Geoff's blog

Cityscape

Geoff Mulgan - 09.11.2011

An interesting event I participated in last Thursday, hosted by the Ove Arup Foundation and the Guardian, looked at future cities. I kicked off by complaining that despite thousands of years of learning about what does and doesn't work in cities, so much design and building results in unpleasant spaces. 

Almost every central business district is soulless. Some of the highest profile new cities - like New Songdo in Korea - feel like they've been designed for robots rather than people; and when one recent development in Germany opened, the local paper commented that there was more life in the city's cemeteries. In my short talk on the subject I looked at whether we need a new kind of profession that can combine understanding of physical design with an understanding of technologies and social dynamics - or, to put it another way, with humanity.

Moving on from designing new cities to transforming existing ones, I was delighted a few days ago to see my old friend Won Soon Park elected as mayor of Seoul. He was imprisoned under the military regime, and more recently harassed and taken to court by the security services. He stood as the independent candidate for civil society and ended up trouncing the ruling party on a flood of support from young people. Seoul is a remarkable city - with 12 million people and the highest tech infrastructure on earth - and we're hoping for great things from a man who's combined running the very creative Hope Institute, and helping build the global social innovation movement through SIX, the Social Innovation Exchange.  A day with him last time I was there ran the gamut from training for city leaders to helping launch new fair trade shops, a kimchi festival and hosting a festival of complaints choirs.

Innovation in Giving

You may have had a chance to browse through our channel of elevator pitches for our Innovation in Giving Fund. This is a space in which hundreds of new ideas are jostling for support - and no one knows quite which ones will succeed. I did a lecture on Tuesday for CSV on volunteering and the future, trying to address how technologies might change the ways we give time and money in the way that they have already transformed how we shop and how we relate to our friends.