Geographies of radical pluralism and the project

Radical pluralism extends well beyond the coexistence generated by urban densities, affecting entire urbanised territories. Urbanism can address this condition by acknowledging the inherent changeability of urban spaces and the unstoppable and legitimate possibility of insurgency, with its calls for alterations and reconfigurations of the social order–and, consequently, of the spatial conditions that characterise it. This special issue examines places, spaces, protagonists and projects in Berlin, Ceuta, Santa Palomba, Aversa Nord, Liscate, Brescia and Bosnia and Herzegovina that provide insight into potential geographies of radical pluralism. It also highlights the inadequacy of institutional design, which is still largely functionalist and deterministic, and it struggles to incorporate the demand for alterations arising from otherness. The issue emphasises the relevance of distance, the recurrence of spatial excesses and the room for different subjects to have agency, as well as the scope of informal, insurgent, institutional and research projects. However, the path to an open project that could challenge established models, support the legitimation of otherness, and encourage radical hospitality remains unclear. Hope lies in the practice of reading and listening, and in the supportive and non-solutionist positions adopted by urbanists who investigate to comprehend and narrate situations of radical pluralism.