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Cities Made Differently
Full of playful graphics, provocative questions, and curious facts, this book asks what makes a city and how we might make them differently.What makes a city a city? Who says? Drafted over decades out of a dialogue between artist and author Nika Dubrovsky, the late anthropologist David Graeber, and Nika’s then four-year-old son, this delightful and provocative book Cities Made Differently opens a space for invention and collaboration. Fusing anthropology, literature, play, and drawing, the book is essentially a visual essay that asks us to reconsider our ideas about cities and the people who inhabit them. Drawing us into a world of history and myth, science and imagination, Graeber and Dubrovsky invite us to rethink the worlds we inhabit—because we can, and nothing is too strange or too wonderful to be true.With inspired pictures and prompts, Cities Made Differently asks what a city is, or could be, or once was. Sleeping at the bottom of the ocean? Buried in lava? What were those cities of long ago, and what will the cities of the future be? They might be virtual, ruled by AI, or islands of beautiful architecture afloat in seas of greenery. They might be utopian places of refuge or refugee camps as far as the eye can see. On land, underground or aloft, excavated or imagined, cities, this book tells us in provocative and funny ways, can be anything we want them to be—and what we want them to be can tell us something about who we are, what it is to be human, and what’s possible when we make way for wonder.Cities Made Differently exists in two versions, one for reading and thinking, the other, downloadable at a4kids.org, for drawing and dreaming.
120 pages, Paperback
Published November 19, 2024
7 people are currently reading
282 people want to read
About the author
David Graeber
98 books5,155 followersDavid Rolfe Graeber was an American anthropologist and anarchist.
On June 15, 2007, Graeber accepted the offer of a lectureship in the anthropology department at Goldsmiths College, University of London, where he held the title of Reader in Social Anthropology.
Prior to that position, he was an associate professor of anthropology at Yale University, although Yale controversially declined to rehire him, and his term there ended in June 2007.
Graeber had a history of social and political activism, including his role in protests against the World Economic Forum in New York City (2002) and membership in the labor union Industrial Workers of the World. He was an core participant in the Occupy Movement.
He passed away in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic.
On June 15, 2007, Graeber accepted the offer of a lectureship in the anthropology department at Goldsmiths College, University of London, where he held the title of Reader in Social Anthropology.
Prior to that position, he was an associate professor of anthropology at Yale University, although Yale controversially declined to rehire him, and his term there ended in June 2007.
Graeber had a history of social and political activism, including his role in protests against the World Economic Forum in New York City (2002) and membership in the labor union Industrial Workers of the World. He was an core participant in the Occupy Movement.
He passed away in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 29, 2025
as a designer this book really made me think (and taught me some relevant design history). i also appreciated the insights and real-world application of a project in the afterward. though, there were some grammatical and editing issues throughout.
March 21, 2025
This is the third book I've read by David Graeber and they've all been very, very different. In Bullshit Jobs, Graeber explored pointless jobs that people pretend to busy themselves with in order to justify being paid to do them, and also why, as a society, we allow such a large proportion of our workforce to be engaged in what they themselves deem to be pointless tasks. The Dawn of Everything, which he co-wrote with David Wengrow, was an ambitious effort to challenge conventional wisdom that the hierarchical nation-state as seen in the West is inevitable, and imagines new ways of organizing society.
Cities Made Differently, which Graeber co-wrote with artist Nika Dubrovsky, seeks to provoke alternative imaginings of how we might organise cities and communities, to question certain aspects of how we organise our own societies today. What if we were to live in a City of Freedom, where the city is built and collectively owned by residents a la Christiania in Denmark? What if we were to live in a City of Play, where rules are invented and can be changed by the players themselves; "what if the centre of [one's] town became a playground….interesting for old and young alike…someplace people would want to gather - perhaps to figure out city affairs while they play"?
What if we were to live in cities designed to cater to what we actually needed, rather than what we desired? Graeber argues that "we don't actually need to work that hard, because most of the jobs are created by crooked social design: for the purpose of building unnecessary houses and infrastructure, producing gasoline, people who organise and sell it all to us….In the developed world the majority of the population lives in cities that need huge amounts of energy to sustain themselves. Their life is generally divided into private and work domains, so they have to spend a lot of time getting to and from work every day. New office spaces are constantly being built, although during COVID it became apparent that many jobs are actually Bullshit Jobs, and we can get by without them altogether. Whereas necessary jobs can be done locally."
Or might we perhaps live in cities designed for collective living, with small living quarters and lots of public space, including communal canteens, laundries and gardens. How might we design a City of Care, where we can strengthen the relationship between the people, and with their space? Graeber notes that "one of the main challenges of today is social inequality. And do not think that its root lies solely in the amount of annual income. Infrastructure, public spaces, social housing, transport systems - all these are unique opportunities to address inequality. And the more parks and other nice places there are in a city which everyone can enjoy without buying a ticket, the better the city and the higher the quality of life."
Graeber questions developments and facets of contemporary society when he imagines a City of the Watched, where all residents are assigned a flying-eye camera that follows them wherever they go, or the Transparent City where everything that every resident does is monitored by the authorities in the name of securing the welfare of the collective. Meanwhile, to live in the City of Runners is to be in constant competition with other residents on who is "more important, who is richer, smarter, more beautiful, or more worthy….Children in the city of runners have no interest in learning together, sharing, or mutual aid. Helping someone pass an exam is considered "cheating" and is strictly punished. All their lives, adults are engaged in constant competition over beauty, skill and wealth. Runners believe that people who live differently than them, who refuse to play their games, simply choose to be losers."
