At the height of lockdowns around the world, a number of people moved to smaller cities or villages, in some cases simply to find more space, in others to move back with parents or in cheaper places. Some had the privilege of a second home, while others moved ‘for good.’ Such a movement happened in Italy, temporarily revitalizing some long suffering and shrinking villages. Now there are new villagers, mayors, and other politicians hoping they can use the opportunity to keep this new life around.

Three strong trends that are appearing all over the world in multiple domains: What gets mapped or measured gets noticed. What doesn’t, “disappears.” Adjacent idea; various entities, like large corporations and some government instances try to obfuscate issues and information to dissimulate parts of systems. Data is everywhere, being collected everywhere, and often seized or made private when it should have been public and transparently available. In this piece at MAS Context, Olga Subirós explains how these three trends and other factors interact and why it’s important for citizens to create and collect cartographic evidence of invisible cities.

Quick preamble: I love everything about this story. It’s probably an understatement to say that there’s been a lot of failure across the Americas and much of the world when it comes to governments taking part in the wellbeing of indigenous peoples, when it hasn’t been outright malfeasance.

The sharing economy is not often enough actually about sharing. Car sharing becomes a huge unlawful “taxi company,” a platform to share a room or your apartment a few days a year becomes a real estate play with companies and individuals kicking tenants out and leasing dozens of apartments year-long, etc.

In the US, President Biden is pushing for huge relief and investment packages, “once in a generation” proposals. An interesting aspect of this project, is the discussion (and arguing) around the word “infrastructure.” What is and isn’t, and what kinds are there?