Forgotten for almost a decade, the complex of buildings that once constituted the offices for the administration of statistics under the old socialist regime came to the center of the public discourse as a symbol of an across-the-board struggle for the right to the city of Berlin. Civic society actors and public stakeholders joined their efforts to put the unconditional selling of publicly-owned buildings to a halt, stressing the need to replace the monetary principle with the pursuing of the societal common good. The professionalization of bottom-up forms of activism claiming space for culture and diversity transformed the Haus der Statistik initiative into a large-scale project. This currently aims at regenerating the buildings to benefit local neighborhoods, refugees and cultural producers alike through the implementation of participatory practices of urban development.
Nitra, Slovakia’s sixth-largest city, is home to 78,353 residents (2020), including migrant workers from Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, and other Balkan countries, as well as a significant Roma community. While the economic base of the city is predominantly industrial, its surrounding areas maintain a strong agricultural tradition. In recent decades, Nitra has faced demographic decline […]