Resilience and competing temporalities in cities

How the notion of time is conceptualized can directly influence the planning, design, operation and management of cities. Resilience can be understood as an innovation in timing because it changes how people consider, value and act upon the future. Time concepts are part of a deep-rooted culturally specific sociological paradigm, and are central to society's identity and world view. To understand the scope for changing timing paradigms, an exploration is made into the historical interaction between time concepts, economic systems and built environments. Consideration is given to what kind of changes are most needed in timing, especially in light of the accelerating time preferences that can undermine long-term planning and inhibit serious discussion about the future. A new urban-based timing protocol is presented that integrates the scenario planning process by extending time horizons of the past and future, and by combining backcasting and forecasting. The new approach creates an integrated system of timing. Although many institutional barriers may frustrate adoption efforts, a number of positive opportunities are identified. These include the potential for new city-based networks to collaborate around the development and adoption of more appropriate timing tools, with support from national and international funding agencies.