Energising Peer-to-Peer Urban Futures - Challenges for Urban Governance

The relationship between urban governance and citizens has to be revisited as citizens and their peer-to-peer networks emerge as central actors in creating the city space. Renewable energy is a key driver, since it enables citizens to produce their own energy. This transition creates pressure for the rigid urban planning system to reinvent itself. No more can urban governance alone define, produce, and create a liveable eco-smart city. This paper claims that new perspectives are needed to help urban planners, city residents, and stakeholders anticipate and shape urban futures co-operatively. Futures images of peer-to-peer organised urban futures and their challenges to urban governance are provided, based on two futures research projects (ENCORE and Neo-Carbon Energy). Core themes influencing the liveability of an urban environment have been identified as 1) meaningful environment, 2) grassroots approaches, and 3) hybrid spaces. To conclude, a conceptual model of anticipatory hybrid governance is presented.