Queen of urbanists
by Tom Bentley
Jane Jacobs, legendary cities and systems thinker, died last week aged 89. You can read an obituary here. She started out as an activist in Pennsylvania, and her first great work, the Death and Life of Great American Cities, was all about how everyday behaviour and self-organisation are fundamental to healthy city life. She developed her approach by wandering the streets of New York, pioneering what later generations of Demos researchers would later christen 'deep hanging out'. Her ideas about systems and social change underpin a surprising amount of what we try to develop through our ideas about participation and adaptive governance. Throughout her writing career she remained a powerful activist, often infuriating city developers and authorities. Although she left the US for Toronto, she never gave up on the hope that North American culture could renew itself in progressive ways.