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Public art by Banksy. Source: Wikipedia Commons
“Our cities have become key arenas in a primarily market-driven globalization process, a process that primarily unfolds in circumstances and at the mercy of protagonists with little or nothing to do with planning and design. ... Premised on a substantive retreat of the state and the surrender of social interests to market forces, cities have become strategic spaces for the implementation of neoliberal logic.
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Occupy Tent by Gregoire Vion. Source: Occupy Posters
“Designers continue to hold back with criticism and proposals, but the time has come to redefine the role of design in a social city – and to take action. Design in the context of cities could redefine itself as a search for an alternative urban practice, beyond the techniques and the ideology of crisis-ridden, late-capitalist urbanism.
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Chalk memorial for Jack Layton in front of Toronto’s City Hall. Source: Jackman Chiu
“How would design look if it were inspired by an open, processual, micro-political, interventionist, communicative and participatory approach that relates to everyday urban life? Would it be destined to be merely an element in the commodified colonization of social spaces, or could it be a strategic tool with a political and social character that can make an essential contribution to a social city?”
— Jesko Fezer in “Design for a Post-Neoliberal City,” 2010
This is part of the Polis collection of quotes related to cities.
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