Interview: "Searching for Cosmopolis: Living Together, Apart" with Prof. Heathcott

A conversation was held with Joseph Heathcott, Professor of Urban Studies and Design at The New School University, who teaches at the Milan School of Urban Policy and Parsons School of Design. The event was moderated by Mine Yıldırım and Buşra Bingöl, experts of the Vision 2050 office. Professor Heathcott made his presentation which titled "Searching for Cosmopolis: Living Together, Apart" and then answered questions.

In the interview, Prof. Heathcott explained his long-term project using photographic and ethnographic methods. He shared photos of the streets of two neighborhoods, Jackson Heights in New York and Belleville in Paris, and briefed about the possibilities of living together in rapidly changing and complex cities.

The focus of the conversation is the emergence of "cosmopolis" as he describes it as an urban situation that provides tolerance and benefits to human diversity. He drew attention to the issues of revising the new possibilities of tolerance and its extreme diversity, which are always achieved through constant negotiation between different groups, and their extreme diversity, rethinking not only as a reality of metropolises, but also as a productive source of democratization in cities.

Prof. Heathcott is a photographer, an artist, a prolific writer and an inspiring interlocutor of urban theorists of our time. He is the author of many books, articles as well as a generous contributor of many art projects. He writes extensively about vernacular architecture, lived experiences in the city, heritages of racial capitalism, new urban forms and assemblage aesthetics, and possibilities of democracy, living together and social justice in cities.