How will we live with each other in the twenty-first century?  With over half of the world's population now residing in urbanized areas, the answer to this question lies in our great cities.  It is there, in the bustling streets, shops, parks, and playgrounds that large numbers of people encounter one another across lines of difference.  And it is out of the multiplication of such encounters that new social forms arise to reshape the terms of life in the globalizing city.

In neighborhoods and communities around the world, the new city continuously wells up as an unfinished proposition--an urban world always in the making.  Weaving together the threads of human diversity, changing landscapes, and multiform aspirations, ordinary people remake the city through daily interactions and adaptations.  Such efforts reflect the intense work undertaken by people to create meaningful places, and ultimately to change the sense of the city itself to include their presence.

Diverse urban neighborhoods, therefore, are the laboratories of the next city.  They provide the space for--indeed the very possibility of--negotiation, multilateral conflict, and contingent resolution.  Such processes are not without structural and personal violence; however, diverse urban neighborhoods play a mitigating role by enabling varied groups to build safe havens as well as institutions to advance their interests.  In these contexts, people experiment, take risks, and imagine possibilities for the future.