Cities as anthroposcenes and urban resilience

In contrast to neoliberal “Creative Class” discourses and “Creative City” policies, attempts towards “Creative Sustainable Cities” should strive to develop urban resilience. I will introduce this perspective and share some preliminary impressions from my ongoing exploration of a few cities around the world, where artists and others are trying to develop urban ‘spaces of possibilities’ with diverse scopes and scales. I will sketch some of the ways in which these cities are engaged with by individuals, groups or coalitions of artists and others , involving a range of relationships to cities as ‘anthroposcenes’ and of potentials for socially transformative effects.