Utopias of Mobilities

Contemporary global challenges to the distribution and organization of mobilities require new ways of envisioning and imagining to bring forward the discussion about new visions and thus policies of future mobilities. This chapter explores the imaginary visioning by using earlier utopian thoughts and visions as ‘prisms’ for the contemporary mobility debate in order to get closer to new imaginaries of technologies, complex systems and cultural change. The chapter is structured in five parts. After the introduction, part two discusses utopian and critical perspectives within urbanism in order to establish the intellectual current of ‘alternative thinking’. In part three we return to the 1950’s and 1960’s stream of what might be termed ‘Techno utopian urbanism’. From the works of Archigram and the Situationist movement in particular a perspective on the utopian imaginary is re-launched. However in order to discuss the situation of contemporary and actual proposals for urban transformation the paper in part four explore the potential to fuelling this discussion by looking at the Danish architectural company BIG. BIG is discussed from its potential as a‘wild contemporary’ shaking, stirring and stimulating the utopian stream of urban imaginary. The chapter ends in part five with some concluding reflections.