Imagine Shaping Cities as if People, Land, and Nature Were Sacred

• Published in: Sacred Civics Vol. 1; pp. 3 - 32
• Main Authors: Engle, Jayne, Agyeman, Julian, Chung-Tiam-Fook, Tanya
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 2022
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: Black Commons; Collective Wisdom; Black Lives Matter; Community Land Trusts; Michel Bauwens; City Building; Antiracist Values; Sacred Teachings; Collective Stewardship; Sacred Civics; White Buffalo Calf Woman; Common Good Outcomes; Generation Cities; Sacred Values; Phronetic Social Science; Indigenous Teachings; Climate Justice; Wo; Basque Country; Smart Phones; Stewardship Models; DAOs; Edgar Pieterse; Anticipatory Democracy
• ISBN: 1032059109; 9781032059105; 1032059117; 9781032059112
• DOI: 10.4324/9781003199816-2

Our greatest challenges are not technical or technological; they are deeper than that-they are spiritual and cultural. This chapter frames the Sacred Civics book by inviting imagination and wisdom to shape cities as if peoples, lands, and natures were sacred, laying the foundation for building equitable and regenerative cities where present and future generations can thrive. Possibilities, responsibilities, and deeper societal accountabilities flow from such a recognition, which requires decolonizing our systems and economies, and improving upon how we construct places, shape civic infrastructures, organize, and govern ourselves. We draw attention to transdisciplinary and Indigenous literatures and worldviews that inform Sacred Civics and explore three transformations needed to create seven generation cities: (1) evolve economic and governance systems that value common good for all, now, and into the future; (2) strengthen and expand cultures and institutions of commoning and collective action; and (3) cultivate and practice wisdom to re-conceive who and what cities are for, and build communities that embrace and nourish all peoples, lands, and ways of being, knowing, and creating.