Enabling Urban Alternatives: Crises, Contestation, and Cooperation

Description

This book asks how thinking, governing, performing, and producing the urban differently can assist in enabling the creation of alternative urban futures. It is a timely response to the ongoing crises and pressing challenges that inhabitants of cities, towns, and villages worldwide are faced with in the midst of what has been widely dubbed as ‘an urban age’. Starting from the premise that current urban development patterns are unsustainable in every sense of the word, the book explores how alternative patterns can be pursued by the wide variety of actors – from governments and international institutions to slum-dwellers and social movements – involved in the on-going production of our shared urban condition. The challenges addressed include exclusion and segregation; persisting poverty and increasing inequality; urban sprawl and changing land use patterns; and the spatial frames of urban policy. As such the book appeals to urban scholars, policy makers, activists, and others concerned with shaping the future of our cities and of urban life in general. Additionally, it is of interest to students in urban planning, architecture and design, human geography, urban sociology, and related fields. Front Matter ....Pages i-xiv Introduction: Introducing Urban Alternatives (Jens Kaae Fisker, Letizia Chiappini, Lee Pugalis, Antonella Bruzzese)....Pages 1-19 Front Matter ....Pages 21-21 ‘This Situation Can Be Duplicated’: Text as Radical Placemaking Tool (George Francis Bickers)....Pages 23-42 Terrains and Landscapes of Urban Politics (Jens Kaae Fisker)....Pages 43-63 Urban Dissensus: Spatial Self-Organisation at Wards Corner (Sam Vardy)....Pages 65-81 Front Matter ....Pages 83-83 Investigating the Democratic Potential of Temporary Uses in Urban Redevelopment Projects (Peter Parker, Nina Vogel, Lisa Diedrich)....Pages 85-107 Mobilizing Alternative Modes of Cultural Governance in Berlin (Friederike Landau, Janet Merkel)....Pages 109-132 The Game of Participation in Amsterdam East: An Alternative to the Neoliberal or a Neoliberal Alternative? (Zsuzsa Kovács, Peer Smets, Halleh Ghorashi)....Pages 133-155 Front Matter ....Pages 157-157 Urban Alternatives Through Cooperation: Autonomous Geographies and Recreational Running in Sofia, Bulgaria (Andrew Barnfield)....Pages 159-178 Alternative Spatial Styles: An Exploration of Socio-Spatial Youth Cultures in Turin (Raffaella Ferrero Camoletto, Carlo Genova)....Pages 179-199 The Spatial Features and Temporality of Urban Alternatives (Antonella Bruzzese)....Pages 201-222 Carving Enclaves of Alternative Urbanisms in Hong Kong (Sonia Lam-Knott)....Pages 223-246 ‘City of Light’: The Production of Urban Space by the Esoteric Spiritual Community of Damanhur, Italy (Stefania Palmisano, Alberto Vanolo)....Pages 247-270 Conclusion: Enabling Alternative Urban Futures (Jens Kaae Fisker, Letizia Chiappini)....Pages 271-292