The Toolkit of Speculative Futures

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The toolkit is also a way for us to collaborate with each other but also demand the kinds of moves, trajectories of change, investment strategies that we want. When we have a much clearer idea about where we would prefer to go, we have the motivation oftentimes to really try and make those changes happen. But still in order to make these potential futures realities, we do have to be energized. We have to care. It's very difficult to harness that energy into implementable action.

Cities are incredibly important to modern life, and their importance is only growing. As Geoffrey West points out, the world is adding urban areas equivalent to the population of San Francisco once every four days. How those areas get designed and structured is a complicated interplay between top-down planning and the collective choices of millions of inhabitants. As the world is changing and urbanization increases, it will be crucial to imagine how cities might serve our needs even better. Johanna Hoffman is an urbanist who harnesses imagination to make cities more sustainable and equitable.

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Johanna Hoffman received an MLA in landscape architecture and environmental planning from UC Berkeley. She is the co-founder and Director of Planning at urban futures firm Design for Adaptation. She has won fellowships from the European Futures Observatory and the Berggruen Institute, and served as Artist in Residence at the Buckminster Fuller Institute. Her new book is Speculative Futures: Design Approaches to Navigate Change, Foster Resilience, and Co-Create the Cities We Need.

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