Reading City Through Science Fiction

Catalog description

The work of shaping and reshaping a city can be considered a form of science fiction. A planner, community member, developer, or policy maker puts forth a vision for a future state, making predictions about the future of places, spaces, and communities. Science fiction considers how systems, cultures, and society may look and feel through speculation and world-building. Through scholarly texts, news media, and film students will consider the history of urban planning through the lens of major concepts and writers in science fiction: urban renewal through the imperial imagination of world-building, garden cities through the lens of utopia, smart cities through the lens of technocracy/tech science, Black community development through the lens of Afrofuturism, and climate change through the lens of climate fiction. The class will delve into the history of major movements in urban planning and use science fiction as a tool to interpret major themes, issues, and challenges in planning practice.