ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the tensions of working with ‘the present’ or ‘past futures’ as the organising temporality in research. It interrogates the relationship between the past and the future in the specific context of mid-nineteenth-century Paris. The book shows the value of seeing the Paris boulevard through a past futures lens, namely, a lens that considers the multiple alternatives of change in the past; weighs the significance of taking the long view when exploring the features, meanings and associations which the boulevard as a historical object encapsulates; and describes the various ways in which the boulevard has been used to produce specific readings of Paris, in particular, and of cities, more generally. It focuses on insights from a series of experimental scenario workshops at the core of a range of research and public engagement projects on climate change.
