Deeper City: Collective Intelligence and the Pathways from Smart to Wise

Deeper City is the first major application of new thinking on ‘deeper complexity’, applied to grand challenges such as runaway urbanization, climate change and rising inequality. The author provides a new framework for the collective intelligence – the capacity for learning and synergy – in many-layered cities, technologies, economies, ecologies and political systems.

The key is in synergistic mapping and design, which can move beyond smart ‘winner-takes-all’ competition, towards wiser human systems of cooperation where ‘winners-are-all’. Forty distinct pathways ‘from smart to wise’ are mapped in Deeper City and presented for strategic action, ranging from local neighbourhoods to global finance.

As an atlas of the future, and resource library of pathway mappings, this book expands on the author’s previous work, City-Region 2020. From a decade of development and testing, Deeper City combines visual thinking with a narrative style and practical guidance. This book will be indispensable for those seeking a sustainable future – students, politicians, planners, systems designers, activists, engineers and researchers.

A new postscript looks at how these methods can work with respect to the 2020 pandemic, and asks, ‘How can we turn crisis towards transformation?'

Joe Ravetz is Co-Director of the Collaboratory for Urban Resilience & Energy at the University of Manchester. He works on sustainable cities and regions, with a unique perspective on collective intelligence for urban and environmental issues. He is a systems designer, academic, visual thinker, practitioner and process facilitator for complex inter-connected problems. His previous publications include City-Region 2020 and Environment and City.