ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the urban future and discusses the global city, the profitable city and the humane city. The chapter explains urban imaginaries that are taking shape. Some are more fully formed than others as they change and shift into greater coherence. They are as much future possibilities as current realities. The chapter discusses the securitized city, the smart city and the cosmopolitan city. The rise of the revanchist city can be seen in the shift towards right-wing, ethno-nationalist governments in countries across the world. The most dramatic resistance to the revanchist city is the urban riot. There are social and political implications to the growing reliance on technologies of security and surveillance. In recent years the idea of a smart city has taken hold in the world of urban planning and management. A compassionate city requires a collective imagination to see the city as a shared community, to embrace the liberating sense.
