The Metropolitan Futures Initiative aims to develop an improved understanding of communities and their potential for integrative and collaborative planning and action to ensure a bright future for the region.
With initial focus on Orange County and its location within the larger Southern California area, The Metropolitan Futures Initiative is a commitment to build communities that are economically vibrant, environmentally sustainable, and socially just by partnering Social Ecology’s world class, boundary-crossing scholarship with expertise throughout Southern California.
Specifically, the initiative aims to:
- Spark and sustain thinking about the connections among seemingly disparate community problems in order to develop more effective solutions; and
- Encourage moving beyond jurisdictional borders and encouraging stakeholders in communities to more effectively collaborate on issues of regional consequence.
Connecting Resources, Experts, and Community Problems
The Metropolitan Futures Initiative is committed to fostering a holistic consideration of critical community problems, including those that involve physical infrastructure, social capital, environmental sustainability, criminal justice, workforce development, economic vitality, and equitable distributions of shared benefits and burdens.
The imitative will bring together diverse individuals and groups in a process of discovery, strategic thinking and planning. To support this proactive discourse, the initiative invites:
- The research expertise of UCI faculty in key areas, including demography, transportation, housing, economic development, governance, water, land use, health, education, law and related fields to produce knowledge and inform discussions.
- The knowledge of community members on identifying issues, setting the agenda, assessing and developing policies, and fully participating in the process of discovery, planning, and policy implementation.
Engaged Dialogue Around Community Issues
UCI researchers and community members will initiate this effort by empirically examining a set of essential questions including:
- How are our communities and the larger regional and global context changing?
- What are the implications for transportation, business location, and residential choice?
- How will these changes affect access to opportunity (jobs, housing, and education) and quality of life (health, air quality, water resources, and open space)?
Responses to these questions will set the stage for informed, engaged dialogue on the future of Orange County within the context of the larger region, the future of governance for the region, and potential strategies aimed at promoting a thriving future for Orange County and Southern California.
A Better Metropolitan Future
Building a better metropolitan future for the Southern California megalopolis requires a foundation that rests on two pillars:
- Strategic thinking that spans disciplinary, topical, and geographic boundaries, and
- Scholarship that is developed in full partnership with the community to move knowledge back and forth across the traditional theory-practice divide.
The Metropolitan Futures Initiative will harness the best resources available within and beyond UCI to build a knowledge and practice base that will address these challenges to improve the quality of life for those in Orange County, the Southern California region, and beyond.
Past Events
Building Resilient Neighborhoods: Policies and Systems for Responding to Foreclosures and Housing Market Stress
Dan Immergluck , Professor Georgia Tech University, School of City and Regional Planning, was the featured speaker on May 4, 2011. This event was part of the Metropolitan Futures Initiative and was co-sponsored by MFI, School of Social Ecology, Community Outreach Partnership Center and the Center for Community Development Studies. Immergluck presented on the polices and systems for responding to foreclosures and the housing market stress.
Toward the Healthy City: People, Place, and the Politics of Urban Planning
Jason Corburn, Associate Professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley, was the featured speaker on January 25, 2011, at UC Irvine. Sponsored by the School of Social Ecology's Metropolitan Futures Initiative, Center for Community Development Studies, and the Community Outreach Partnership Center, Professor Corburn presented the argument that city planning must return to its roots in public health and social justice.
Megapolitan America: The Rise of the New Metropolis
Robert E. Lang, Professor and Director of the Brookings Mountain West Initiative at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, was the featured speaker on October 26, 2010, at UC Irvine. Sponsored by the School of Social Ecology's Metropolitan Futures Initiative. Lang's presentation explored the relationship between metropolitan form, scale, and connectivity.
Water Policy and Environmental Justice in Southern California
On April 21, 2010, Dave Feldman, Chair and Professor in the Department of Planning, Policy and Design at UC Irvine, discussed California's long history of contentious, often divisive water politics. His lecture examined the issues caused by growing population, urbanization, pollution, and climate change and provided some potential solutions.
Keeping Orange County Moving: The Promise and Challenge of Transit Oriented Development
On February 10, 2010, community members, students, and professors attended a lecture by Will Kempton, CEO of the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA). Mr. Kempton spoke about the obstacles that must be overcome in order to employ transit oriented development in Orange County, which includes building a public will among competing stakeholders. To view Mr. Kempton's power point presentation, click here.
Metropolitan Futures: Imagining California Tomorrow
On November 2, we held a forum at UC Irvine featuring Joseph Dunn, Managing Partner of The Senators’ Law Firm. Mr. Dunn is the former CEO of the California Medical Association, as well as a former California State Senator who represented California's 34th Senate District in central Orange County and led the state's investigation into Enron's involvement in the 2000-2001 energy crisis. He spoke about how our communities and the larger regional global context are changing and the need for visionary planning strategies and processes to ensure a thriving future for the golden state and its metropolitan regions.
The Sponsor
For four decades, the School of Social Ecology has fostered boundary‐crossing knowledge creation that is embedded in community partnership. The faculty members and staff associated with the Metropolitan Futures Initiative are internationally recognized researchers who have a commitment to collaborative community engagement, public scholarship, and transformative research and teaching.
We are pleased to announce a significant seed gift from Heritage Fields El Toro, LLC on behalf of Great Park Neighborhoods, Irvine's newest master planned community. To join the consortium of MFI community partners, contact Mickey Shaw at shawmm@uci.edu.
Learn More...
Contact Us
For more information, please contact:
- John Hipp, Faculty Director
- (949) 824-8247
- hippj@uci.edu
- Victor Becerra, Program Director
- (949) 824-9337
- vbecerra@uci.edu