Conceptualizing the Open City: What Is “Open”, in What Ways, and Why

This chapter aims to construct a conceptual map of the open city that can serve as a guide in navigating its many ambiguities and the different sources of its value. First, adopting a critical reconstructive approach to the literature, it identifies five different senses of openness as applied to the city: transparency, involvement, inclusivity, flexibility, and porosity. Second, adopting a formal conceptual approach, it combines these different senses of openness with three possible subjects of openness—the city as a set of institutions, as a set of individuals, and as a physical environment. It then shows what these different senses of openness, with their different possible subjects and objects, have in common at a more abstract level of analysis. Finally, adopting a normative approach, it shows how and why the various instances of the open city are and should be considered valuable, tracing their ultimate justifications to the two foundational values of democracy and freedom.