NT BUZZ
As hundreds of India’s small and medium-sized cities stand at the threshold of rapid urban transformation, ‘Emergence: Festival of Future Cities’ is all set to bring together researchers, city leaders, practitioners, artists, citizens, designers, entrepreneurs and young people to explore what the future of these cities would look like.
Organised by Transitions Research, the festival will take place across Panaji from October 29 to 31, across venues such as Sunaparanta Centre for the Arts, Kala Academy and more, bringing together more than 30 events across conversations, workshops, exhibitions, performances, games and public-space activations.
Director of Transitions Research Vikrom Mathur says, “Small cities are not smaller versions of large metros. They are living urban systems, shaped by the interactions between people, institutions, infrastructure, nature, culture and economies. As these cities experience rapid growth alongside rising heat, water stress, extreme rainfall and changing land use, decisions in one part of the city increasingly have consequences elsewhere. The festival seeks to explore what this means for how cities are understood, planned and imagined.”
Panaji will serve as an important living context for the festival which will bring together key institutions and actors shaping the city’s future, including the Corporation of the City of Panaji, Goa Energy Development Agency and other city and state stakeholders.
Under City Governance and Leadership, conversations will examine how cities can translate climate plans into action, and how local climate planning can better reflect inequality, participation and local priorities. Mayor of Panaji, Rohit Monserrate, who has been closely involved with the festival, has added special emphasis on involving youth and green jobs in the festival agenda. To mark this, Emergence will also be setting up a session on mapping green jobs, targeted towards the youth of Goa.
The Collective Intelligence stream brings together city officials, researchers, practitioners, businesses and other stakeholders around questions ranging from renewable energy and waste management to heat and flood risk, clean air, urban reforms, governance and distributed production.
The Climate as Culture stream also looks beyond conventional policy conversations to ask how cities are felt, imagined and represented through plays, exhibitions, games and more.
A crucial part of this festival is the citizens of Panaji, and through the City and the Citizen stream, participants will engage with questions of civic participation, storytelling, technology and collective action. Sessions under Climate as Culture and City and the Citizen are open to the people of Goa to come and experience together.
