Report: Urbanism for Everyone

From 6 October to 2 November 2024, 22 people from Albania, Armenia, Belarus, China, Colombia, Croatia, Denmark, Georgia, Latvia, Italy, Turkey, Ukraine and the USA joined our online course ‘Urbanism for everyone’. The course combined theoretical materials, live webinars, hands-on exercises, and the creation of a neighbourhood model city.

Our goal was simple: introduce fresh alternatives to how we think about cities to people from different areas of civil society. We set out to:

• Explore ideas for creating fairer and greener cities;
• Encourage participants look at their own cities using these new ideas;
• Connect people to share experiences and visions for better urban living.

Each week, participants spent about 10 hours working on topics like: the theory and history of the right to the city, how cities shape our emotions, the 15-minute city concept, guerilla architecture, fighting urban sprawl and infill development, and company towns. We also examined where cities meet politics, leadership and public participation, arts, sustainable transport and walkable neighbourhoods, urban gardening and green spaces, militarism in architecture, and wrapped up by imagining what our cities could become.

Three webinars brought in guest speakers to share their expertise.

Predrag Momcilovic from Zajednicko in Belgrade explored degrowth in cities. We dug into why endless growth is unsustainable, how community-led businesses can transform neighborhoods, and how local economics can rebuild social connections. His critique of Belgrade’s ‘Beograd na Vodi’ project – thousands of empty apartments in a swampy area with gated communities and unaffordable amenities – showed us what happens when cities prioritise profit over people.

A member of the Czech social and ecological transformation platform Re-set platform shared insights on housing rights and tenant organising. We discussed why housing should be a right, not a commodity, learned about tenant realities in Prague, and explored organising strategies against big capital’s attempts to weaken unions. The key lessons: unity is power, trust-building is essential, and building the right structures give tenants real influence.

Julian Hauser from our own Soko team examined technology’s role in cities. We contrasted big tech’s “smart city” promises with what truly intelligent cities might look like, diving into surveillance systems and citizen scoring – and their implications for urban life.