ABSTRACT
Civic urbanity is a normative idea. The ethical frame that best supports civic urbanity is the secular humanist position. It is interlinked concepts to rethink urbanity are: holistic thinking, planning, and acting; the shared commons; eco-consciousness; healthy urban planning; cultural literacy; inclusivity; intergenerational equity; the aesthetic imperative; creative city making; and an invigorated democracy. Sustainability is both the choice-making process and the result of doing something about fault lines, battlegrounds, and dilemmas. Walkable cities give people time and space to experience the city in visceral ways as part of being healthy and provide sensory satisfaction. The foundations of city making as proposed here may have their origins way back in European history, so giving credence to a notion of Europolis as a certain type of city. Holism is a scientific theory with a proud history of over one hundred years, but its insights were battered into submission in the race to understand ever-smaller bits of the puzzle.
