“In the big complex cities that we are engaging with in the Urban Age project, inclusion fundamentally means the recognition of the presence of others. In this context, the meaning of bonding is not limited to participating to achieve an end but it rather represents the real identification with others in the city. That can only occur as people's identities become more hybrid, partial and multiple, which is to say that if people are enclosed in coherent identity, they cannot easily identify with those who are unlike themselves. This sociological proposition also gets on the ground when, as planners and as urban designers, we look at the relation between the centres of places in cities and their edges. Traditionally the centre of a community is its most important place. In my view, if you take on this sociological truism the edges –with their boundaries and their borders – are the most socially important places in the city.”
