Manifesto for the Just City — Seventh edition
5, 12, 19 & 26 October 2026
A four-part online workshop & call for manifestos.
18:00 (CET) · Online · A link will be sent to participants ahead of each session.
Register here →The workshop Manifesto for the Just City, now in its seventh edition, is a digital lecture and debate series composed of four online sessions with leading academics and practitioners in the fields of urban theory, urban planning and spatial justice. Upon participation in the online lecture series, teams of students are invited to draft a Manifesto for the Just City, expressing their visions for cities that are sustainable, fair and inclusive for all.
This activity is organised by TU Delft, in collaboration with IHS Erasmus University of Rotterdam (The Netherlands), the University of Illinois, Winston-Salem State University, Morgan State University (US), The Cape Peninsula University of Technology (South Africa) and more.
This activity is supported by Pakhuis de Zwijger, a unique cultural organisation which opened its doors in 2006 and has grown to be an independent platform for and by the city of Amsterdam and its inhabitants.
§ The activity
Write a manifesto.
1,000 words. Any language.
We invite you and your colleagues to work in groups of 3–5 people to write a manifesto of no more than 1,000 words laying out your vision for the Just City. The manifesto can be written in any language, as long as a good English translation is provided by the participants.
In order to help you write your manifesto, we invite you and your group of fellow students to take part in a four-part online lecture series organised by TU Delft and several partner universities.
In each session, you will have the opportunity to debate with like-minded people from other universities and to put your ideas into writing. At the end of this exercise, we hope you will have enough ideas and material to write a manifesto with your group.
The manifestos will be published in an open-access book. Previous manifestos have been released in three volumes published by Delft University of Technology Open Publishing (see below).
All participants submitting a manifesto and taking part in the online lectures will be provided with a certificate of participation by Delft University of Technology.
For inquiries, please contact Roberto Rocco at r.c.rocco@tudelft.nl
Registrations are open!
Register here →
The 2026 programme.
Sessions will take place on 5, 12, 19 and 26 OCTOBER 2026 at 18:00 (CET/Amsterdam Time). A link will be sent to registered participants ahead of each session.
Listen to Juliana Gonçalves on why the manifestos matter
§ Call for manifestos
A manifesto for the Just City.
For students, by students — worldwide.
The world is facing a number of simultaneous, intertwined shocks that affect us all: climate change, environmental collapse, war, pandemics, democratic erosion and growing inequality are just some of the most pressing public challenges we must face together.
At the core of our actions to address these challenges is the idea of justice. Justice is what allows us to live together in society and to cooperate with each other.
Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. A theory however elegant and economical must be rejected or revised if it is untrue; likewise laws and institutions, no matter how efficient and well-arranged, must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust. — John Rawls
In our rapidly urbanising world, it seems logical to seek the Just City: a city where justice is expressed in the fair distribution of the burdens and benefits of life together, where all can lead a happy and fruitful life, and where democracy can flourish.
For us, the Just City is not only a place that allows all its citizens to live a healthy and accomplished life, but also a city that allows the planet to regenerate itself and a city that fosters civic life and democracy, affording all its inhabitants the right to the city.
In order to collect ideas and discuss ways to teach and learn how to make our cities more just, sustainable and inclusive, we want to hear from students from all over the world.
We invite you and your colleagues to write a manifesto of no more than 1,000 words laying out your vision for the Just City. The manifesto should be written in groups of between 3 and 6 students from any discipline. The manifesto can be written in any language, as long as a good English translation is provided. The manifesto can also be illustrated — we will only accept original pictures, drawings or illustrations produced by the participants (please, be mindful of copyrights).
In order to help you write your manifesto, we invite you and your fellow students to take part in a four-part online workshop. Each part will provide you with new ideas about key topics of urban development, like a mini-online course. In each session, you will have the opportunity to debate with like-minded people from other universities, and will be invited to write short paragraphs with them. At the end of this process, we hope you will have enough ideas and material to write a trailblazing manifesto with your group.
All manifestos will be published in an open-access book. All participants submitting a manifesto and taking part in at least two online lectures will receive a certificate of participation from Delft University of Technology.
How to take part
- Fill out the online form (link below).
