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Seeing Like a Citizen: People, Place, and the Case for Neuro-Planning

Thu Mar 06, 2008. 05:00 pm - 06:30 pm
ENVD 134

William Shutkin, Partner, Innovation Network for Communities; Research Affiliate, MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning

How can planners, policymakers and sustainability advocates help move people beyond narrow self-interest and knee-jerk NIMBYism to the more expansive, more dynamic worldview required by today’s planning challenges, from reducing carbon emissions to promoting density? Thanks to advances in the cognitive sciences, we’re gaining new insights into how the human brain works when confronted with tough choices and the option simply to recoil to the status quo. There’s even a burgeoning new field of economics—neuro-economics—examining the cognitive and behavioral underpinnings of human decision-making. What, if any, promise do these new approaches hold for planners and the planet? And can neuro-planning be far behind?

William Shutkin is currently a Partner of the Innovation Network for Communities, Interim Executive Director for Local Living Economies, and a Research Affiliate in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT. He will be joining the faculty of the Leeds School of Business at CU in the fall to help build a new interdisciplinary program in smart growth and sustainable development. He has an A.B. from Brown University, an M.A. and J.D. from the University of Virginia and completed doctoral studies as a Regents Fellow in Jurisprudence and Social Policy from the University of California at Berkeley. He is author of the books, The Land that Could Be: Environmentalism and Democracy in the 21st Century, and A Republic of Trees, Field Notes on People, Place and the Planet.

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