The Undivided City

The Undivided City, by Jacqueline Schoemaker, deals with the shifting borders between controlled and uncontrolled space, with the interaction between an individual user of the urban space and the planned environment. The title is derived from a policy instrument by which population groups are spread across the city in order to prevent ghetto forming but by which human behaviour is normalised and uniformity is the result. In this book Jacqueline Schoemaker cuts the city into slices by walking straight lines through it. In a kind of horizontal archaeology she observes and experiences the urban space at the same time. The insights which result form the walking very concretely touch on the meaning of the concept of ‘community’.