- Find a group of colleagues from your university or from other universities. Groups must have a maximum of six participants. Groups can include members of different universities.
- There is no limit to the number of groups from the same university.
- Get together with your group and discuss what should go into your manifesto. A manual on how to write a manifesto will be sent to registered participants.
- Take part in the four-part course organised by TU Delft, on the four scheduled Mondays.
- Submit your final text before 1 January 2027.
§ Book series
Manifesto for the Just City — Free downloads.
§ Global reach
Who has written
a manifesto.
Participating institutions, 2020–2025
104 cities · 52 countries
Institutions that participated in The Manifesto for the Just City, 2020–2025. Compiled from submission records; some variation in institutional naming has been preserved.
“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.
§ Archive
Watch all lectures on YouTube.
§ Past speakers
Voices that have shaped
the manifesto.
2024
Fifth edition
Catalina Ortiz
Professor of Critical Pedagogy, UCL Development Planning Unit
Catalina Ortiz is a Colombian urbanist and educator passionate about spatial justice. She holds a BA in Architecture from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and a PhD in Urban Planning and Policy from the University of Illinois at Chicago as a Fulbright scholar. In 2015 she joined the Bartlett DPU at UCL, and since 2024 has been Director of the UCL Urban Lab. Her work spans teaching, research, and consultancy focused on urban projects and spatial planning, mainly in Latin America. She has collaborated with the Inter-American Development Bank, the Cities Alliance Programme, the Informal City Requalification Foundation (ReCI), and the UK Foreign Commonwealth Office’s Future Cities programme.
Efadul Huq
Assistant Professor of Environmental Science and Policy, Smith College
Efadul’s engaged research looks at relationships between decolonial and insurgent planning practices and social-ecological transitions that shape livelihoods and ecosystems across urbanising regions. He is co-leading an international consortium for a wetland restoration project in Dhaka, and is a member of Lokayoto Biddaloy and a research fellow with the River and Delta Research Center. His interdisciplinary teaching spans environmental justice planning, community development, and transnational political ecology with a geographic focus on Bangladesh and the United States.
Álvaro Sevilla-Buitrago
Associate Professor of Urban Planning, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
Author of Against the Commons: A Radical History of Urban Planning (University of Minnesota Press, 2022). His work engages issues of urban space, governance, and social justice. In Against the Commons, Álvaro critiques the historical transformation of shared urban spaces, arguing that what is often framed as “common” or public space has been shaped by exclusionary practices and mechanisms of control. His research interests include the politics of planning and urbanisation, spatial dynamics of commoning and dispossession, the geographies of social reproduction and everyday life, and planetary urbanisation.
Stefania Milan
Professor of Critical Data Studies, University of Amsterdam
Stefania Milan is Professor of Critical Data Studies at the Department of Media Studies, University of Amsterdam, and was Faculty Associate (2020–2022) at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Her work explores the interplay between digital technology and data, political participation, and governance, focusing on infrastructure and agency. She leads the project “Citizenship and standard-setting in digital networks” (in-sight.it), funded by the Dutch Research Council. Stefania holds a PhD in Political and Social Science from the European University Institute (2009).
2023
Fourth edition
Nurhan Abujidi
Zuyd University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands
Nurhan Abujidi is an Associate Professor at Zuyd University of Applied Sciences, where she is Head of the Smart Urban Redesign research centre. Her work focuses on the ambition to contribute to the region’s energy-neutral, circular and vital neighbourhoods. Abujidi was a professor in international, post-graduate and Master’s programmes at KU Leuven and VUB. Her expertise includes urban renewal, public space revitalisation and tactical urbanism. Her scholarship on Palestinian urbanisation and conflict helps us understand the conflict in Palestine and Israel.
Martine Doppen
Activist, Reclame Fossielvrij
Martine is an influential, energetic activist who fights for a clean and fair world, including at Milieudefensie. This young queer woman holds an idealistic vision of climate justice and radical justice. Born 27 years ago in a small village in the Achterhoek region, she found the space in Amsterdam to speak out against gender inequality, racism and the climate crisis. While studying International Public Health at the VU, she worked on innovative projects in home care, set up a training programme on climate justice, and worked on the climate case against Shell. She was one of the boosters of the 2019 climate march and supported school strikes.
