Plateau Urbain’s anthology, *Des villes en mieux – Occupations temporaires et tiers-lieux solidaires* (Better Cities: Temporary Occupations and Community-Driven Third Places), hits bookstores on February 19!
For nearly thirteen years, Plateau Urbain has been breathing new life into vacant buildings to provide affordable workspaces in the city for social and solidarity economy organizations, while enabling emergency shelters to offer a more dignified and pleasant living environment. In 2023, we realized the importance of having a written record of everything we’d accomplished in the form of a collective work, reflecting the spirit of the cooperative.
The writing of this book, “Better Cities – Temporary Occupations and Solidarity-Based Third Places,” is finally complete, and it will hit bookstores on February 19! Inside, you’ll find testimonials, position statements for a more just city, and critiques of our work—all of which we hope will help you better understand our commitment to reimagining the city.
Here’s a quick summary of the book to convince you to go out and buy it:
Over the past decade, solidarity-based third places have been multiplying. People come here to work, eat, live, dance, and repair objects. A diverse crowd gathers here and experiences its differences.
Combining social hospitality, cultural activities, production, or learning—often housed in vacant buildings, whether temporarily or long-term—these hybrid spaces challenge our relationship with sharing, solidarity, the economy, and even public action. They offer, on a daily basis, new political forms: discreet alternatives to the contradictions of the contemporary, commercial, and standardized city.
This book gives a voice to those who bring these concrete utopias to life and strive to foster a new right to the city within them.
Read the press release HERE
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