The City We Make Together: City Design and Participatory Culture

Photo Credit: David A. Brown
By Naomi Jacobs and Dan Hill
Published by Verso / RMIT Press, 2022

Overview

The City We Make Together is a visionary exploration of how people and place can co-create more democratic, just, and meaningful urban life. Blending design, public policy, cultural studies, and systems thinking, the book challenges the idea of cities as top-down constructs and instead proposes them as participatory, living systems that reflect the complexity of human connection and civic life.

Why It Matters

This book reframes city-making as a collaborative cultural process—shaped by stories, rituals, and relationships, not just bricks and regulations. It offers a vocabulary and set of practices for embedding empathy, pluralism, and public imagination into civic infrastructure, directly aligning with The Change Lab’s mission of building social cohesion and systemic change from the ground up.

Key Themes

• Participatory Design & Co-Creation
  Cities are more than buildings; they are made through ongoing social participation and collective authorship.

• Rituals of Engagement
  Emphasizes civic rituals, informal gatherings, and cultural practices as integral to governance and belonging.

• Public Imagination & Narrative Power
  Highlights the role of shared stories, symbolism, and futures thinking in shaping more inclusive public life.

• Design as a Civic Act
  Frames architecture, planning, and digital systems as tools of civic infrastructure—not just aesthetics or utilities.

Relevant to The Change Lab

This book serves as a guide for rethinking systems, civic engagement, and spatial justice through the lens of co-authorship and participatory culture. It offers frameworks that Change Lab partners, especially those in community development, civic tech, or public space design, can use to spark action grounded in belonging, imagination, and equity.