Titus Kaloki
Friedrich Ebert Stiftung — Kenya Office
Titus Kaloki is Programme Coordinator at the FES Kenya Office, where he leads the Just City programme. The programme engages the concept of a social and inclusive just city to facilitate innovative discussions among political decision-makers, civil society representatives and others on issues such as affordable housing, fair and clean public transport, and meaningful civic engagement in urban spaces.
Montagu Murray
Nova Institute, South Africa
Montagu Murray attained a DD degree in Systematic Theology from the University of Pretoria, South Africa. His academic studies included pre-graduate studies in Minnesota (USA) and post-graduate research at Utrecht and Leiden. He is a Research Associate of the Faculty of Theology at Pretoria, and a Director of the Nova Institute. He is interested in transdisciplinary approaches to poverty alleviation, quality of life improvement, and sustainable lifestyles, co-creating ways to improve the quality of life of low-income households in Southern Africa.
Faiza Darkhani
Afghan academic & activist
Faiza Darkhani is a dedicated environmentalist and women’s rights advocate from Afghanistan. She previously served as Director of the National Environmental Protection Agency and Assistant Professor at Badakhshan University. She graduated from the Faculty of Design and Architecture at UMP Malaysia. Her impactful work earned her a spot on BBC’s “100 Influential Women around the World” list in 2021. She continues her work as a researcher in Germany and has been actively volunteering for women’s rights and environmental causes.
2022
Third edition
Hiba Bou Akar
Columbia University
Hiba Bou Akar is an Assistant Professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. Her research focuses on planning in post-conflict cities, urban security and violence, and the role of religious political organisations in the making of cities. She has worked as an architect and urban planner in Beirut.
Vanesa Castán-Broto
Professor of Climate Urbanism, Urban Institute, University of Sheffield
Vanesa Castán-Broto is a professorial fellow at the Urban Institute, University of Sheffield. In 2016 she received the Philip Leverhulme Prize for contributions to Geography. In 2013 she received a United Nations Award for Lighthouse Activities that contribute to fighting climate change, with a focus on the urban poor. Her books include An Urban Politics of Climate Change and the edited collection Participatory Planning for Climate Compatible Development. She was a contributing author to UN-Habitat’s 2016 World Cities Report.
Gynna Millan
Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia
Gynna Millan Franco is an urban designer and researcher specialising in smart cities in the Global South, with a focus on informal settlements. Gynna’s work incorporates participatory approaches such as video, design and photography. She works as a postdoctoral researcher at Universidad del Valle on the project “Building Equitable Urban Futures in Transition Areas in Cali and Havana (GREAT)”. She has taught at UPV Valencia, UCL, and Universidad Nacional de Colombia as a visiting professor.
Clarissa Freitas
Associate Professor, Universidade Federal do Ceará
Clarissa Freitas is a scholar in Urban Planning affiliated with the Federal University of Ceará (UFC) in Fortaleza, Brazil. Her work operates at the intersection of the political economy of urbanisation and urban design policies, with recent research on the challenges that informal settlements pose to planning policies. Since 2018 she has served as academic coordinator of the Graduate Programme in Architecture, Urbanism, and Design at UFC. She teaches Landscape Planning, Urban Design, and Planning Theory, and contributes to urban movements’ struggles for the Right to the City.
2021
Second edition
Romola Sanyal
Associate Professor in Urban Geography, London School of Economics
Dr Romola Sanyal is Associate Professor in Urban Geography at the LSE. She joined the Department of Geography and Environment in 2013, having held lectureships in Planning at Newcastle University and UCL Development Planning Unit. She has also held an inaugural Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Chao Center for Asian Studies at Rice University and a Visiting Fellowship at the Open University. She has a PhD in Architecture from UC Berkeley, an MSc in Geography from LSE and a BA in City and Regional Planning from UC Berkeley.
Faranak Miraftab
Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Faranak Miraftab is an Iranian-American urban planner and scholar known for her critical work on participatory planning, urban informality, and social justice. A leading figure in the radical and feminist planning traditions, she is best known for introducing the influential concepts of invited and invented spaces of participation. Her work critiques neoliberal urbanism and highlights the emancipatory potential of insurgent practices in the Global South. Among her most cited contributions are Invited and Invented Spaces of Participation (2004) and Insurgent Planning (2009).
