Cities of the imagination Science fiction, urban space, and community engagement in urban planning 城市和社区参与计划.pdfVIP

Futures 43 (2011) 424–431 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Futures journal homepage: www.els /locat e/futures Cities of the imagination: Science fiction, urban space, and community engagement in urban planning Natalie Collie * Queensland University of Technology, Creative Industries Faculty, Musk Avenue, Kelvin Grove, Qld 4059, Australia A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Article history: Stories, dreams, histories and myths, Michel de Certeau argues, connect people to Available online 28 January 2011 particular places and makes place concrete and inhabitable. These narratives generate an imaginary, poetic geography that haunts the abstract city of street maps and development plans, and makes it socially meaningful. This paper is concerned with one particular kind of story-telling – science fiction – and its relationship with the city, urban planning, and questions of community engagement. The paper argues that the ‘cities of the imagination’ generated by science fiction and other forms of narrative provide a powerful means of understanding, communicating and enriching the connections to place in urban communities. Moreover, science fiction is often characterised by its ability to explore