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dreams and nightmares

Posted by Charlie Tims at 12:20pm on Wednesday, 23rd May 2007
So, The Dreaming City: Glasgow 2020 and the Power of Mass Imagination is launched today in the Mitchell Library in Glasgow. The book reflects an 18 month long project to imagine the future of Glasgow through the creativity and imagination of its people. Interpretations of press releases and quotes etc have left Glasgow City Council's nose slightly out of joint which is a shame, as they have supported a risky and innovative project from the outset - the first attempt to imagine the future of a city through stories and storytelling anywhere in the world.  The book highlights an imagination deficit in urban policy making that sits across all cities, not just Glasgow, and far from being an "insult to the people" who gave their time up to be a part of this project, the book is a tribute to them. On this last point the book concludes with a manifesto for "The Open City", the prime focus of which is light touch interventions that give people the tools and freedom to improve their own city. The book itself is quite a tome combining a policy narrative, with stories produced during the project. You will be able to download a copy of the report here.


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You may be interested is a related project taking place in the Netherlands Noordvleugel 2040 Case study-http://www.noordvleugel2040.nl/English project descriptionhttp://www.noordvleugel2040.nl/english-ANoordvleugel 2040 is an interlinked series of conferences designed toformulate a metropolitan development vision for the Noordvleugal (Northern Wing of the Ranstaad conurbation) in 2204 This project commissioned by a network of Dutch provincial councils and organised by Sandra Rottenburg . The councils want to collaborate to make metrapolitan strategy for the next 30 years more coherent and imaginative. So have they joined forces to create a number of interlinked conferences in which a series of ever widening circles of policy makers experts and stake holders are brought in to inform policy (also international).These events are not just dry discussion forums there were theatrical and visual events organised to stimulate the imagination. For example T shirts were made saying in 2040 I will be... and then in a circle was a space for the age of the wearer. Children of different ages were present to bring home the fact that this is not only about future thinking in the abstract but that they will be the decision makers by then..The children (with Tshirts reminding those present how old they will be) were also involved in the vision building process with drawings and performances.Once the experts broke out into work groups they each are assigned a designer there developing visualisation ideas. The designers (including architects landscape planners etc) translate these discussions into policy ideas that are then fed into the subsequent meetings. If there is any interest I can send photographs of the first event.RegardsDavid Garcia
Posted by david garcia  at 3:59pm on Monday, 28th May 2007

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