Awakening Seven Generation Cities

• Published in: Sacred Civics Vol. 1; pp. 33 - 41
• Main Authors: Chung-Tiam-Fook, Tanya, Engle, Jayne, Agyeman, Julian
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 2022
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: United Nations Human Development Index; Black Commons; Turtle; Good Life; Ally Institutions; Caretakers; Black Lives Matter; Community Land Trusts; Seventh Fire; City Building; Prophecies; Sacred Civics; Generation Cities; Rational Interests; Land Stewardship; Local Governance Mechanisms; Foundational Keys; Climate Justice; Civic Transformation; Eco-centric Perspectives; Knowledge Keepers; Hold; Civic Assemblies
• ISBN: 1032059109; 9781032059105; 1032059117; 9781032059112
• DOI: 10.4324/9781003199816-3

This chapter sets out seven foundational keys to unlock imaginaries and possibilities for seven generation cities and outlines pathways of praxis to awaken a new era of city building. The seven foundational keys are relationality, agency, reciprocity, decoloniality, spirituality, responsibility, and pluriversality. The pathways of praxis to awaken seven generation cities are: (1) becoming good Ancestors; (2) reconstituting sovereignties and treaties, and lawing together; (3) commoning and futuring with wisdom; (4) expanding human capabilities and flourishing; (5) reconciling and repairing with Indigenous and Black Peoples; (6) transitioning from ego- to eco-centric perspectives; and (7) infrastructuring with imagination and accountabilities to Earth and all Peoples across time. We close the chapter with an interpretation of the Anishinaabe prophecy of the Seven Fires and Lighting the Eighth Fire, in which contemporary peoples decide to remember and reclaim the wisdom of those who came before them. They choose the path grounded in spirituality, respect for all life, and ecologically healthy and enduring societies, where the Seventh Fire will light the Eighth and final one.