City futures in transformation: Emerging issues and case studies

In recent years, cities seem to have been taking greater initiative in global policy making. For example, in May 2005, the Mayor of Seattle, Greg Nickels, led a consortiumof themayors of 131 United States cities to fight global warming by reducing greenhouse emissions, in spite of the fact that the federal government had not signed the Kyoto Protocol [1]. By November 2009 this consortiumhad grown to include 900mayors. Nickels notes that these 900mayors represent 80million Americans, and argues that the consortium illustrates the ‘‘increasingly prominent role that cities are playing in combating climate change’ ’ [2]. Another example comes from Australia, where, with similar initiative, the then Lord Mayor of Brisbane [3], Jim Soorley, at the onset of the Iraq war, raised the UN flag above city hall. Soorley argued that ‘‘the flag sends a strong message against awarwhich does not have UN approval’ ’ [3]. ‘‘This flag is a symbol of humanitarian concern, and it’s a symbol thatwe will always search for peaceful resolution for conflict,‘‘he said [3]. For the purposes of this article, these two events should not be seen as challenging federal sovereignty per se, but more as evocative of the agency of the city. Both are examples of cities acting on their own initiative (and in accordance with the wishes of their citizens), against the position of their federal governments. As well as showing independence from the federal government, like Seattle and Brisbane, many cities (and local governments) are beginning to imagine alternative futures for themselves that go beyond the tradition of only providing for roads, rates and rubbish (and safety). In this vein, cities now have the ability to influence climate change in particular and th