About the Podcast
The Greening Urban Futures Podcast is a research-based living forum that builds on the notion of nature intelligence and interconnected design as the basis upon which the well-being of future societies relies.
With our focus on the urban environment, we acknowledge the need for interdisciplinary approaches to better understand why and how urban pressing issues can be tackled collectively and systemically. We believe that more knowledge and different interactions are needed to deal with complex sets of issues ranging from socio-environmental imbalances, climate change, and urbanisation; to mental, environmental and social stressors shaping cities and communities.
Our purpose is driven by the need to:
1) UNDERSTAND collective challenges of unsustainable development emerging in different cities globally.
2) SHARE information with local and international actors thereby bring different levels of knowledge and viewpoints to the discussion.
3) CONTRIBUTE to knowledge creation and awareness of the impact of change in cities and their urban societies.
Our Funders
The Urban Futures Podcast platform was created in November of 2018 thanks to a project grant provided by the Maj and Tor Nessling Foundation of Finland, making the initiation of this podcast program and its global reach, a reality.
Meet the host
Ana Jones is a doctoral researcher, urban planner, and communicator at the Finland Futures Research Centre (FFRC) in the University of Turku where Ana works on interdisciplinary research applying futures-related methodologies and theory to the study and understanding of urban change. Her research interests fall under sustainable urban development more specifically, the exploration of futures of life in artificially built environments. In Finland, Ana led the urban research project Green-In Turku collaborating with Turku’s planning authorities focusing on the potential in green areas to tackle liveability and cohesion challenges in Turku’s historic core.
Markku Wilenius is a Professor of Futures Studies at the Turku School of Economics in the University of Turku and a UNESCO Chair in Learning Society and Futures of Education. Markku has worked and published over 20 years in futures studies. His most recent book was born out of his interest on long-term socio-economic waves: “Patterns of the Future. Understanding the Next 40 Years of Global Change.” Markku Wilenius is also a full member of the the Club of Rome
