Welcome to
(this is a rough pilot version while we work up something more stylish and social-tech)
(Joe for PM!)
General themes
I am inspired and awed by the challenges of the 21st century – climate change, chaotic urbanization, food and water, resources and ecosystems, security and terrorism, information- and bio-technology… These are compound challenges, which are complex, controversial, globalizing, out-of-control, evolutionary and existential. They seem to demand responses which are also beyond conventional thinking.
Some research methods are concerned with whole systems, complexity and uncertainty, ethics and politics. But as yet, mainstream research looks for ‘convergent’ problems, with clear boundaries, hard evidence and positive hypotheses. If we look at problems beyond these assumptions, then we seem to be on the edges of scientific thinking. But these problems of high complexity, controversy, fuzziness and uncertainty are all around us.
So I have been working on ways of thinking and exploring over the last 20 years. This is currently framed as ‘relational thinking’ – a multi-faceted and open-minded way of doing creative analysis and synthesis, in complex and controversial situations.
· It involves working with complexity and systems analysis – looking at whole systems rather than their components, and for emergence and evolution rather than linear change;
· It also includes an entrepreneurial approach to ideas, actions, values – seeking opportunities and innovations, for people, ideas, networks and cultures.
· linking between these is a more experiential approach, based on visualization and other holistic responses. The cartoons in each of the Working Papers here are exploring this interface, where possible in a real-time deliberative mode.
These broad approaches are applied through many forms of research in the Centre for Urban & Regional Ecology (CURE) – www.manchester.ac.uk/cure. The Sustainable City-Region programme, which I run in CURE, includes 4 parallel strands of research:
· Environment-development studies: sustainable production & consumption, urban-regional modelling, climate change and resource flows, business-environment issues:
· Spatial development studies: spatial frameworks, landuse & infrastructure planning, urban design and policy analysis at local, regional and national levels.
· Futures and information systems: scenario and Foresight methods, ICT applications, science / knowledge management, innovation studies.
·
Evaluation and participation studies:
extended and multi-level appraisal and assessment techniques at regional,
Weaving these strands together has produced a new level of analysis and understanding, a framework for ‘inno-evolution’. This puts economic, institutional, social and cultural relationships side by side, and looks for emergent properties of collective resilience and intelligence, in communities, sectors, policies, societies and economies.
The first and foremost application is on the UK case and its SD transition, to not only an internal ‘low carbon’ but a more comprehensive low resource / footprint dematerialization pathway. The writing work in progress – provisionally titled City-State 21 – is an exploration and (hopefully) creative synthesis of these parallel strands. Many of the projects, publications and working papers here are also exploring and visualizing different aspects of this.
Current projects & links
· Live programme: Greater Manchester Environment Commission – University ‘Policy Exchange’ programme, for active links between research and policy: www.manchester.ac.uk/policy-exchange
· Recent presentation to RTPI International meeting, on ‘climate change economics in spatial planning’ - http://www.rtpi.org.uk/item/3312
·
Current
op-ed: http://tm.mbs.ac.uk/leadership-management/from-global-deadlock-to-local-opportunity/
· Recent press on the award winning ‘carbon mortgage’ scheme: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/13/manchester-report-mortgage
·
Recent visualizations: Foresight for Smart Globalization,
· Recent launch at the Institute for Environmental Scientists of a series of major topic reports for Environment Agency: presentations by Bob Watson - http://www.ies-uk.org.uk/resources/eventresources/burntwood2009/burntwood2009.php. The report - ‘The uptake of emerging science into strategic planning’ is on www.ies-uk.org.uk/resources/journalarch/envsci2009/env_sci_jul_09.pdf
· This was done by CURE in collaboration with SAMI Consulting – http://www.samiconsulting.co.uk/
ONGOING RESEARCH PROJECTS
· iKnow – interconnecting knowledge for European research: http://wiwe.iknowfutures.eu/
· PLUREL consortium on the EU peri-urban agenda: www.plurel.net and www.manchester.ac.uk/plurel
· SUREGEN consortium for EPSRC, on the digital workbench for urban regeneration: www.suregen.co.uk
· Ecological Budget UK research on the resource flows and policy responses at the national scale: www.ecologicalbudget.org.uk
· Eco-Region NW research on resource flows at the regional scale: www.eco-region.org
·
OPEN - One
Planet Economy Network:
· EUROCOOP: evaluation of regional innovation policy – www.iccr-international.org/eurocoop
Working papers
These are exploring the broad agenda above. They are each in various stages of draft, but there is enough there (including pictures and conversations) to have a look at.
