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Open Cities 15 Equality and Openness
Top of the pops Like wasps around a jam pot, the main political parties are cramming around equality. They all love it, have it, do it. Why then has the UK one of the widest equality gaps, together with the USA, Australia and Portugal? Conversely to Scandinavian countries and Japan. With the election approaching they […]
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Open Cities14 Minaret Controversy
Changing city skylines The people have decided: no more minarets in Swiss cityscapes. The question is how and why. The controversy over minarets has to be put into the context of who is shaping city skylines, with what artifacts, for what purpose, with whose legitimacy. Ever since cities have been built they express the power […]
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Open Cities12 Power and Enclosure
Enclosures Fences, barriers, railings, walls, hedges, barricades, enclosures with their gates are all expressions of exclusion. They manifest the power of those who are in a position to exclude. Why should they put up barriers? What do these obstacles do for them, and against whom? Protection is invoked. Those behind enclosures are protecting themselves but […]