The Tomorrow’s Cities Urban Disaster Risk Hub at the UCL Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction is part of an interdisciplinary and international research and action collaboration funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) through the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF). This research hub aims to bring multi-hazard disaster risk management to the centre of urban policy and practice. New research from this project has been published in the Journal of Buildings and Cities.
The research paper titled “Normative Future Visioning: A Critical Pedagogy for Transformative Adaptation” discusses the role of Normative Future Visioning (NFV) as a planning approach to support cities in preparing for climate change. It promotes critical thinking and collaboration among participants. The paper proposes the Encounter-Change Framework as a tool to evaluate the effectiveness of NFV in bringing about change. The framework was applied in nine cities to assess how NFV can improve urban planning. The paper emphasises the importance of including different perspectives and ensuring fairness in planning processes. The findings revealed challenges related to time, ethics, co-production, diversity, consensus, equity, and authorship in NFV practices. The paper suggests policy innovations by examining NFV’s process from a power perspective and evaluating its positioning within broader adaptation policy and planning strategies.