Following an open call from The Guardian Witness, looking for stories of involvement or demonstrations to protect public space, our Doc Next Network partner MODE Istanbul has sent their contribution entitled "Imagine it into being", which is now showcased on The Guardian Witness's website.
MODE Istanbul has produced this video with Sokak Bizim, a Turkish NGO dedicated to making cities more liveable, as part of the Radical Democracy: Reclaiming the Commons project of Doc Next Network.
Watch the video:
About the video
Rapid, uncontrolled and inegalitarian urbanisation in Turkey, and the authoritarian impulse behind it, constitute an immense challenge to all citizens and make our cities virtually unliveable. We foster the idea that the city becomes liveable when, as citizens, we make it our own: when we reclaim and create its common public spaces together. In this regard, making the city liveable becomes a form of dissent. Our objective is to encourage place making activities geared towards co-creating places of encounter in neighbourhoods and opportunities to participate in communal activities in Istanbul. We aim to inspire and enable spontaneous urban interventions to turn the streets into the city’s living room. So we invite everyone to make this our common purpose and to imagine it into being.
About Radical Democracy: Reclaiming the Commons
Radical Democracy: Reclaiming the Commons is a new project by Doc Next Network seeking to amplify the message of local struggles between citizens and urbanisation processes in Turkey, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom. As part of it, MODE Istanbul is collaborating with Sokak Bizim (NGO focused on human-centred cities and streets) to launch a campaign to reclaim the public spaces in Turkey.