WP0901 – relational thinking – general notes.pdf
WP0902 – framework for a relational economy.pdf
WP0903 – framework for relational governance.pdf
WP0904 – relational thinking for urban & regional systems.pdf
Books
CITY-REGION 2020
Ravetz J, (2000): ‘City-Region
2020: integrated planning for a
sustainable environment’ (with a foreword by the
Also available in Chinese version: Ravetz J (2004) City-Region 2020: integrated planning for a sustainable environment (Chinese language version, transl. Jian-Cheng Lin and Tian-Tian Hu) Taipei, Chan's Publishing Co., Ltd (Taiwan), ISBN 957-705-276-2 http://archbook.com.tw/book-detail.asp?BookNumber=10297
ENVIRONMENT AND
THE CITY
Roberts, P.R, Ravetz, J, and George, C (2009): Environment and the City: Critical Perspectives on the Urban Environment around the world. Abingdon, Routledge
www.routledge.com/books/Environment-and-the-City-isbn9780415302463
Environment & City - flyer.pdf
CITY-STATE 21
Now in writing: City-State 21: working with turbulence and uncertainty in the urban century:
“Cities will be the home of two thirds of the world’s people
by 2050: the prospects for climate resilience, economic development and
political security depend on them. Yet such urban structures are increasingly
fluid, networked, entrepreneurial, globalized and challenging to plan and
manage. This multi-level book (with pictures and conversations) is based around
a ‘future history’ of the
Visualizations
( Coming shortly)
Publications (selected)
Ravetz, J, (forthcoming): Peri-urban
ecology: green infrastructure in the 21st century metro-scape: In Douglas, I (Ed) Handbook of Urban Ecology,
Douglas, I and Ravetz, J (forthcoming) Urban ecology – the bigger picture: In: Niemela,
J (Ed)
Handbook of
Urban Ecology:
Ravetz, J (forthcoming): Exploring creative cities
for sustainability with deliberative visualization: In Girard, L.F. and Nijkamp, P (Eds): Creativity and Sustainable Cities:
Ravetz, J (forthcoming): Urban environment as an
object of North-South Dialogue:
Roberts, P.R, Ravetz, J, and George, C (2009): Environment and the City: Critical
Perspectives on the Urban Environment around the world. Abingdon, Routledge
Ravetz, J (2009): Emerging energy futures: hard
choices for soft energy pathways: Environmental
Scientist (Special issue on environmental futures), Vol.18/2:pp21-30
Ravetz, J (2009): Towards the low carbon economy:
transforming the way things work: Environmental
Scientist (Special issue on environmental futures), Vol.18/2:pp25-30
Ravetz, J (2009): Community and citizen – emerging
models for socially engaged environmental governance: Environmental Scientist (Special issue on environmental futures),
Vol.18/2:pp 31-34
Ravetz, J (2009): New technology
applications: risks and opportunities for environmental governance: Environmental Scientist (Special issue on
environmental futures), Vol.18/2:pp 36-52
Ravetz, J (2009): Climate change – from global
deadlock to local opportunity:
Ravetz, J., (2008) Resource flow analysis for
sustainable construction: metrics for an integrated supply chain approach: Proceedings of the Institute of Civil
Engineering, Waste and Resource Management, 161(WR2):51-66 (Winner of
Institute of Civil Engineers Telford Award for best paper published in 2008)
Ravetz, J., (2008) State of the stock: what do we know about existing buildings and their future
prospects, Energy Policy 36:4462–4470
Nilsson, K., Sick Nielsen, T., Pauleit,
S., Ravetz, J., (2008) A ‘Plurel’ approach to peri-urban areas: Town
and Country Planning, Dec 2008: 519-524
