This book builds on conversations that took place in the Fall of 2024 at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design marking the release of the book Democracy and Urban Form, a co-publication by Harvard Design Press and Sternberg Press. The original book showcased a series of six lectures that the sociologist Richard Sennett gave under the same name at the GSD in the fall of 1981. The original lectures, which happened more than forty years ago, addressed a much different political climate. Even so, Richard’s core insights into the connections between democracy and justice, matters of architecture and urban design, the growth of cities, cosmopolitanism, inclusion, free speech, and other related matters remain just as relevant today.

In the spirit of reflecting on these urgencies, the GSD invited the political philosopher Michael Sandel to deliver a lecture that drew on themes from the new edition of his book Democracy’s Discontent. In his opening talk, which took place on the evening of Wednesday, October 9, Sandel encouraged the audience to consider what might account for the polarization that imperils democracy today, as well as what might be done about it? Beyond analyzing the forces that were about to decide the 2024 election, he proposed a bold project of civic renewal to reimagine the economy and empower citizens as participants in a shared public life.

On Thursday, October 10, these provocations continued during a panel discussion that included Richard Sennett, Diane Davis, Claire Zimmerman, Markus Miessen, and Miguel Robles-Durán. All reflected on Sandel’s talk, as well as on the state of democracy as it related more specifically to architecture and the design and planning of cities and metropolitan regions.