Tom Bentley
Policy Adviser, Government of Victoria
Tom Bentley will be Executive Director for policy and cabinet for the Premier of Victoria, Australia from September 2006. He was Director of Demos from 1999-2006.
at 10:15am
on Saturday, 29th April 2006
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.
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.
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