Session Description

Cities increasingly face decisions in which there is no simple “right” answer. Economic development may conflict with ecological protection; tourism growth with residents’ quality of life; energy security with decarbonisation; industrial resource extraction with the protection of land, culture and Indigenous ways of life. These tensions are often framed as binary choices – one side must win and the other must lose.

Yet complex urban challenges rarely fit an either/or logic.

This expert session explores how leaders can move beyond polarisation towards integrative, systemic decision-making: creating spaces in which opposing perspectives are not only expressed and heard, but genuinely examined for the knowledge, values, needs and legitimate concerns they carry. The challenge is not simply to achieve compromise, but to ask what each position sees that the other may not – and how this wider understanding can lead to wiser decisions for the whole system.

At the centre of the conversation will be the Soul of the City as a possible framework for bridging polarities. By reconnecting decision-makers and communities with the deeper identity of place – its history, relationships, culture, ecology, lived experience, present needs and future aspirations – the Soul of the City can help enlarge the frame of a difficult conversation. Instead of asking only, “Which side is right?”, we can begin to ask: “What does this place, understood as a living interconnected system, need in order to flourish?”

From this wider perspective, apparently opposing positions may reveal themselves as different expressions of needs and values arising within the same ecosystem. The Soul of the City can therefore serve as a shared reference point – a “third position” beyond the polarity – helping stakeholders move from defending their interests against one another towards taking collective responsibility for the future of the place they inhabit together.

Drawing on real cases from urban development, resource use, energy transition, tourism, agriculture and community-industry relations, the session will explore the capacities leaders need to facilitate difficult conversations respectfully, recognise different forms of knowledge and lived experience, and transform conflict into opportunities for systemic learning and co-creation.

The discussion will also consider whether these principles could form the basis of a practical protocol for bridging polarities – a replicable approach that local leaders, communities, businesses and other stakeholders could use when navigating complex and contested decisions.