Urban Future Manifestos (edited by Peter Noever and Kimberli Meyer with texts by Saskia Sassen, Zvi Hecker, Ai Weiwei) is a compelling anthology of interdisciplinary responses to urgent global urban challenges — including migration, economic shifts, political tensions, and ecological concerns. It was inspired by the MAK Center’s Urban Future Initiative (UFI) Fellowship program, which fosters international exchange among planners, artists, architects, and cultural practitioners to imagine sustainable and just urban futures.
As a UFI fellow, I contributed a project featured in the publication that encapsulates my core research and practice concerns:
Creative Strategies for Spatial Justice
This project maps patterns of spatial inequality by comparing the urban landscapes of Johannesburg and Los Angeles, both shaped by dominant neo-liberal planning paradigms that privatize public space and criminalize poverty.
Alongside this research, I presented Cancelled Without Prejudice at the Schindler House in Los Angeles — an exhibition exploring the contradictions of mainstream urban development, particularly focusing on the impact of Business Improvement Districts (BIDS) and “clean up” campaigns on marginalized communities.
The work investigates how such policies enforce social control, displacing the most vulnerable residents — notably in Skid Row, Los Angeles, and several Johannesburg neighborhoods. While these cities share global patterns of exclusion, they differ in local responses to poverty and support systems.
This research and exhibition underscore urgent questions about who has access to urban space, how livelihoods are protected, and how urban futures can be reimagined beyond exclusionary frameworks.
See the book here: https://www.hatjecantz.com/products/16516-urban-future-manifestos?srsltid=AfmBOopd5BQbJoUgEKZDg2wZcPqmrGsYok0mEMwr7pCo0HJ5xJvn4ium
Noever, P., & Meyer, K. (Eds.). (2010). Urban Future Manifestos. Hatje Cantz.