Empathy Isn’t a Word We Hear in Citymaking, but It Should Be.

Maybe it’s time to recognise that at the heart of our work is the need for those around us to be able to imagine a better world, to tell stories about it, to long for its realisation. If we can imagine it, desire it, dream about it, it is so much more likely that we will put our energy and determination into making it reality.

But when we listen empathically, our perception shifts. We move from staring at the objective world of things, figures, and facts into considering the story of a living being, a living system, and self. To do so, we have to activate and tune a special instrument: the open heart, that is, the empathic capacity to connect directly with another person

Local communities in different parts of the world are making a constructive difference in responding to a plethora of crises: global climate change, political authoritarianism, economic disparities, poverty, war and the threat of nuclear war, consumerism, and a general sense of meaninglness.

They are interested in inner transformation as well as out

applying empathy to solve complex problems for our partners,

The process of shipping creative work demands that we truly hear and see the dreams and desires of those we seek to serve. After understanding what our people want, we have a choice. We can build with empathy and work with their dreams, or we can choose to move on, to determine the vision is not for them, and to make something else for someone else