Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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What’s new about the New Urban Agenda?
South Africa is engaging fully with the New Urban Agenda, and posing some fundamental questions about what it means to be a planner in today’s world. Confession: I only went into one session at the World Urban Forum today. Lest it seems that I was skipping classes, let me explain. A lot of what goes…
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Smart cities is a strong theme in the World Urban Forum
The exhibition at the Ninth World Urban Forum highlights the Asian embrace of Smart Cities. This is my fourth World Urban Forum, and, as ever, the exhibition is worth visiting. Most of the booths are taken by national governments, some by cities or local government organisations, a few by research institutes or by campaigning NGOs.…
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World Urban Forum 9
The ninth World Urban Forum opens on 7 February 2018, and I am here in Kuala Lumpur and will be reporting on it on this website and on other social media. The World Urban Forum (WUF) is held every other year, and in a different city each time. Hosted by UN-Habitat, it brings together representatives…
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One Belt One Road – spatial planning at global scale?
At the recent Innovation Circle Network conference I spoke about China’s One Belt One Road vision. This blog sketches and comments on this ambitious transnational project. In January 2017 the East Wind arrived in London. The freight train’s journey had taken 16 days and covered 12,000kms from when it left China, halving the time a similar maritime…
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How will Brexit affect Ireland?
The EU has rightly made the issue of Ireland a central element of the Brexit negotiations. What might be the territorial impact of creating an external border between Ireland and Northern Ireland? A cross-border conference in Dundalk, organised by RTPI, brought a sharp focus on the challenges facing border communities in Ireland as a result…
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Re-inventing Planning – World Urban Forum 2006
The 2006 World Urban Forum was a significant step on the road to creating a New Urban Agenda. Here is my first hand account from July 2006 of how we went about re-inventing planning. This article was written during the 2006 FIFA World Cup, and is reproduced here by kind permission of the editor of…
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Saving Town Centres – experience from The Netherlands
A new study looks at what the Dutch have been doing to revitalise the centres of medium-sized towns. The plight of town centres, particularly in medium-sized towns, across Europe and North America, has been a concern to planners and local politiicans for a generation. In England, the Portas Report (2011) pointed to “ a new shopper mindset“,…
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A creeping privatisation of public space?
Might plans for a make-over for Edinburgh’s West Princes Street Gardens lead to a partial privatisation of an iconic public space? West Princes Street Gardens in the centre of Edinburgh are an outstanding feature of the city. They sit below the spectacular castle. A bandstand is at the centre of the gardens. It has long…
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International study of healthy cities and neighbourhoods launched
A major project to compare urban practices in 14 cities will be led by a team based in Glasgow University in Scotland. A £7.1 million research project into urban conditions and practices has been awarded to Glasgow University. The money will be used to conduct research over a 4 year period, and to establish a Centre for…
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Review of the Scottish Planning System
The planned reform of the planning system in Scotland will end in tears. I have an article in the newspaper The Scotsman. It draws on the responses to the consultation on the proposals by the Scottish Government to review the planning legislation. My article argues that an opportunity is being missed. Instead of looking internationally for…
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