Positive visions for guiding urban transformations toward sustainable futures

• Published in: Current opinion in environmental sustainability 2016-10, Vol.22, p.33-40
• Main Authors: McPhearson, Timon, Iwaniec, David M., Bai, Xuemei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1877-3435; 1877-3443
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cosust.2017.04.004

[Display omitted] •Urban and global futures tend to be dystopian challenging decision-making and action.•Positives visions, however, allow exploration of alternative and desirable urban futures.•Positive visioning can be a key tool for urban resilience and sustainability planning.•Visions and scenarios can help to reveal plausibility and desirability tensions.•Positive visioning should support participatory processes and marginalized visions. Much of the discourse around urban and global futures tends to be dystopian with visions of environmental and societal collapse, and business as usual forecasts that challenge planning and policymaking for more optimistic urban futures. More recently, research and practice demonstrate the role of positives visions that allow exploration of alternative and desirable futures in developing positive plans and delivering desirable outcomes for cities. We review the role of positive visioning and associated future scenarios for transformations that can guide decision-making for plausible, desirable, and sustainable urban futures. We discuss key challenges and tensions in visioning processes and suggest paths forward for positive visioning as a key tool for resilience and sustainability planning and to guide implementation.