Why designing \u2018perfect\u2019 cities spurs conflict<\/p>\n
<\/iframe><br \/>\n <br \/>\n<div class=\"csidebar right\">\n<\/p>\n<h4>Related episodes<\/h4>\n<p class=\"p__small\"><a href=\"https:\/\/clarknow.clarku.edu\/2023\/01\/13\/sounding-a-warning\/\">Indigenous Heavy Metal and Whale Song with Professor Max Ritts<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"p__small\"><a href=\"https:\/\/clarknow.clarku.edu\/2022\/12\/20\/a-deep-dig-into-the-extractives-industry\/\">The Opportunity and Concern of Extractive Industries with Professor Anthony Bebbington<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"p__small\"><a href=\"https:\/\/clarknow.clarku.edu\/2023\/01\/24\/food-as-a-tool-for-transformative-change\/\">Hunger, Nutrition, Food Systems, and Social Change with Max De Faria ’20<\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/div><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">The word “utopia” comes from the Greek words for “no” and “place.” So, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/departments\/geography\/\">geography<\/a> Professor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/faculty\/profiles\/deborah-martin\/\">Deborah Martin<\/a> is intrigued by the frequency with which urban planners use utopian thinking when such a place, by definition, does not exist.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">In trying to create idyllic cities, planners overlook that urban areas have no singular use. Martin feels the best urban designs are the ones that don’t prescribe how a space should be used.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">“What’s utopian for one person, what makes the world work well, might not work for everybody else. When we think we know what people need, such as green space, then we prescribe green space in a certain way,” says Martin. “You end up having a lot of potential conflict over what people might think is good for everyone. It gets complicated pretty quickly.”<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\">In this episode, Martin explains how urban designs reflect our values, the challenges of building for the 21st century, and why one space can have different uses for different people.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Challenge. Change.<\/strong> is produced by Andrew Hart and Melissa Hanson for Clark University. Listen and subscribe on <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/4UuYAjq1d3Hq45cjwxoCNL\">Spotify<\/a> or  <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/challenge-change\/id1608025510\">Apple Podcasts<\/a>. Find other episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.<\/p>\n<div class=\"is-layout-flex wp-container-7 wp-block-columns alignfull no-gap photo-row\">\n<div class=\"is-layout-flow wp-block-column\" style=\"flex-basis: 50%\">\n Professor Deborah Martin\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"is-layout-flow wp-block-column\" style=\"flex-basis: 50%\">\n<figure id=\"attachment_43314\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-43314\" style=\"width: 420px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium-large wp-image-43314\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2018-Downtown-Worcester-1-420x280-2.jpg\" alt=\"Downtown Worcester\" width=\"420\" height=\"280\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-43314\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Downtown Worcester<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a class=\"filled-button\">Study Geography<\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/body><\/html><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why designing \u2018perfect\u2019 cities spurs conflict<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12728,"template":"","meta":{"story_color":"#525250","story_headerImg":12728,"section_label":"Challenge. Change. Podcast","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[223,241,239],"displayed_author":[237],"featured":[],"topic":[148,150,160,321,165,211,218,274,176],"class_list":["post-12727","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clark-community","category-environment-sustainability","category-worcester-world","displayed_author-melissa-hanson","topic-community","topic-faculty","topic-faculty-research","topic-first-year-intensives-fyi","topic-geography","topic-geography-faculty","topic-geography-students","topic-major-in-geography","topic-podcast"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Utopian problems | ClarkU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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