The Help-yourself City

Know about the book -

The Help-yourself City is written by Gordon C. C. Douglas and published by Oxford University Press. It's available with International Standard Book Number or ISBN identification 0190691336 (ISBN 10) and 9780190691332 (ISBN 13).

When local governments neglect public services or community priorities, how do concerned citizens respond? In The Help-Yourself City, Gordon Douglas looks closely at people who take urban planning into their own hands with homemade signs and benches, guerrilla bike lanes and more. Douglas explores the frustration, creativity, and technical expertise behind these interventions, but also the position of privilege from which they often come. Presenting a needed analysis of this growing trend from vacant lots to city planning offices, The Help-Yourself City tells a street-level story of people's relationships to their urban surroundings and the individualization of democratic responsibility.