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The Good City Roundtable

There are numerous criteria and indicators to assess a good city. Similarly, there have been many epithets and adjectives that have been created to define the good city: liveable, just, smart, etcetera. But, as far as we know, nobody has come up with one definitive answer yet. Probably because 'city' and 'good' are contested concepts. It is not always clear where the urban ends and the rural begins. The notion of 'good' invokes questions of good for whom, who decides, and so on. Why, then, are we revisiting this question? The Good City Roundtable is not based on finding a definitive, universally applicable answer, but rather on provoking dialogue to explore the age-old question.

On 29 June 2022, we organised the Good City Roundtable at Newcastle University. The interviewees are professionals from the North East and all work with the good city question in their daily practice. We hope the discussion will start a conversation about what makes good cities, and invite everyone to share their thoughts on our Twitter account.

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Credits

Camera and sound by Tom Draper and Justina Mitkutė

Edited by Tom Draper

Produced by Simin Davoudi

Featuring:

  • Matt Bratton
  • Simin Davoudi
  • Ben Dickenson
  • Andrew Dorrian
  • Alistair Ford
  • Gillian Jein
  • Abigail Pogson
  • Jane Robinson
  • Neil Wilkinson