Caring—with Cities aims to understand how care is embedded into community-led and policy-led urban development, the interface between the two, and how it can be designed into future urban policy at a systemic level.

Achieving a caring city needs to emerge and be sustained through care-full interfaces between city dwellers and policy-makers. This is why we talk about Caring—With Cities.

Caring—with rather than —about or —for moves beyond understandings of care as a provision from institutions to individuals, or from individual to individual, which positions the cared—for as passive recipients. The project develops a method for understanding how care is embedded into community-led and policy-led urban development; the interface between the two; and the potential for designing care into future urban policy.

In dialogue with 3-5 UK case studies of care-full community-led development, the project draws upon organisational and community archival research; in-depth interviews and facilitated group conversations. A preliminary system mapping of case studies explores the interface with policy to identify soft infrastructures of care. More detailed mapping, revealing where these dynamics are already present, will also provide insights into opportunities for caring—with, suggesting directions for policy design with links to national and international urban policies.

If you are interested in the project, and would like to know more about what we are up to, please get in touch.

Caring—with Cities: Enacting More Care-Full Urban Approaches with Community-Led Developments and Policy-Makers (2021-2022) was an interdisciplinary research project funded by the British Academy – an outcome of the Virtual Sandpit “What makes a Good City?” held in February & March 2021. This research project was supported by the British Academy’s Virtual Sandpits Follow-on Funding.