Representation Matters, Volume 2

In this time of upheaval and transformation, Next City has recommitted to this core belief: Nothing urbanism does matters if it doesn’t make cities more equitable. We intend our platform to elevate the voices of those working to improve their communities. And our journalism serves readers who ought to see and hear themselves in this coverage.



Last year we published Volume 1 of an ebook we called “Representation Matters.” The stories in that volume told of designers, planners, entrepreneurs and other urban professionals who bring a diverse group of voices into the conversation about cities through equitable business models, new collaborations and inclusive engagement. Taken together, this reporting amplifies the change happening sector by sector.



That change continues. Here, in Volume 2 of “Representation Matters,” we’ve assembled a new, 10-story anthology that elevates the inclusive work taking place in environmentalism, banking, journalism, social work, public-space design, and other fields. Stories in this volume include “What Would It Look Like if the Economy Loved Black Entrepreneurs?” “How to Build Inclusive Tech Hubs,” “With Paper Monuments, New Orleanians Draft the City’s History Themselves,” and more.



Exclusive to this ebook is an introduction written by the team behind Spaces & Places: Germane Barnes, Ifeoma Ebo, Justin Garrett Moore and Renée Skeete. Their essay, “On Reclamation and Representation,” serves as both a call to action and organizing principle behind their August 2020 two-day event of virtual learning and exchange. Spaces and Places was born of the necessity to be acknowledged within the built environment. This year’s theme, “Reclaiming,” positions BIPOC urbanists, designers, and activists as defiant catalysts for liberation and equity.



Thank you to all of the Next City donors who make our ebook program possible.