Festival of the Future City
The second Festival of the Future City will take place 18-20 October 2017. Set over three days the festival – which aims to be the largest public debate about the future of cities – brings together politicians, writers, artists, scientists, change-makers, academics, journalists, students, the public, economists, futurists, policy makers, roboticists, philosophers, filmmakers, think tanks, charities, social enterprises, city-builders and more. At least 150 speakers will participate. The Festival of the Future City is part of Bristol Festival of Ideas.
The first Festival of the Future City 2014/2015 was an 18-month programme of work that culminated in a major series of 69 events over four days from 17 to 20 November 2015 – including the buildup there were 139 events in total with over 20,000 participants. Details of the first festival are here. Much of the festival was filmed and a book has been published.
The themes in the 2017 Festival of the Future City include:
- Globalisation and cities
- Social mobility and intergenerational issues
- Cities and Brexit
- Current state of world cities
- The economies of cities
- Race and cities
- The ethical city
- Country focus
- Faith and the city
- Higher education and medical institutes and the future of cities
- Arts and the city
- Planning future cities: green belt/ housing/ infrastructure
- Cities, freedom and terrorism
- Devolution (and also English parliament, devolution and cities)
- “Englishness” and cities
- Leadership and cities
- Cities of the past and what they can teach us now
- Archiving the city for future city work
- The science of cities (including science centres)
- Cities of migration and refuge
- The future of work in cities
- Healthy cities – especially the role of the NHS
- Resilience in cities and the urban infrastructure
- Regions and cities and balancing the UK economy
- Sustainable cities and sustainable development goals and cities
- Cities and the Anthropocene
- Sharing cities
- Children and the city
- Women and cities
- Beauty and cities
More details and information can be found on the Bristol Festival of Ideas website.