Grounded urban practices are alternative initiatives engaging cities and public spaces that have emerged in response to economic and political shifts in contemporary urban societies.
They engage space as an agent for change, an approach known as spatial activism, and share three main characteristics: (1) they are grounded, community based and bottom-up; (2) they adopt a critical position vis-à-vis the status quo, market forces, government policies and conventional practice; and (3) they experiment with alternative methods and tools, as well as legal, financial, and organisational models to bring about change.
Grounded Urban Practices: African Horizons developed through a partnership between CLUSTER (Cairo), Blue Fish (Tunis) and The City (Cape Town). The Tunis session involved an intensive workshop that took place from 20 to 23 September 2019, and included urban specialists representing initiatives and practices in Egypt, Morocco, South Africa, the Netherlands and Tunisia. Participants visited various projects in the Medina and were joined by local professionals engaging in grounded urban practices and initiatives across Tunis.
The Grounded Urban Practice publication (edited and published by The City) was the culmination of the Tunis session and served as an invitation to others to foster dialogue, exchange ideas and build collaborations.