Metropolises, Maps and Planning

Abstract

London, Paris, Madrid and other compact metropolises are suffering multiple crises affecting housing, environment and socioeconomic inequalities. Increasingly citizens, community groups, grass-root politics and researchers see the dominance of free market competition promoted by neo-liberalism the root causes of these crises and are finding alternative solutions in cooperation and inclusion.

Mapping community resources and groups that are ready to cooperate is a fundamental tool to visualise, connect, empower and diffuse those initiatives. In London, dozens of DIY mappers wish to map or are already mapping their community resources. Would it be possible to build a common platform for all the scattered community mapping projects across the metropolis? A platform that would support local and metropolitan cooperation, a platform that would support a collaborative London community-led plan?