Metropolitics

Reflecting on the New York Commune at 20 Years

Daphne Lundi — 2024-04-09T05:00:00Z

What happened in the decades after the Hunts Point Insurrection? M. E. O'Brien and Eman Abdelhadi use speculative oral history to share the stories of the everyday people involved in making New York City's abolitionist future.
In a journal entry from November 14, 1981, Octavia Butler coined the term “histofuturism” to describe her archival practice and how she created critical fabulations of the future: “Histofuturist is my invention. An historian who extrapolates from the Human past and

- Reviews / New York, commune, utopia, dystopia, fiction, science fiction, visionary fiction, New York Commune

Transition towns, or the desire for an urban alternative

Adrien Krauz & translated by Oliver Waine — 2015-05-15T04:50:00Z

The entry of the term “transition” into the vocabulary of public action shows that questions regarding how to build more sustainable models for society are still relevant. The response offered by “transition towns” is a model for action involving a variety of local and citizen-led initiatives that are based on a method for sustainable environmental development called permaculture.
---- Series: The Renewed Relevance of Urban-Planning Models? Faced with the threat of an environmental crisis,

- Essays / utopia, sustainable development, LETS, local currencies, urban agriculture, agriculture, resilience, model, sustainable urban planning, permaculture, transition towns

“Portlandia” in Portland: Curated Life in the Utopian City

Jeff London — 2015-04-07T04:50:00Z

Popular among educated creatives, hipsters, foodies, and other crunchy urbanites, the US television show Portlandia revels in pointing out the absurdity of earnest living and lifestyles in the postindustrial city through the lives of Portland's quirky characters. In this review essay, Jeff London, who has done research on the city, discusses how the series depicts tensions between the “ideal” and “real” versions of life in Portland.
Spoiler alert: this article reveals hidden-in-plain-sight

- Essays / gentrification, utopia, United States, TV series, Portland (Oregon)

Local food: a concrete Utopia

Christian Deverre & Jean-Baptiste Traversac & translated by Oliver Waine — 2012-02-15T06:00:00Z

Roland Vidal recently invited us to look beyond short food-supply chains and rethink local links between cities and agriculture. Here, Christian Deverre and Jean-Baptiste Traversac provide a critical reading of the consequences of changes in farming production methods on the environment and the population.
In an article published in 2011 in Métropolitiques, Roland Vidal denounced both the lack of realism of proposals to feed major urban centres via local agriculture and the erroneous nature

- Debates / France, Paris region, utopia, urban agriculture, market gardening, proximity, short food-supply chains, food, Greater Paris, food culture

The Geography of Financial Crisis

David Harvey & Nadine Roudil & Stéphane Tonnelat — 2010-12-22T09:07:40Z

David Harvey is a leading figure of the marxist critique of neoliberalism. During his last stay in France, in October 2010, he answered a few quick questions on his relationship to Paris, on the geography of the financial crisis and on Utopia and social movements.
---- Dossier : Penser la ville avec Marx Video 1: Space, Marx and Paris Duration: 3:26 Question 1: You propose a spatial reading of Marx's critique of capitalism. Could you tell us how his work has helped you elaborate your own

- Interviews / Marx, financial crisis, utopia, crisis, video