In a quiet north London suburb in the borough of Hackney, two rival "neighbourhood forums" put forward under the UK's new "localism" laws have brought religious and cultural divisions into the light, demonstrating why participatory planning can never be used to sidestep politics, but must find ways to embrace it, as Kerwin Datu describes.
Sceptical of the narrative that cities have wholeheartedly embraced urban gardening, Matt DelSesto spies a connection between city crackdowns on urban gardens and police crackdowns in poor communities.
Cairo's street vendors have benefited from the turmoil of post-revolutionary Egypt, but their demands still fall on deaf ears at the national level.
Elizabeth L. Sweet talks to three grassroots leaders in Lima who explain how violence against women is on the rise in Peru, and the techniques they use to address it.
As the Kumbh Mela festival closes in Allahabad, Kristen Teutonico wonders why the lessons of this pop-up city aren't being applied to India's permanent mega-cities.
Today we launch a series of articles focused on how we can eliminate violence against women and girls in our cities, produced in collaboration with the Huairou Commission.
Martha Bridegam describes Dignity Village and other settlements setting out to prove that informal housing can be just as peaceful, lawful and neighbourly as any other residential area.
Kristen Teutonico received a Master of Architecture at Parsons The New School for Design and recently completed a Fulbright Scholarship in Mumbai.
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The Global Urbanist is an online magazine reviewing urban affairs and urban development issues in cities throughout the developed and developing world.
Its readers are drawn from the urban policy and international development sectors, and include urban planners, officers in local, national or international government agencies, civil society leaders, and researchers.