Ravetz, J (2009): Emerging energy futures: hard
choices for soft energy pathways: Environmental
Scientist (Special issue on environmental futures), Vol.18/02:pp21-30
Ravetz, J (2009): Towards the low carbon economy:
transforming the way things work: Environmental
Scientist (Special issue on environmental futures), Vol.18/02:pp25-30
Ravetz, J, (2007) The role
of evaluation in sustainable regional development: In: George, C &
Kirkpatrick, C (Eds) Impact Assessment and Sustainable Development: European Practice and
Experience:
Ravetz, J (2007) Sustainable Development Strategy
and the CSR, In: Talbot C & Baker
M (Eds) The Alternative Comprehensive Spending Review 2007,
Manchester University Press pp138-154
Ravetz, J (2007) The Department for Environment,
Food & Rural Affairs, In: Talbot
C & Baker M (Eds) The Alternative Comprehensive Spending Review 2007,
Manchester University Press, pp95-106
Ravetz J (2007) One Planet
Ravetz J (2006) “Regional innovation
& resource productivity – new approaches to analysis and communication” In:
Randles S & Green K (Eds) Industrial ecology
& spaces of innovation: Edward Elgar
Ravetz J (2006) Environment in
Transition in an Industrial City-Region: analysis and experience: In: Granahan G & Marcotullio P (Eds) Scaling Urban
Environmental Challenges: from local to global and back,
Barrett J, Ravetz J & Bond S (2006) Counting Consumption: CO2 emissions,
material flows and ecological footprint of the
Ravetz J (2006): The changing role of evaluation in regional
sustainable development: integrating
product with process. In: George C & Kirkpatrick C (Eds), Impact Assessment for a New
Ravetz J, Coccossis H, Schleicher-Tappeser R, Steele P (2004): Evaluation of
regional sustainable development – transitions and prospects Journal of
Environmental Assessment Planning & Management 6(4):585-619
Ravetz J (2004)
‘Evaluation of regional sustainable development – mapping the landscape’ Journal
of Environmental Assessment Planning & Management, Vol. 6(4):pp v-xxi
Ravetz J (2004) City-Region 2020: integrated
planning for a sustainable environment (Chinese language version, transl. Jian-Cheng Lin and Tian-Tian Hu) Taipei, Chan's
Publishing Co., Ltd (Taiwan), ISBN 957-705-276-2
Ravetz J (2003) Integrated
planning for a sustainable environment – the City-Region 2020 project: Croners’ Environment Journal, special issue on planning, Vol 10:12-33
Ravetz J, 2002: New Toolkits for
Regional Sustainable Development: information and communications systems for
integrated policy and action: Okologisches Wirtschaften 2002 Vol
1:12-16: (ISSN 1430 8800)
Ravetz J, 2000: ‘City-Region
2020: integrated planning for a
sustainable environment’: (with foreword by the
Wong C, Ravetz J & Turner J (2000): ‘The
Ravetz, J, 2000: ‘Integrated Assessment for Sustainability
Appraisal in Cities & Regions’: Environmental Impact Assessment Review,
20(2000):31-64
Ravetz, J, (1999): ‘Economy, Environment & the Sustainable
City: Notes from Greater
Wood R & Ravetz
J (2000): ‘Recasting the Urban Fringe’: Landscape Design 294:13-16
Ravetz J, (1999): ‘Urban Form and
the Sustainability of Urban Systems: theory and practice in a northern
conurbation’ In: Jenks M, Burton E & Williams K (Eds),
‘Achieving Sustainable Urban Form’, London,
E & F Spon
Ravetz, J, 1998: ‘Integrated
Assessment Models: from global to local’: Impact
Assessment & Project Appraisal, 16/2:147-154
Ravetz, J 1999, Citizen Participation
for Integrated Assessment: new pathways in complex systems, Int. Journal of Environment and Pollution 11/3:331-350;
special issue on citizen participation