ABSTRACT
What kinds of knowledge and expertise are required for more sustainable and just urban futures? How can we create new and value existing knowledge in cities for the many and not the few? This chapter considers alternative knowledge-based urbanisms that may be emerging from within the shadows of the knowledge economy. Grassroots initiatives, experiences, struggles and experiments aim to produce social, cultural and ecological knowledge outside of the narrow constitution of the economic which has sought to colonise their differences. We ask how knowledge can be opened up as a common good and challenge the narrow and destructive individualism that pervades the contemporary landscape. For this to happen, the focus needs to be on deliberation within civil society rather than analysis and justification being the preserve of defined political groupings. This chapter explores the possibility that alternative ways of knowing and seeing might challenge hegemonic rationalities.
