A Futurescape City Tour (FCT) is a walking tour of the urban environment that invites participants to take photos, jot down reflections, and notice their city or community in a fresh light while considering its past, present, and future. Facilitated deliberation before and after the tour, as well as informal conversations with researchers, stakeholders, city planners, and officials, encourages all participants to voice their concerns and desires for the future of their communities.
An FCT consists of three sessions:
Orientation: Guided discussion uncovers the concerns and curiosities of participants related to the FCT topic and the future of their city or community.
Walking Tour: Based on those concerns and curiosities, participants go on a guided walking tour of their city or community. Along the way, they take photos representing the past, present, and future and also meet with subject experts and stakeholders.
Deliberation: Participants use their photos in a guided deliberation about the past, present, and future of their city or community as it relates to the FCT topic.
The choices a society makes today often have irreversible consequences on a future we can’t yet see. Our values—such as equity, sustainability, freedom, happiness, competition—and how they are prioritized or ignored shape those choices and outcomes. Scenarios, models, prototypes, and even science fiction are all ways people attempt to imagine this uncertain future. Yet whose imagination matters?
While everyone has a stake in the future of our urban environments, only a select few are empowered with the knowledge, skills, and opportunities to make a difference in how a city evolves. This imbalance can result in entities with more authority, knowledge, money, or other power exerting greater influence on the direction a city or community takes, even though that direction may not reflect the interests and concerns of much of the city’s general population.
Forums such as public hearings, city council meetings, school board sessions, and focus groups have traditionally provided the public with opportunities to voice opinions about their cities’ and communities’ development. Often, however, it’s only the most informed, opinionated, or articulate who speak up in these situations. Many voices are drowned out among the din of vocal—and often polarized—factions, and true dialogue and empathy among stakeholders remains rare. While focus groups and hearings, and more recently citizen juries and consensus conferences, attempt to inform and engage a wider range of citizens and to help make sure that more than the squeakiest wheels get heard, these forms of public engagement still cater to the most vocal and articulate among us. Such approaches tend to stick to traditional learning spaces and relegate citizens to passive learner rather than equal contributor.
In an effort to create a more inclusive, sustainable, and integrated public engagement experience, researchers at the Center for Nanotechnology in Society at Arizona State University (CNS-ASU) developed Futurescape City Tours (FCTs). Combining a walking tour, photography, guided deliberation, behind-the-scenes expeditions, and informal conversations with city planners, policymakers, researchers, and civic leaders, FCTs attempt to embed citizens’ values into local systems of innovation. Citizens drive the agenda and participate in conversations as active, experienced, and equal contributors.
A camera is a tool for learning how to see without a camera. --Dorothea Lange
During the tour, participants take photos in order to visually represent their ideas and experience of a city. Photography, which relies more on sensory experience and less on reasoned argumentation, encourages participants to notice differently, promotes reflection, and helps eliminate language barriers.
To view a gallery of photos taken by participants on the six different city tours, please visit the FCT Flickr gallery.
An FCT consists of three sessions:
Orientation: Guided discussion uncovers the concerns and curiosities of participants related to the FCT topic and the future of their city or community.
Walking Tour: Based on those concerns and curiosities, participants go on a guided walking tour of their city or community. Along the way, they take photos representing the past, present, and future and also meet with subject experts and stakeholders.
Deliberation: Participants use their photos in a guided deliberation about the past, present, and future of their city or community as it relates to the FCT topic.
THE ORIGIN & EVOLUTION OF THE FUTURESCAPE CITY TOURS
One of the primary goals of the NSF-funded Center for Nanotechnology in Society at Arizona State University (CNS-ASU) is to design and test new ways to embed societal values into research and innovation. As technology becomes more complex and pervasive in society, its potential impact on urban environments and citizens’ day-to-day lives grows. Ensuring that the general public has the opportunity to understand, respond to, and influence future directions related to innovation is therefore imperative for upholding a truly democratic society. To that end, through an NSF grant, CNS-ASU developed FCTs to engage citizens about technology’s impact on their cities. They began with a single-city pilot and, following its success, expanded the program to include five additional cities. Through multiple iterations, researchers were able to figure out what works best with FCTs and why.
The pilot FCT, held in Phoenix in 2012, brought citizens together to consider the implications of nanotechnology for their city. They toured locations correlated to their concerns about solar energy, biofuels, transportation, and water use. They took pictures throughout the tour to document their impressions and met with scientists, engineers, researchers, and professionals to discuss the role of technology and its effect on the city. Participant photos were later used as the basis for guided deliberation.