Mona Fawaz
Professor of Urban Studies and Planning, American University of Beirut
Mona Fawaz is a Lebanese urban scholar and activist whose work focuses on housing rights, informality, and the politics of urban planning in the Middle East. A professor at AUB, she is co-founder of the Beirut Urban Lab and a leading voice in critical urbanism from the Global South. Fawaz has written extensively on postwar reconstruction, property regimes, and spatial injustice in Beirut, advocating for inclusive planning practices and the right to the city. Her main contributions expose how urban planning systems in Lebanon entrench inequality through informal practices, legal ambiguity, and sectarian governance.
Mariana Fix
Professor at FAU-USP, University of São Paulo
Mariana Fix is a Brazilian urbanist, architect, and scholar whose work critically examines the political economy of urban development in Latin America. She is a prominent voice in the study of housing, urban inequality, and real estate finance. Fix’s contributions centre on analysing how financial capital shapes urban space, particularly through land speculation and state-supported real estate projects. In her influential work Parceiros da Exclusão, she dissects public-private partnerships in São Paulo, revealing how state policies facilitate private accumulation while deepening urban exclusion.
2020
First edition
Leilani Farha
The Shift — Global Director, Housing Rights
Leilani Farha is a Canadian human rights lawyer and global advocate for housing justice. She served as UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing from 2014 to 2020, during which she drew international attention to the housing crisis as a global human rights issue. Farha is now Global Director of The Shift, co-founded with the UN OHCHR and UCLG, framing housing not as a commodity but as a human right central to dignity and community. Through advocacy and the documentary Push, Farha has transformed the discourse on housing into a key terrain of human rights and spatial justice.
Efrat Cohen-Bar
BIMKOM — Planners for Planning Rights
Efrat Cohen-Bar is an Israeli urban planner, human rights advocate, and Co-Executive Director of BIMKOM, an NGO founded in 1999 by architects and planners committed to promoting democracy and human rights through spatial planning. She has worked at the intersection of planning, social justice, and the rights of marginalised communities, including Palestinians in Area C of the West Bank, unrecognised Bedouin villages in the Negev, and under-served neighbourhoods within Israel. Her work exposes how planning systems are used as tools of control and exclusion, and advances planning as a rights-based practice rooted in equality, transparency, and participation.
Stijn Oosterlynck
Professor of Urban Sociology, University of Antwerp
Stijn Oosterlynck is a Belgian sociologist and Professor of Urban Sociology at the University of Antwerp, where he chairs the Centre for Research on Environmental and Social Change (CRESC) and leads the Antwerp Urban Studies Institute. His research focuses on urban transformation, poverty, migration, and socio-spatial inequality. Oosterlynck’s contributions centre on how urban contexts foster solidarity in diversity through what he terms “transformative solidarity practices”. As both a scholar and public intellectual, he has helped shape debates on inclusive urbanism in Belgium and beyond.
Tainá de Paula
Councilwoman, City of Rio de Janeiro
Tainá de Paula is a Brazilian architect, urban planner, and activist engaged in the fight for spatial justice and the right to the city. She serves as Secretary of Environment and Climate for the City of Rio de Janeiro and is a licensed city councillor representing the Workers’ Party (PT). With a background in cultural heritage preservation and a Master’s in Urbanism, de Paula has long been active in movements for racial, gender, and housing justice in Brazil’s urban peripheries. She advocates for a feminist, anti-racist, and ecologically grounded approach to urban development.
Suraj Yengde
Assistant Professor of History and Africana Studies and a Ford Foundation Presidential Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Suraj Yengde (सुरज एंगडे) is one of India’s leading scholars and public intellectuals. Named as one of the “25 Most Influential Young Indians” by GQ magazine and the “Most Influential Young Dalit” by Zee, Suraj is an author of the bestseller Caste Matters and co-editor of the award-winning anthology The Radical in Ambedkar. Caste Matters was recently featured in the prestigious “Best Nonfiction Books of the Decade” list by The Hindu. Caste Matters has been translated into seven languages.