 Urban Forest in Concrete Jungles. Joining us on this program is Nora C. Davis, a Research Social Scientist at the U.S. Forest Service; and Dr. Michele Romolini, Managing Director of the Loyola Marymount University Centre for Urban Resilience (CURes). Our talk focuses on human-nature interconnections and the work that both, Nora and Michelle have been doing in the field of urban forestry through user-inspired research and Stewardship Mapping and Assessment Project (STEW-MAP). Here we discu...
Jun 16, 2019•58 min
Fernando Lopez-Alves is a Professor of Sociology, and Global and International Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara. Fernando will speak with us about his latest book: Populist Nationalism in Europe and the Americas and discuss polarisation phenomena in cities. Through the lens of the emerging nationalist and populist movements, Fernando will explain how urbanisation and sprawl are directly affecting the future of cities, globalisation, and politics in America and present his vi...
May 31, 2019•1 hr 1 min