In 2013 the FCT expanded its scale to include tours in St. Paul, Portland, Springfield (MA), Edmonton (Canada), and Washington, DC, in addition to Phoenix. In each city, citizens, stakeholders, and experts considered the relationship between emerging technologies, urban environments, and sustainability. Citizens, ranging from those generally interested in their city’s future to engineers working with nanotechnology, were able to interrogate the changing face of their city.
A team of researchers across multiple universities have helped make the Futurescape City Tours possible.
Research into the nature, role and efficacy of the Futurescape City Tours is underway and ongoing.
From Agriculture to Aesthetics: Adapting FCTs to Your Needs
While the FCTs were originally developed to explore emerging technologies, their format is flexible. They can be used to interrogate a variety of issues related to a city, neighborhood, or region, from more specific topics like water resources or public transportation to broader topics like the arts or poverty. City planners, researchers, policymakers, or educators, among others, can facilitate FCTs. They can be used to engage a diverse swath of participants or a more focused group and can include three day-long tours or one half-day tour, depending on the goals of the project and the resources available. FCT outcomes can serve as an end themselves or can be built upon with additional FCTs, public exhibitions, or other forms of public engagement.
As with every urban or community issue, there are dilemmas, conflicting agendas, and economic trade-offs that are tricky to unravel. Further complicating matters is that change—or progression into the future—is often ambiguous and difficult to decipher while it’s happening. A nudge toward a seemingly positive outcome in one area may result in a leap to a negative outcome in another. FCTs can focus participants’ attention on these subtle changes, as well as support the integration of their values into decision-making.
For example, an FCT may examine the pros and cons of more locally sourced food. At first glance, food grown nearby appears to require less transportation and energy—seemingly good outcomes. However, growing food locally might also put additional strain on urban water resources or bring about unexpected changes to the workforce, affecting the city, state, national, or global economy. What are the drivers and perceptions affecting the way cities produce or obtain food? How do emerging technologies transform food production and distribution? What are the implications of different decision pathways? And, how might the food system evolve over time?
Food production and distribution is only one example of an issue that might transform a community. An FCT could also be used by a homeowner’s association to consider the design of a new playground. Tour stops could include school playgrounds, a playground equipment company, or a children’s museum, depending on participant interests, which might include safety, aesthetics, creativity, accessibility, adventure, or any of a myriad of other values. Speakers could include engineers, early childhood development researchers, psychologists, artists, an Americans with Disabilities Act advocate, etc.
Following are some additional examples of possible FCT uses:
• A community college could conduct an FCT to envision future job skills and better understand the needs of the local economy and the desires of the community.
• A city council could conduct an FCT to examine the public’s views about the role of art and aesthetics in their city.
• City professionals could conduct an FCT to explore a city’s water resources, public transportation, or business development, along with options for the future.
• A science museum could use an FCT to complement an exhibition and connect the theme to the concerns of the local community.
Regardless of who is doing the convening or what the topic of interest may be, it is important that an FCT include the following:
• A walking tour designed around participant concerns, curiosities, and values
• Participant photography as a basis for deliberation
• Formal and informal exchanges between participants and behind-the-scenes experts and stakeholders
• Reflective writing
• Facilitated dialogue and deliberation
GETTING THE MOST FROM YOUR Futurescape City Tour
Throughout the tour you’ve gathered information about citizens’ values related to your FCT topic. Perhaps you’ve recorded the sessions, taken observational notes, and photographed the sessions. You have an impressive conglomeration of multi-media data. How you process this data depends on your intended use of the FCTs and the specific goals of the intervention. For some, the effort may stop with the deliberative session, and for others, the FCTs may fit in to larger or ongoing engagement projects. Some FCT organizers may want to study the outcomes more rigorously or the method more systematically. Following are some thoughts and tips on how to get the most from that data and to integrate it with you or your organization’s work.
Broadcasting the FCT Results: One consideration to make up front surrounds which audiences might benefit from learning about citizen views on an urban issue. In other words, who has a stake in better appreciating the ways a diverse audience approaches the problem? Carefully thinking through potential users of the results will help determine the best way to use the FCT data, as well as give clues to the level of analysis required.
One way to extend the value of the project is by displaying the photos and notes in a public exhibition space, such as a gallery, library, or a community art event. This is a great opportunity to engage the tour’s experts and stakeholders, as well as other members of the public. The exhibit can include a synthesis of participants’ thoughts from the workbooks, a slide show of the photos, hard copies of the images with their captions, images or video of the tour itself, etc. You can provide mechanisms for visitors to add their thoughts to the photos and reflections as well. The FCTs can be a kick-starter to other civic dialogues.
