Violence, discrimination, inequality, poverty, corruption, political division, disinformation displacement, and climate change are every day’s news. The COVID-19 pandemic has made the world aware of its weaknesses, but also of its possibilities. When unequal access to basic needs threatens humans’ health globally we are obliged to face what it seemed like a distant reality at our doorstep.
With this manifesto, we want to state our commitment to justice in cities. As architects and urban practitioners, we recognize our profession's role in shaping communities. However, the long-term change we want is also the responsibility of:
Individuals
with equal access and equal agency
In a just city a person should be able to feel empowered by their community, environment and government. The contemporary challenge is to provide food, housing, medical care, education and cultural life with quality, beyond basic access - independently of age, physical capabilities, gender, color, class or ethnicity. Each individual must have her/his human rights respected and her/his voice heard. A place where solidarity, respect, compassion and tolerance are practiced and incentivized. Where children can be curious about the world freely and fearless; and are able to explore, play, express their art and be inspired.
We all are responsible for the world we create, we can build our just city, be involved in community discussions, create platforms of dialogue where there are none, raise the topic of “just city” in our surroundings, connect ourselves with local activists, share our work and participate directly. We should expose ourselves and our children to different lifestyles. When rights are violated, we should mobilize and contact relevant institutions and the press. It is not only to be against injustice but to be actively pro-justice.
Community
of solidarity where diversity is praised
Recently, despite the fact that cities are becoming bigger and more diverse, the feeling of loneliness and fear is getting greater. People tend to live in a few square meters in a city while compromising their personal needs in order to benefit from basic services. At the same time, some people feel their lifestyle and identity threatened, this may lead to internal disputes of "us against them", when actually we humans have much more in common than we perceive: we all need to love and be loved, we all dream, get disappointed, get angry and get hurt.
A community should offer social and physical support for people to gather, organize, create, strengthen their connections and allow their own growth. A place where they can belong to regardless of their background, where they are respected while expressing their culture and performing their social activities. A cohesive community is made of people sharing experiences, recipes, stories and offering a helping hand, in order to achieve this, spaces that enable these interactions are required. What if streets can tell the stories of its community - the smell of freshly baked bread from the local store and the chit chats of parents waiting for their kids? Public areas and parks full of trees where people can lie under, hear the birds and become present and mindful of nature. All of these under the observing eyes of the neighbours and passers-by.
Places such as libraries, community centres, coffee shops, and hair salons, allow people to meet and interact - personal experience is still the strongest way to overcome prejudices. When facing the “other” we realize that some of our assumptions could not be true and we are able to solve common problems with dialogue.
Communities offering these places enable democracy to thrive.
Institutions
working with the people and for the people
Legitimate and essential demands from communities are undermined when institutions work towards their own interests. Corporations take advantage of lax workers’ rights and environmental laws in many developing countries. Corruption between the public and the private sector obstructs the main goal of public institutions furthermore it compromises the justice system that it is supposed to adjudicate autonomously . People do not trust a great number of institutions due to their complex bureaucracy, their opaque activities and frequent corruption scandals. Even one case of corruption can erode a community’s trust.
Institutions should act as facilitators for people to achieve their growth through multi-sectoral policies - especially for the well-being of the weakest, the poorest and the forgotten. Three main aspects should be taken into account: equity, diversity and democracy (Fainstein, 2010, p.5)
In this sense, policies that advocate for disadvantaged groups should be a priority to achieve an equitable society.
Innovations in industry and circular economy principles can guide all production, with quality, affordability and sustainability at the center. Information technology allows knowledge to be shared or built together, in this way, small-scale neighborhood actions can be upscaled or replicated. When solidarity is strengthened, individuals have a stronger voice and are able to shift the power balance.
Policies that promote the mixing of different socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds would tackle diversity. One way could be assigning social housing spread over central districts and giving incentives for local shops to be established. The education curriculum should include lessons about minority groups to help their integration.
To strengthen democracy, policies should be designed with the collaboration of the government, academia and society. There should be transparency in their activities and transactions, and should also ensure their negotiations with private organizations conform to this principle. Positions of authority should be shared, in order to enhance democratic decisions and avoid a concentration of power. Policies should be strongly subject to their context, socially and environmentally, based on science and research, in order to obtain democratic outcomes.
