Essays

Essays

Fablabs in Africa: Digital Innovation for Sustainable Cities?

Armelle Choplin & Martin Lozivit & translated by Oliver Waine - 16 April 2021

In a context where “smart cities” are being promoted in urban projects in Africa, Armelle Choplin and Martin Lozivit...

Essays

The House is Ours: How Moms 4 Housing Challenged the Private-Property Paradigm

Lauren Everett - 6 October 2020

In the midst of a global housing affordability crisis that has been heightened by the Covid‑19 pandemic, it is time...

Essays

Shelters for Profit, Not People: The Rise of Tax-Credit Investment in US Cities

Renee Tapp - 22 September 2020

Tax-credit investment in US cities provides tax havens for investors, and squanders taxpayer resources on...

Essays

Create, Don’t Destroy: Laying the Foundation for a Public Discourse on Racial Justice in Germany

Janina L. Selzer - 15 September 2020

A night of violence left Stuttgart, a usually peaceful German city, with many unanswered questions. While...

Essays

Community-Rooted Organizations: Enhanced Accountability and Capacity Building for Community Development

Camryn Smith & Danielle Spurlock & Aliyah Abdur-Rahman & Kay Jowers - 10 July 2020

Communities in Partnership, in Durham, North Carolina, uses a “community-rooted” approach to its work that leverages...

Essays

The Right to the City: An Emancipating Concept?

Matthias Lecoq & translated by Oliver Waine - 3 July 2020

The radical approach formulated by Henri Lefebvre in 1968 criticized the failure to include inhabitants in the...

Essays

Consent-Based Social Dancing Spaces and the Right to the City

Rebecca Krisel - 30 June 2020

Consent-based programs in social dancing venues in New York City are an initial step in supporting social dancing...

Essays

Reflections on Retooling for the Covid‑19 Pandemic

Nichola Lowe & Tara Vinodrai - 19 June 2020

Factories are adapting to the new conditions and needs the coronavirus has introduced by retooling production lines...

Essays

Homeless Theory and Research Collaboration: A Tribute to Nikita Price

Eric Goldfischer & Odilka Santiago - 9 June 2020

At a time when too many people are dying, Eric Goldfischer and Odilka Santiago remember Nikita Price of Picture the...

Essays

Sentinel Territories: A New Concept for Looking at Environmental Change

David Blanchon & Frédéric Keck & François-Michel Le Tourneau & Stéphane Tonnelat & Adriana Zuniga-Teran - 8 May 2020

In this essay, the authors develop the concept of “sentinel territories,” or environments where humans can perceive...

Essays

Educating Tenants: A Historic Remit of Social Housing

Danièle Voldman & translated by Oliver Waine - 17 April 2020

In France, the professions of social worker and concierge both emerged in the early 20th century, and both...

Essays

When Measurement Matters: Displacement, Gentrification, Residential Mobility

H. Jacob Carlson - 14 April 2020

Scholarly studies of displacement resulting from gentrification are inconsistent in what they measure, and omit...

Essays

The New Suburban Secession: A Postfascist Turn in Atlanta’s Cityhood Movement

Coleman Allums & Scott Markley - 10 March 2020

In this essay, Coleman Allums and Scott Markley analyze a suburban secessionist movement in Atlanta, Georgia. They...

Essays

New York Tech Dossier: Insecure Frontier Jobs? Staying Relevant in New York’s Tech Ecosystem

Max Papadantonakis - 21 January 2020

“Frontier” jobs in digital technologies promise lucrative career paths, but Max Papadantonakis’s research suggests...

Essays

New York Tech Dossier: The Declining Significance of Proximity in Venture Capital Investments

Joanna Dressel - 14 January 2020

Venture capital investment in New York City has increased over the last decade, contributing to the development of...

Essays

New York Tech Dossier: “Innovation Districts” in New York: Contentious Geographies of Growth

Sharon Zukin - 7 January 2020

Sharon Zukin analyzes how city government in New York has supported concentrations of tech firms—“innovation...

Essays

Poverty as a Social Stigma

Axelle Brodiez-Dolino & translated by Oliver Waine - 13 December 2019

The distinction between the “deserving” and “undeserving” poor is deeply entrenched, and representations of poverty...

Essays

From non-planning to cutting-edge policy: the transformation of waste management in Boston since the 1980s

Lily Baum Pollans - 11 June 2019

Recycling and composting are hot topics. Lily Baum Pollans argues that Boston’s changing approach to waste...

Essays

Urban Renewal in the USA: A Neoliberal Policy?

Thomas Kirszbaum & translated by Oliver Waine - 3 May 2019

By allowing demolitions and evictions in well-located working-class neighborhoods, urban renewal is sometimes...

Essays

As NYC (Again) Considers Comprehensive Planning, History Offers Insight

K. C. Alvey - 12 February 2019

Comprehensive planning can be a progressive governance tool, helping leaders keep broad principles like equity and...

Essays

The Treatment of “North Africans” in 1960s Urban Renewal in France

Janoé Vulbeau & translated by Oliver Waine - 1 February 2019

While France’s 1960s urban renewal has been studied in terms of its effects on the working classes, its racial...

Essays

Solidarity Economics and Rights to the Contested City in Belfast

Brendan Murtagh - 19 December 2018

Is Lefebvre’s right to the city capable of extending the abstract meaning of formal “rights” to practical...

Essays

Organizing Against Projet Gentrification: Housing Activism in a White-Supremacist Landscape in Montreal

Pierce Nettling - 27 November 2018

Housing activists in Montreal and Quebec have successfully sought to secure tenant rights and social housing for...

Essays

Electricity in War-Torn Aleppo: A New Form of Urban Management

Youssef Diab & Abboud Hajjar & translated by Oliver Waine - 23 November 2018

In Syria, electricity is one of the sectors most adversely affected by the war. New means of electricity...

Essays

Migrants’ Occupation of Lycée Jean Quarré: The Refugee Cause and the Cause of a Neighborhood

Isabelle Coutant & translated by Oliver Waine - 16 November 2018

The flows of migrants seeking refuge in Europe since the summer of 2015 have led to temporary settlements—legal or...

Essays

Getting Night Lighting Right

Samuel Challéat & Dany Lapostolle & translated by Oliver Waine - 2 November 2018

Innovation in contemporary urban lighting has increasingly been driven by issues of sustainability. While...

Essays

The Making of a Progressive Mayor: James Kenney of Philadelphia

Richardson Dilworth - 17 October 2018

Philadelphia’s voters elected James Kenney Mayor in 2015 after he had served more than two decades as an at‑large...

Essays

Local Leadership and Global Goals: How City Sustainability Networks are Changing Progressive Policymaking

Emma French & Supraja Sudharsan & Jennifer Clark - 18 September 2018

While national governments often struggle to address global climate change, cities are in a better position to...

Essays

The Limits of Progressive Policymaking in US Cities

Richard Schragger - 11 September 2018

While many US cities appear to enjoy extensive powers—as evidenced by the progressive policies enacted by certain...

Essays

The Educational Fortunes of Children of Immigrants in France

Mathieu Ichou & translated by Oliver Waine - 6 July 2018

How can the attainment gap between children of immigrants and children of native-born parents be explained? While...

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