Joe Ravetz is Director of the Mind-Lab  ('Laboratory for Urban Collective Intelligence'), a global online community, working on the mapping and design of pathways ‘from smart to wise’.  He also leads the  Future-wise cities theme for the Manchester Urban Institute, with both local and global programs.  He is author of two landmark texts:  the new ‘Deeper City: collective intelligence and the pathways from smart to wise’: the previous ‘City-region 2020:  Integrated planning for a sustainable environment’: and nearly 100 publications both academic and professional.

Behind this is a journey in progress on sustainable cities and regions, foresight and transition management, climate / environment policy, social technology and economic development. From this Joe Ravetz developed the Synergistic methods for mapping of collective intelligence, and design of transformative pathways, with a package now available as the Pathways Toolkit.

He has advised policy (UNIDO, UN-Habitat, European Commission, UK government departments, urban / regional public agencies):  and also works with business and the third sector, as a Principal of the non-profit strategy / foresight firm SAMI Consulting.  As a former architect-planner he is a keen advocate of visual thinking, and foresight / futures methods for strategic planning and urban transformation. Joe Ravetz provides review and evaluation services for many academic bodies, together with keynotes and interactive workshops in many countries around the world. He is currently on the editorial boards of Urban Planning & Design & the Foresight journal, and visiting professor at the University of Baja California, Mexico, and the University of Brawijaya, Indonesia.

Research agenda

In all this the over-arching theme is about inter-connection: the reality of cities, not as boxes labelled ‘economics’ or ‘environment’, but rather as whole systems which interact, with evolutionary transformation, and possible co-evolutionary transformation. To respond to this we need new kinds of whole-system thinking: not only as specific nodes or links, but as cognitive systems of learning, communication and collaboration – the components of a collective intelligence.

In that sense the research topics here include spatial development, resource flows, environmental policy, energy / climate change studies, land / landscape studies, policy evaluation and participation. But the strategic agenda is more about the inter-connections between them – again with powerful insights from collective intelligence thinking, as applied with systems / complexity science, transition and innovation studies, futures and foresight methods.  Overall these takes shape as a 20 year intellectual journey, which began with exploration of the ‘inter-connectedness of things’, and then shifted towards the ‘inter-connectedness of thinking’, as explored in the Deeper City book - (https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315765860 )

Emails -  [email protected] – [email protected]

Phone -+44 7719 233115

New book: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315765860  

General site: www.manchester.ac.uk/synergistics/

Collaboratorium (Collective Intelligence Lab):  www.manchester.ac.uk/synergistics/conversations/

Creative visual thinking: www.urban3.net

Pursuits: visual thinking, running & tennis, outdoor living, music.

Media availability: generally available for national / regional media. Contact [email protected] or (+44)(0)7719 233115

Experience: various press interviews, ranging from Guardian to Big Issue:

Expertise: future studies: climate change: One Planet agenda: sustainable cities and regions: sustainable regeneration, economic development: community participation, housing, transport, energy, waste issues.