Riding the rapids: urban life in an age of complexity / Charles Landry

Demographics, climate change, technology, globalisation… a number of issues spring to mind when considering the forces that will change our urban environment and way of life over the next 20 years. Looking deeper, the social and political landscape which shapes our present will continue to influence the future, and further down there is the underlying tow of history and culture.' These pressures on our cities appear so increasingly complex and numerous .that the temper of the arc is one of uncertainty and lack of control in the face of overwhelming forces.
How can we begin to understand and respond to such complex and overlapping drivers of change? Are our current operating systems and infrastructure prepared for the challenges that lie ahead?
Riding the Rapids explores the dynamics of change that will have a significant impact on British cities over the next 20 years and sets a robust conceptual framework in order to facilitate an understanding of the nature of unfolding change in cities. (Font: Editor)

Foreword -- Preface -- Setting the scene -- Conceptual framework -- Faultlines: Faith or secular worldviews ; Environmental ethics and economic rationality -- Battlegrounds: Multiculturalism of interculturalism ; Environmental sensitivity ; Social equity ; Central or local ; Chain power and distinctive shopping ; Compaction or dispersal ; Authenticity and global markets ; Holism and specialisms ; Hard and soft indicators -- Paradoxes: Creativity and risk policy ; Calculating tangibles in a world of intangibles ; Accessibility ; Porousness and identity ; City and country ; Age and technology -- Drivers: Pre-existing decisions ; Dominant ideas and mindsets ; Demographics ; Climate change ; Energy supply ; Waste and recycling ; Space ; Safety and surveillance ; Health and urban design ; Time and speed ; Price differentials ; Global terms of trade ; Boundary blurring ; Breakdown of the unified canon ; Living with diversity ; The real, the virtual and the fake ; Distinctiveness and authenticity ; Localism and rethinking democracy -- Pulling the threads together -- Spatial dynamics: London, the global hub ; The north-South divide ; Re-colonisation ; Managing decline gracefully -- Managing change -- Acknowledgements -- References -- Recommended reading