What would happen if we were to live in a City of Greed, where residents had to pay not only for housing and healthcare, but also for the very air that they breathed? After all, some places have privatised the supply of critical utilities such as water and electricity, so why not clean air?
In some ways Cities Made Different reminded me of Alan Lightman's Einstein's Dreams, a fictional collection of stories by Albert Einstein, each story imagining a different conception of time and what kind of a world that would result in. In presenting these different and fantastical conceptions of time, Einstein's Dreams nudges the reader to reflect on how they spend their time and what their assumptions and mental models of time are. Similarly, Cities Made Different prompts the reader to reflect on what aspects of society we might want to re-imagine, what we might want to strengthen, and what we might want to eliminate.
Cities Made Differently, which Graeber co-wrote with artist Nika Dubrovsky, seeks to provoke alternative imaginings of how we might organise cities and communities, to question certain aspects of how we organise our own societies today. What if we were to live in a City of Freedom, where the city is built and collectively owned by residents a la Christiania in Denmark? What if we were to live in a City of Play, where rules are invented and can be changed by the players themselves; "what if the centre of [one's] town became a playground….interesting for old and young alike…someplace people would want to gather - perhaps to figure out city affairs while they play"?
What if we were to live in cities designed to cater to what we actually needed, rather than what we desired? Graeber argues that "we don't actually need to work that hard, because most of the jobs are created by crooked social design: for the purpose of building unnecessary houses and infrastructure, producing gasoline, people who organise and sell it all to us….In the developed world the majority of the population lives in cities that need huge amounts of energy to sustain themselves. Their life is generally divided into private and work domains, so they have to spend a lot of time getting to and from work every day. New office spaces are constantly being built, although during COVID it became apparent that many jobs are actually Bullshit Jobs, and we can get by without them altogether. Whereas necessary jobs can be done locally."
Or might we perhaps live in cities designed for collective living, with small living quarters and lots of public space, including communal canteens, laundries and gardens. How might we design a City of Care, where we can strengthen the relationship between the people, and with their space? Graeber notes that "one of the main challenges of today is social inequality. And do not think that its root lies solely in the amount of annual income. Infrastructure, public spaces, social housing, transport systems - all these are unique opportunities to address inequality. And the more parks and other nice places there are in a city which everyone can enjoy without buying a ticket, the better the city and the higher the quality of life."
Graeber questions developments and facets of contemporary society when he imagines a City of the Watched, where all residents are assigned a flying-eye camera that follows them wherever they go, or the Transparent City where everything that every resident does is monitored by the authorities in the name of securing the welfare of the collective. Meanwhile, to live in the City of Runners is to be in constant competition with other residents on who is "more important, who is richer, smarter, more beautiful, or more worthy….Children in the city of runners have no interest in learning together, sharing, or mutual aid. Helping someone pass an exam is considered "cheating" and is strictly punished. All their lives, adults are engaged in constant competition over beauty, skill and wealth. Runners believe that people who live differently than them, who refuse to play their games, simply choose to be losers."
What would happen if we were to live in a City of Greed, where residents had to pay not only for housing and healthcare, but also for the very air that they breathed? After all, some places have privatised the supply of critical utilities such as water and electricity, so why not clean air?
In some ways Cities Made Different reminded me of Alan Lightman's Einstein's Dreams, a fictional collection of stories by Albert Einstein, each story imagining a different conception of time and what kind of a world that would result in. In presenting these different and fantastical conceptions of time, Einstein's Dreams nudges the reader to reflect on how they spend their time and what their assumptions and mental models of time are. Similarly, Cities Made Different prompts the reader to reflect on what aspects of society we might want to re-imagine, what we might want to strengthen, and what we might want to eliminate.
June 7, 2025
Certainly anarchist in its layout and coherence, but, as usual with Graeber’s stuff, deft and inspiring in its description. What's important to note is how much this book notices the existence of possible cities for all different kinds of people and thought spheres. Stuffed with references to top-tier thinkers who have not been venerated in such a popular form as I’ve come across, so get your to-read button ready, and great quotes from Graeber about the possibility of change. Refreshing reading.
February 20, 2025
I loved this book so much. It was a collection of new ideas and how we can build new societies. It was completely fascinating to read especially with the combination of actual places/projects that were built such as arcosanti in Arizona. It was incredibly interesting to see how some of these ideas were made into realities and the ways that they succeeded and failed. I can't wait until the next two books come out and absolutely plan to read those.
December 28, 2024
Conceptually and aesthetically wonderful/inspiring/a good entry point; suffers from poor editing and being intermittently overly pithy. An aside, surprised there was no reference to Calvino’s Cities!
January 19, 2025
Quicker than I expected but a fun read.
Half way thru, I decided to give this to a middle school teacher I know.
Half way thru, I decided to give this to a middle school teacher I know.
March 18, 2025
Read this with my 11yo. It was a great conversation starter! I look forward to exploring more of this series together!
July 12, 2025
A unique and an amazing book and a result of two great minds. Graeber is of course the backbone for the thought, but it it Dubrovsky's visual storytelling that shines too!
August 2, 2025
Sloppy, very surface level.
December 9, 2025
A slender book on how cities could be different. Various scenarios were thought provoking. I could imagine this in an optional reading list in an urban planning theory course.
March 2, 2025
Like everything David Graeber writes, this book is electric. It made me feel energized. When I read him, I feel like anything can happen, in the best way, and I can help make it happen.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews