Editorial Introduction

Abstract

Abstract This editorial preface introduced the edited collection “Designing More-than-Human Smart Cities: Beyond Sustainability, Towards Cohabitation.” It offers a summary of the editors’ overall thinking and rationale for the way this book demonstrates how more-than-human concepts are being brought into emergent design practices to support planetary wellbeing. Authors and their chapters are briefly introduced and include researchers and practitioners from urban planning, architecture, environmental humanities, geography, design, arts, and computing. Together, they illustrate key concepts using case studies that respond to the complex relationships between human and non-human others (such as animals and plants, as well as soil, rivers, data and sensors) in urban space. Drawing from existing theory, policy, practice and speculative design about how cities may evolve, the book makes a timely contribution to contemporary debates on sustainable smart cities and alternative forms of urban co-habitation.