Influential thinkers from around the world have been invited to Edinburgh for a series of "Talking Cities" debates about the future of cities.
A new blog page, has been launched this week to promote the 2010/11 Edinburgh Lectures.
Previous speakers at the autumn and winter event, launched in 1992, have included rockstars, spacemen, scientists and law lords. And the 19th lecture programme appears to have a strong line up of figures from literary, arts and governmental spheres.
Questions will be asked of Edinburgh's "Athens of the North" nickname when the university's principal Sir Timothy O'Shea presents his lecture.
Also set to take the stage is one of Barack Obama's governmental advisors Bruce J Katz, who plans to use his lecture "to outline a vision of a rebalanced economy."
One of the visual highlights on the line-up is a talk and preview of a 2012 Festival fine art photography exhibition of some of Edinburgh's least seen places. "Edinburgh: Secret City" is a work-in-progress by Andy Brydon and Andrew Brooks.
The pair have been exploring beneath the city's streets in a bid to shine a light on what they believe is "a city steeped in history and myth." You can see a sneak preview of some of the pictures taken so far by clicking here.
This shot of the spiral staircase inside St Giles Cathedral has been constructed from 60 different photographs, while this surreal view of the city's observatory is built from 100 shots.
They will discuss how people in cities create history from memory while examining images of Edinburgh in film and literature.
Profiles of everybody taking part in the Edinburgh Lectures series can be found on a new blog by clicking here.
