Cities for People

In cities around the world, citizens are getting organized in order to fight for their right to the city and a just and inclusive city. They are committed to the right to housing and fight against the privatization of municipal services like water or electricity; they stand up against purely profit driven urban developments and demand decent living conditions for all. Cities for people will present the refugee accomodation and solidarity space Hotel City Plaza Athens, the Belgrade collective Ministry of Space and the movement against Belgrades Waterfront development Ne da(vi)mo Beograd (Don't let d(r)own Belgrade), as well as initiatives from Detroit and their activities with the Detroit Unreal Estate Agency or the platform Detroit Resists. The evening will give an insight into their work and will discuss new strategies for urban social movements and the necessity of standing up and fighting for your rights.

Presentation and discussion with:

Iva Cukic, Ksenija Radovanovic, Ministry of Space is a Belgrade collective that was founded in 2012. It is working in the field of urban activism and actively monitors the urban transformation in Belgrade and other cities in Serbia. It is actively researching artistic and activist strategies for the right to the city through public interventions, workshops, exhibitions and discussions. The ministry of space collects and disseminates information on urban developments and supports urban social movements who do the same in their neighborhoods. The ministry is developing its projects in collaboration with a network of urban researchers and activists from various fields like architecture, urban planning, art, sociology, political sciences, etc. For quite a while the Ministry of Space is involved in a huge struggle against the Belgrade waterfront development by the Abu Dhabi investors Eagle Hills with the initiative Ne davimo Beograd.

Nasim Lomani, Refugee accommodation and solidarity space City Plaza Athens The City Plaza Athens is a formerly vacant hotel in the center of Athens that had been occupied in Spring 2016 by refugees and refugee activists in order to install decent living conditions and create a good practice for refugee housing in Greece and the rest of Europe. The hotel gives home to 400 people from various countries and is completely self-organized by its residents. Decisions are made collectively in assemblies, there are working groups for all aspects of daily life, medical service, language classes, etc. City Plaza Athens gets no public funding and runs exclusively on donations. It understands itself as a solidarity and political project in order to prove that decent living conditions for refugees are feasable, and that it is a political decision not to install them.

Andrew Herscher Detroit Resists / Detroit Unreal Estate Agency
Trained as an architect and historian of architecture, Andrew Herscher works on the spatial politics of violence, humanitarian and human rights issues, exile and migration, and contemporary art and architecture. His research, writing, and teaching is informed by his long-term participant-observation in Kosovo’s post-conflict environment, including work with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. He is also co-founder of a number of collaborative projects in Detroit including the Detroit Unreal Estate Agency.

On Saturday, OCT 14th from 2-5 pm the panel participants will hold workshops at the Public Seminar - Urban Social Movements 2.0. For participation in the Public Seminar, we assume presence at the evening panel as well.