I want to suggest a different sensibility from the bureaucratic (or regulatory planning that dominated the twentieth century – a sensibility that is as alert to the emotional economies of the city as it is to the political economies; as alert to city senses (of sound, sight, touch, smell, taste) as to city census; as alert to the soft-wired desires of citizens as is to the hard-wired infrastructures; as concerned with the ludic as with the productive spaces, indeed seing these as inseparable and complementary; a sensibility as curious about the spirit of place as critical of capitalist excesses; and above all, a sensibility which can help citizens wrest new possibilities from space, and immerse themselves in their cultures while respecting those of the neighbours, and collectively forging new hybrid cultures and spaces. That is my love song to our mongrel cities.
Leonie Sandercock, Cosmopolis II. Mongrel cities