An FCT is a great opportunity to strengthen public relations between cities and citizens or to garner some positive media coverage for an organization. Local television news channels and newspapers covered many of the FCTs conducted during the development stage. It’s a good idea to send out a press release before the tour, in case a news crew wants to photograph or videotape the tour. Or, sending out a release with photos of citizens participating in various stages of the FCT immediately after the final deliberation might result in some media interest.
Additional Opportunities for Data Collection: There are both lightweight and intensive ways of collecting data in the three sessions. In addition to documenting the workshops and collecting the photographs, there are many additional potential data sources. The recruitment application, a post-tour evaluation, post-tour interviews, and session summary write ups all provide opportunities to gather and analyze information about participants and the potential impact of the FCT on their thoughts and behavior. Again, the level of detail and rigor depends on the aims of your FCT.
Participants chose from 3 tours to explore Edmonton’s changing relationships with technologies and innovations.
Tour 1
Creating Sustainable Urban Communities
Tour 3
Infrastructure, Technology, & Innovation
All three tours concluded at Mercer Tavern.
Participants explored the role that technology plays in the urban landscape and the city's dynamic.
Participant Interests
-Transportation Systems
-Energy Systems
-Food Systems
-Cultural Institutions
Tour Length: 3.1 miles (walking and light rail)
Click on each tour stop to see the location & tour photos.
Stop 1 (8:00 AM): Arizona Science Center
Side Excursion: Heritage Park
Stop 2 (8:30 AM): NRG Energy Center Phoenix District Cooling Plant
Side Excursion: Graffiti
Stop 3 (10:15 AM): Public Market
Stop 4 (11:00 AM): Food Panel at University Center
Stop 5 (1:00 PM): Trolley Museum
Stop 6 (2:15 PM): Phoenix Public Library, Burton Barr
Stop 7 (4:00 PM): Wrap up at the Arizona Science Center
Participants explored the impact of technology on sustainability and everyday life in Portland.
Participant Interests
-Social equity and justice
-Building nature and new ecologies into the city
Tour Length: 4.4 miles
Click on each tour stop to see the location & tour photos.
Stop 1 (8:00 AM): Portland State University District and Cooling System
Stop 2 (9:30 AM): Waterfront Park
Stop 3 (11:30 AM): EcoTrust
Stop 4 (2:00 PM): Escuela Vivi Community School
Stop 5 (3:30 PM): Eastbank Esplanade
After the Futurescape City Tour was completed, the Portland team partnered with local artists to host an interactive experience at a local art gallery, where a range of community members articulated a vision of the past, present, and future of technology in Portland.
Participants explored how technologies impact the past, present, and future of cities.
Participant Interests
-Energy
-Privacy
-Public spaces & connections
Tour Length: 2 miles
Click on each tour stop to see the location & tour photos.
Stop 1 (9:00 AM): Science Museum of Minnesota
Stop 2 (9:30 AM): District Energy
Stop 3 (11:00 AM): Bedlam Theatre
After the Futurescape City Tour was completed, photos from the FCT were exhibited at Amsterdam Bar and Hall
Participants explored how new technologies could change their cities and lives in the near future.
Participant Interests
-Connections
-Quality of life
-Linking history to the future
Tour Length: 18 miles (walking and van)
Click on each tour stop to see the location & tour photos.
Stop 1 (9:30 AM): Lyman & Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History
Stop 2 (11:00 AM): Springfield Data Center
Stop 3 (12:00 PM): Roger L. Putnam Vocational Technical Academy
Stop 4 (2:00 PM): Indian Orchard Mills/Geek Group of Western Massachusetts
After the Futurescape City Tour was completed, photos and material artifacts from the tour were combined with a mini "maker space" at the UMass Design Center.
Participants explored what nanotechnology might mean for Washington, DC.
Participant Interests
• Sustainable Living
• Transportation & Infrastructure
• Energy Systems
• Equitable and Just Distribution of Emerging Technologies
• Transparency in the Governance of Emerging Technologies
Tour Length: 3 miles (walking and metro)
Click on each tour stop to see the location & tour photos.
Stop 1 (10:00 AM): National Building Museum
Stop 2 (11:30 AM): CityCenterDC neighborhood
Stop 3 (1:00 PM): Navy Yard / Canal Park
Stop 4 (2:00 PM): 11th Street Bridge
Stop 5 (3:00 PM): Anacostia Public Library