Workshop with Steven Forth: Scenario Thinking and Urban Alternatives September 22, 1:00 PM

We all live in neighbourhoods. Neighbourhoods, in turn, are constantly placed in flux due to forces outside their bounds: changes in transit and transportation, school closures and mergers, "redevelopment" by architects, an influx of chain stores displacing local merchants, and the like.
Often, members of the community rally to try and create the neighbourhoods they want, but come away empty-handed. The inertia of the path already announced is too great to overcome.

Neighbourhoods must become more proactive to see changes favourable to their desired futures become policy. But how can busy people figure this out ahead of time?

Enter scenario planning, a technique for developing alternative futures.

First publicly used in 1973 during the First Oil Crisis by Royal Dutch/Shell, scenario thinking has helped South Africa manage its transition from the era of apartheid, Canada work out its Federal Information Society policies, and build urban evolution scenarios in places as disparate as Amsterdam and Seoul.

Attendees will take a look at how these were undertaken and what the process for scenario development is, then engage in a practical experiment developing community scenarios (based on the communities the attendees actually live in).

$99.00, 4 hours, 1.00-5.00 pm. Enrol via the link:
http://institute.ischool.utoronto.ca/coursedescription.asp?courseid=256