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OC 49: Openness through Cooperation
Openness: a construct of social relations Openness of cities can be understood literally as spaces and places open to all. At a theoretical level, urban thinkers are construing openness of cities as the outcome of social relations which, in turn, are influenced by the dynamic of urban change. These notions were conceptualised around May ’68, […]
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Generation E
The BBC in Europe A rare treat: the BBC is allocating a modest weekly quarter of an hour to European issues. The second Radio 4 series of five programmes is called “Generation E” fronted by Lucy Ash. It deals with the younger generation of fellow Europeans beyond the Channel and how they are “facing up […]
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Open Cities
Originally this was the ‘official blog’ toward the Open Cities project initiated by the British Council in 2006 and extended with an EU URBACT II grant. When the project was completed at the final conference in summer 2011, contributions of Judith Ryser to the theme of Open Cities were continued on Urban Thinker.
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Polis & Politics
Historically city – polis – and politics are linked intrinsically. Cities are the locus of political debate and action, the place where politics is turned into physical reality and social change. Here my personal views deal with social and spatial justice and the role of politics in urban democracies and cosmopolitan societies.
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Urban Art & Culture
Cities are often conceived the cradle of arts and culture. This blog focuses on the relation between the arts and cities, and how they contribute to urban culture. It discusses public art and its role in the cityscape, together with how artists express their views and feelings about cities and conceive urbanity in their work.
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OC 48: About the ‘City Makers’
This is about the unsung ‘makers of the city’: the builders who are erecting the visions of designers for lucrative earnings of investors and developers; those who are producing more or less open spaces for eventual users. ProBE The Centre for the Study of the Production of the Built Environment (ProBE) has been set up […]
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OC 47: City Open to Olympics
The Games have arrived It is not possible to live in London and ignore the Olympic Games 2012. Even less not to have an opinion about them and what they do to London as a place to live, work and play. As usual, officialdom claims that it is either too early or too late and […]