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Is the future of cities the same as their past?

Vaughan, LS; (2013) Is the future of cities the same as their past? Urban Pamphleteer #1: Future and Smart Cities , 1 20 - 22. Green open access

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Abstract

People have long predicted that with the advent of telecommunications, faceto- face contact would become increasingly unimportant in cities. Urban spatial layout would be irrelevant, and cities would be comprised of small groups and atomised individuals connected virtually across time and space. Paradoxically, despite the advent of mobile communications, cities have become more essential than ever in maintaining existing and fostering new relationships. People are using physical and virtual networks to vary their presence in the city: temporally, by working part of the week from home or working in cafés and squares, but also physically, so they can be bodily present, but mentally absent-communicating with an unseen presence elsewhere in the world. These new social adaptations are seen as matters for concern-as signs that we are going through a social revolution as dramatic as the effect the advent of printing had on knowledge dissemination and population movement. But nowadays urban public space can be as lively and full of vitality as ever before. Cities will continue to function as places for people to come together for social and economic transactions.

Type: Article
Title: Is the future of cities the same as their past?
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
Publisher version: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/urbanlab/research/UrbanPamphl...
Language: English
Keywords: urban, networks, social
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > The Bartlett School of Architecture
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1392981
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