Opportunity Village is a new pilot project in Eugene, Oregon doing just this by allowing those who are currently without housing to build and inhabit their own transitional micro-housing with the support of the surrounding community.
In Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam argued that urbanisation, especially suburbanisation, had been harmful to levels of civic engagement in the US. Sifting through recent data on volunteering and civic participation in US Cities, Andy Carr finds some anomalies that suggest density may indeed encourage greater civic engagement where educational and religious organisations are strong.
Community-led mapping and enumerations are powerful tools to return power and democracy into the hands of the urban poor. Marcus Tudehope sets out twelve reasons why you and the communities you work within should embark upon an enumeration of your own.