Erdem Üngür and Işık Gülkaynak’s text for 9th issue of the New City Reader.

To whom does an object belong, once it becomes the personal property of a consumer and is then discarded? For what reason has the municipality organized a raid on informal waste collectors? Does garbage belong to the finder, or is everything abandoned on the streets considered state property? Does the former owner of an item also have the privilege of owning itas garbage? Whenathoughtful citizen collects discarded newspapers from her building and takes them to a paper factory,should we consider her a thief?
The tedious and everlasting processes that transform villages into towns, towns into cities, and cities into metropolises, as the population grows and density increases, have for centuries sheltered the newcomer, provided for the increasing needs of original inhabitant, and supported the emergence of increasingly personalized lines of work. The industrial developments and resurgent capitalismof recent years have changed the quality of consumed products and promoted an increase in their quantity. The discovery that the consumed object does not actually complete its life, but can be reused, enabled the emergence of the recycling/recovery market. With the breakdown in ecological equilibrium and the depletion of the world’s natural resource reserves, this market, hence “waste”, is becoming increasingly valuable. Furthermore, this value is of considerable substance, especially considering the irresolvable conflicts experienced by legal and illegal systems that aim to generate revenue from waste.

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From the pages of the 9th issue of the New City Raeder comes a text by Vincent Schipper, one of the founders of (Monnik)

In the midst of this recession, we are bombarded with facts and figures of decreased growth and rapid declines. We are repeatedly reminded that growth is our only salvation. Anything else would mean financial meltdown, literally the end of all things good. But let us consider a possibility where this is not the case.
Still•ness (adjective) — a dynamic and innovative culture that is not based on growth. It can be understood as a sustainable and inclusive society. A still society is a society that has left behind the more negative connotations of the notion of growth, and has established post-expansion, post-depletion and post-exploitation values and practices. These values and practices may already be present.

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A text by Freek Lomme from the 9th issue of the New City Reader “Economy” edited by Unfold

A leap into a global future beyond local post-industrial conditions, alongside Eindhoven design firm Lucas Maassen & Sons.
The new frontiers for contemporary design, those which establish our states of being, have relocated. Change is inevitable and necessary, as free producers set their sights on further and further limits.

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Gwendolyn Floyd’s text for NCR-09 [Economy]

In emerging economies around the world, hundreds of millions of small-scale producers are currently making valuable goods. However, these producers cannot access the worldwide consumer demand for their unique, low-cost, largely handmade products because they, like over 70% of the world’s population, are living and working on the other side of the digital divide, unable to benefit from the innovation and economic opportunities provided by the Internet.

Women, who account for over 70% of the world’s poor, also make up the majority of these small-scale producers. Over 85% of women in sub-Saharan Africa are self-employed in the informal economy. Many turn to the production of crafts and handmade goods to earn or supplement meagre incomes. Their sales, however, are limited to the local economy, with inconsistent demand and high personal costs for transportation and marketing of their goods. From another perspective, however, the costly and inaccessible export supply for developing world goods is fertile ground for disruptive innovation that could open up this enormous untapped market of high-quality goods to the global marketplace.

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Here is Leander Bindewald’s text for the 9th issue of the New City Reader [Economy]:

When talking about changing the world, an increasingly mainstream notion posits that the economy is a good place to start. When talking about changing the economy, furthermore, it is no longer an “insider” idea to begin with our monetary regimes. From this point onwards, two basic strategies are being pursued. One is to figure out the problem with the way money is created and distributed today, and to lobby for smarter ways to do so (that is, through monetary reforms). This approach promises massive positive impact and widespread instantaneous changes for all walks of life. Another strategy, confronting headfirst the vested interests of the establishment and suitable for both pro- and anti-political temperaments, is to redesign our approach to money and economy altogether. This means building new monetary subsystems at the fringes of current feasibility and allowing them to grow into viable alternatives that cannot be predicted from inside the box. Such initiatives find a common ground in engineering completely new currencies, subsumed by the terms complementary and community.

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Guest edited by Claire Warnier and Dries Verbruggen(UNFOLD) the 9th issue of the New City Raeder is out on the streets of Istanbul! The issue contributors are Leander Bindewald, Gwendolyn Floyd, Erdem Üngür, Işık Gülkaynak, Freek Lomme and Vincent Schipper. Check the map to the right or enter the article for a list of locations.

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