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Cities

Essays and videos on social issues, history, political life and the future

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Photo of an older man with white hair and beard in a cityscape with tall modern buildings in the background.

videoEconomics

A tour of New York’s gaudiest neighbourhood with the Marxist geographer David Harvey

13 minutes

A colourful underground car park with numbered pillars and painted lanes with directional arrows.

essayCities

Cars beneath the ground

The explosion of automobiles shaped cities and lives. But an enduring problem remains: where to put them when they’re parked

Alfie Robinson

A woman walking on a dimly lit street pavement at night with a parked scooter and two men walking in the background, one appearing to follow her; the woman looks downcast, the man appears to be smiling.

essayHuman rights and justice

Did you think you were safe?

When I moved to India for work, I found that rape was a feature of the country, as deeply embedded as caste

Evelyn Fok

Black and white photo of cars in traffic on a multi-lane motorway seen from above.

essayPolitical philosophy

The order of anarchy

How San Francisco’s free rides system can help us understand anarchist theory and the work of the late, great James C Scott

Reyko Huang

A colourful mural depicting a Mexican American family, a Mexican American woman being tackled by a white policeman, and a stadium resembling a U F O descending from the sky.

videoArt

The sprawling mural that depicts an unflinching people’s history of Los Angeles

7 minutes

Black-and-white drawing of labourers working in a warehouse, overlaid with the text “Marks of weakness, marks of woe” in yellow.

videoArt

In his poem ‘London’, William Blake crafted a bleak vision of the city he loved

9 minutes

A brick house with a tiled roof, surrounded by a well-maintained garden with bushes and colourful flowers.

essayHome

Falling for suburbia

Modernists and historians alike loathed the millions of new houses built in interwar Britain. But their owners loved them

Michael Gilson

Colourful hand-drawn illustration of a busy market scene. Background shows fruit stall and vendor. A yellow sign reads DO NOT LITTER.

videoCities

A lush, whirlwind tribute to the diversity of life in a northern English county

3 minutes

Artist painting vibrant, abstract artwork on large canvases in a studio, with paint buckets, a stool, and a folding chair nearby.

videoArt

‘If you’re creative, why can’t you create a solution?’ One artist’s imaginative activism

17 minutes

An armoured police vehicle on a street with yellow tape and debris, an officer in the foreground, next to the “San Pedro St” sign.

videoFairness and equality

A tragicomic account of how the Los Angeles Police Department blew up a city block

19 minutes

A figure is silhouetted in an older style apartment block window at night. In the distance are taller modern tower block apartments

essayCities

The haunting of modern China

In Nanjing, Hong Kong and other Chinese cities, rapid urbanisation is multiplying a fear of death and belief in ghosts

Andrew Kipnis

Aerial view of a multi-level motorway with older classic cars driving on both upper and lower levels, and infrastructure such as railings and signs visible.

essayCities

Sick city

My dad grew up in Robert Moses’s New York City. His story is a testament to how urban planning shapes countless lives

Katie Mulkowsky

Aerial view of extremely densely packed buildings in Kowloon Walled City, surrounded by taller residential blocks and an open park area.

videoCities

The rise and fall of Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong’s infamous urban monolith

18 minutes

A foggy street in an old residential area with terraced houses, children playing and adults standing outside. A tall chimney is visible in the background.

essayFilm and visual culture

Exposed

Slum photography was at the heart of progressive campaigns against urban poverty. And it was a weapon against poor people

Sadie Levy Gale

Colourful ornate ceiling with intricate patterns and Arabic calligraphy in the centre, surrounded by detailed floral and column motifs.

videoDesign and fashion

The art of Istanbul dances to life in a tribute to the city’s timeless beauty

4 minutes

Woman in a pink blouse and grey skirt sits on a floor surrounded by abstract colourful paintings on walls.

videoArt

The female Abstract Expressionists of New York shook the world of art

15 minutes

A man smiling and clasping his hands in front of a red wooden house with sculptures; green trees are in the background.

videoCities

Inside the unique London community built by residents to defy housing discrimination

21 minutes

Elderly woman in floral dress typing on an antique typewriter, sitting on a patterned armchair, looking tired with her head resting on her hand.

videoHistory

From manners to mud – two women recall coming of age in Victorian London

10 minutes

A serene pond in the foreground reflects palm trees and greenery, with a distant city skyline under a clear sky in the background.

essayThe environment

Here’s to the aquapolis

Unkempt, beguiling and lacking conventional geometry, wetlands bring a roguish, raffish wildness to the city

Tom Blass

Silhouette of a person peering through blinds in a dimly lit room, with a pet carrier on the bed below.

essayIllness and disease

Are they the canaries?

People with multiple chemical sensitivity seem to be allergic to the world. What, if anything, can medicine do for them?

Xi Chen

Busy historic street market with people, horse-drawn carts, awnings, and shop signs in a crowded urban area with multistorey buildings.

essayCities

Living closer together

Urban density was once seen as a sign of unhealthiness and poverty. But today it is necessary to make cities sustainable

Max Holleran

A black and white photo of a double-decker bus and car at night, with illuminated windows and silhouettes of passengers, near a traffic light.

essayCities

The haunted city

The city, for all its mechanical speed, artificial light and industrialisation, is the most uncanny of human habitats

Azania Imtiaz Khatri-Patel

Raindrops on a window, blurring the view of buildings in the background.

videoMood and emotion

A century of letters captures the emotions of life in a new city, far from home

21 minutes

A snow-covered traditional Chinese village with grey rooftops and leafless trees, set against a backdrop of green trees and distant buildings.

essayCities

Energised crowding

To understand why early cities thrived, look not to the temples of kings but to their subjects’ bustling neighbourhoods

Michael E Smith