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Think Deeper: Cities
Books
The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson
The author of Everything Bad is Good For You tells the story of how a cholera outbreak in Victorian London, and how the relationship between scientific enquiry and city life made possible the development of both.
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
Poetic visions of imagined cities, surreal and dreamlike but each, in a way, simply an aspect of the way we experience real cities.
Sprawl by Robert Bruegmann
This well researched book argues that campigns against sprawl are based more on prejudice than reason, and wilfully ignore the way that most people prefer to live.
Articles
Disconnected urbanism by Paul Goldberger, Metropolismag.com
Suggests that the experience of being in a city is eroded by mobile telephony, as well as by the increasing ‘sameness’ of urban environments
Our Ailing Communities by Richard Jackson, Metropolismag.com
Blaming urban sprawl for public health problems in modern America
Farewell to the City by James Heartfield, Spiked
Celebrates the end of the boundary between city and countryside
Links
Future Cities Project
Discussion group ‘to critically explore issues around the city’.
Worldchanging.com
Web forum that believes ‘the tools, models and ideas for building a better future lie all around us’.
Audacity
Organisation ‘concerned with the design and production of the man-made environment’.
Think Deeper: Speed
Books
Faster by James Gleick (Little, Brown, 1999)
Gleick, a science writer, takes a cultural and historical look at how technological and social changes have changed our relationship with time.
In Praise of Slow by Carl Honoré (Orion, 2004)
A journalist’s account of his personal quest to slow down his life, meeting representatives of various ‘Slow Movements’ and seeking personal meaning in different priorities.
Articles
Slow Travel, Time magazine, 2006
They call themselves libertarians; I think they’re antisocial bastards, George Monbiot, Guardian, 20 December 2005
Tories back 300mph levitating trains for UK, Daily Telegraph, 29 December 2006
New train speed record set, CNN, 3 April 2007
Transport innovation: slowing to a standstill, Spiked, 31 October 2006
Links
Slow London
Group who are “not anti-speed” but believe “put simply, slow or slowness is balance”
In Praise of Slow
Carl Honoré’s website which also has links to other “Slow” websites
Focus on road safety and speed
Transport 2000’s campaign to cut traffic speeds on the grounds of safety
Progress in motion?
Progress in Motion? Society has been transformed by modern transport systems. What direction should our next moves take?
Books:
Gordon Prong’s History of Very Fast Cars suggests that motor racing plays a vital role in technological innovation; Millicent Carter’s The bicycle: Vehicle of Revolution argues that we should rediscover the ingenuity of human-powered transportation. More…
Articles:
Sasha Kilroy’s article Don’t Stop Me Now! is a plea by one engineer for more speed, and in a similar tone, Andrew Noonan claims It’s All Been Downhill Since Concorde Went. Environmental campaigner William Podbucket would not agree – he claims that We’re All Going To Hell In A Hypersonic Handbasket. More…
Essays:
Engineer Peter Martin explores the social benefits of speed, and argues that freeing up human time is one of the most valuable gifts engineering can bring: Life’s Too Short To Cycle To Work
Philosopher Marion Spangle considers the human desire to overcome biological limits: Look, Ma, I can Fly!
Transport consultant Leonard Miskin argues that safety, not speed, should be our top priority, using his research into the role of speed in road fatalities: From Overtaker to Undertaker – Fatal Haste
Website launched
The Engaging Cogs website has now gone live with information on our debates and events, original research and articles in Think Deeper and news about the project.
About us
What is engineering?
It is the stuff of our lives – transport, communication, the limitless range of products we use. But most of us give no thought to engineering – what we want from it, how it could change our world, what kind of future we want it to shape.
The cogs we want to engage are the ones in your mind.
How is technical progress linked to social progress? How far do we want to go in transforming Nature? What role will engineering play in writing the history of the twenty-first century and beyond?
All these questions, and more, are yet to be decided.
Through live events and online debates, we are beginning a process of discussion among engineers and the public. This is not a consultation, a snapshot of opinion as market research for engineering. We value all opinions enough to test them through argument and analysis, regardless of whose they are. Get those cogs turning, and let’s generate some new ideas.
Engaging Cogs is funded by EPSRC (the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council) as a forum to explore how society thinks about engineering, and hosted by the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford.
Engaging Cogs is a forum for free and open discussion. The views expressed are not necessarily those of Engaging Cogs, the University of Oxford or the EPSRC. All copyright resides with the author. Engaging Cogs is not responsible for the content of third-party websites.
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