About
A research platform, not a research silo.
Our Urban Futures is the public face of community-centred urban research led by Dr. Carrie Mitchell at the University of Waterloo's School of Planning. We build evidence in partnership with the people who live in the neighbourhoods we study, and we publish what we find in language anyone can use.
Who leads this work
Dr. Carrie Mitchell is a planning researcher whose work sits at the intersection of equity, infrastructure, and the lived experience of cities. Her research has informed municipal climate plans across Ontario and contributed to international conversations on adaptation in cities of the Global South.
Why "Our Urban Futures"
The name is deliberate. The futures of our cities are plural — different neighbourhoods experience them differently — and they belong to the people who live them, not only to the institutions that plan them. The platform exists so that the evidence produced inside the university actually leaves it.
How we work
- →Community first. Research questions start with residents, neighbourhood associations, and community organizations — not with funders.
- →Open by default. Methods, instruments, and (where ethical) data are documented openly so others can build on the work.
- →Translation is the work. A finding that only lives in a journal article hasn't done its job. We write briefs, build dashboards, and talk to journalists.
- →Privacy by design. Our instruments count people, never identify them. Edge processing means images never leave the sensor.