Category: Issue-6-2026
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Editorial: Citizenship, City, Place, Identity, Democracy
According to a Western cultural heritage, where the idea of free citizenship and democracy originated, citizenship, place, and the city belong together. The idea of free citizenship and democracy is reflected in the understanding of the human being as a zoon politikon, literally translated an animal who lives in the polis, the city. It is…
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Re-Engaging the Social Potential of the Public Realm of Our Cities
Questions regarding place, the individual, and community in 21st century cities are encouraging new research as a result of the transformation of daily life around a barrage of data, entertainment, hyper communication, instant consumer satisfaction and more all constantly available at our side in our pocket or bag we carry. We compulsively interact with this…
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The advantages of a more objective view of how to be architects
By analyzing the way architecture is taught and practiced, we can clearly see that we are currently in a situation similar to that denounced by Viollet-Le-Duc in the middle of the Beaux-Arts period… something that, as history has taught us, cannot lead to anything good
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Civil Society, Civility, and Urban Public Space
This paper critically discusses a common liberal relationship between civil society and civility. It highlights how liberal theory constructs a theory of civil society which, at the same time, suggests that one can pursue certain democratic ideals as long as they remain ‘civilised’. The paper shows how these liberal ideals have in practice constrained the…
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The Search for the Ideal
Much has been written about successful communities and why certain places are “destinations” and others are not. Italo Calvino’s “Invisible Cities” emphasizes in poetic prose that the city is a constantly evolving place – simultaneously both being constructed and decaying, aspirational and fleeting. Through this we come to realize: do we ever really know what…
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Community, Space, Utopia
Utopia is typically associated with community. Despite the existence of individual, “private” utopias, traditionally, a utopia does exist for a single human being but for a group of people – a community. If we set aside the more sinister version of utopia, the so-called dystopia (which also has groups of humans as its focus) and…