Allied Projects

The Counter-Cartographies Collective (3CS)

We work on mapping in order to:

• render new images and practices of economies and social relations

• destabilize centered and exclusionary representations of the social and economic

• construct new imaginaries of collective struggle and alternative worlds.

We seek to create collaborations for engaged research and cartography — transforming the conditions of how we think, write and map and the conditions about which we think, write and map.

DataWorks | Durham, North Carolina

DataWorks is a 501 c 3 serving neighbors, neighborhoods, nonprofits and local governments. Our mission is to democratize data to facilitate an empowered, productive, and equitable community. We believe that people given space to be experts in their issue area become powerful. This is doubly true when they use data to clarify and reinforce their narratives. We work with partners in social benefit to advance community goals and public discussion. We provide comprehensive neighborhood indicators with the Neighborhood Compass, technical assistance and custom data analysis, and collaborative learning opportunities.

Find My Landlord | Chicago, Illinois

Chicago DSA, the Lift the Ban Coalition, and local allies have partnered to provide Chicago tenants the ability to:

• Look up any registered rental property in the City of Chicago

• View the rental's owner, browse related properties, and download these as a PDF

• Explore the density of mega-landlord properties across neighborhoods

The Housing Data Coalition | New York City, New York

The Housing Data Coalition (HDC) is a group of individuals and organizations who collaborate on their use of public data to further housing justice in New York City. In the face of the real estate industry’s escalating exploitation of housing data to drive speculation and displacement, HDC seeks to make public data more accessible and actionable for housing justice groups. Through a structure of working groups and monthly meetings, HDC provides opportunities for members to connect, learn, and give mutual support to a variety of projects involving housing data.

Iconoclasistas | Buenos Aires, Argentina

Iconoclasistas is a duo formed by Julia Risler and Pablo Ares in May 2006. They develop projects combining graphic art, creative workshops and collective research. All its productions are disseminated on the web through creative commons licenses, promoting free circulation and its derivative use.

JustFix.nyc | New York City, New York

JustFix.nyc co-creates tools with tenants, organizers, and legal advocates to fight displacement and achieve stable, healthy housing for all, leveraging the power of data and technology to support individual and collective action for housing justice. 

kollektiv orangotango

kollektiv orangotango was founded in 2008. Since then it has been constantly developing through a network of critical geographers, friends and activists who deal with questions regarding space, power and re­sistance.

With our geographical activism, we seek to support processes and oppositional actors who instigate social change by prefiguring social alternatives. We conduct emancipatory educational work as well as con­crete political and artistic interventions. These are supposed to enforce reflections on and changes of social conditions. Through workshops, publications, mappings, excursions, and creative in­terventions within public space, we collectively learn how to read space and how to initiate emancipatory processes from below. By sticking to the traditions of activist research, we connect theoret­ical reflections and concrete actions.

Building on our personal connections, we are particularly involved in the areas of right to the city, artistic protest, (urban) agriculture, youth education, alternative housing and solidarity economy. And all this in a collective and self-organized practice, of course, always “lento, pero avanzo”.

The Landlord Watchlist Project PA | Pennsylvania, United States

The mission of the Landlord Watchlist Project (LWP) is to hold predatory landlords and property managers accountable for placing tenants in danger during the COVID-19 pandemic. LWP will collect extensive data and conduct interviews regarding cases of landlord or property manager negligence with the end goal of publicizing important findings in an accessible and accountable manner.

The Mapping Action Collective | Portland, Oregon

The Mapping Action Collective is a group based in Portland, Oregon that specialize in data-visualization, mapping, and data analysis. We support grassroots organizations and individuals by providing them with maps, data, and training in data literacy. We collaborate with these groups to help them analyze and visualize data in a way that can support and elevate the work they are doing. Our work has a strong emphasis on collaboration rather than dictation. As data activists, we advocate for publicly accessible data and open source software and hope to dismantle some of the barriers of access to data analysis tools.

The Missing Basti Project | Delhi, India

Every year, parts of our city disappear as bastis built informally by the poorer citizens continue to be evicted. The Missing Basti Project is an initiative to archive past and ongoing evictions in Delhi to question as well as mobilize action for the prevention of further evictions. It is an attempt to document what has been lost in the name of development, and what still remains, forming an integral part of the city.

This initiative aims to leverage the power of maps and data in supporting marginalized communities to assert their right to the city. Through personal accounts, expert narratives and videos, it aims to initiate action on urban and social justice. It also hopes to generate discourse on lack of adequate, affordable housing and inclusive development, not just in Delhi but across Indian cities. While hoping to use the collected data for policy advocacy and holding civic authorities accountable, the initiative also attempts to reach out to the general public and media whose active engagement is critical in ensuring social equity within our cities.

The Park-Ex Anti-Eviction Mapping Project | Montreal, Canada

The Park-Ex Anti-Eviction Mapping Project aims to raise awareness about the effects of gentrification in Parc-Extension and other neighborhoods in Montreal. We document the local histories and neighbourhood changes and use research, writing and creative practices to hold politicians, institutions and businesses like the University of Montreal and the emerging tech industries accountable for their impact on gentrification. We share a commitment to supporting the self-determination of Parc-Ex residents in their struggles for spatial justice. Our approach combines digital mapping tools and quantitative data with multimedia intervention and storytelling to highlight the effects of and resist gentrification in Montreal. In our work, we are also committed to supporting and following the leadership of community partners and residents, seeking to address their needs and work with them on an informed, consensual, and responsible basis. We work through a non-hierarchical and autonomous collective, and are assisted in our work by community partners, a community advisory board, individual supporters, and academic connections and resources. In all our work and action, we center the context of settler colonialism and racial, patriarchal capitalism.

O LabCidade | Sao Paulo, Brazil

LabCidade – Public Space Laboratory and Right to the City – is a laboratory of the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of São Paulo, coordinated by professors Paula Santoro and Raquel Rolnik, and has been developing research projects related to urban planning and landscape studies.

Organizers Warning Notification and Information for Tenants (OWN IT!) | Los Angeles, California

An interactive mapping and notification toolkit that identifies properties at risk of displacement throughout Los Angeles County, making it easier for tenants and community organizations to take steps to address these pressures.

Unlock NYC | New York City, New York

At Unlock NYC, we work with New Yorkers impacted by housing discrimination to build technology that makes it easy to identify, record, and report unfair treatment. Our users can choose to send their report to a fair housing agency that will take legal action on their behalf, or to add their story to our growing body of data on housing discrimination in New York City. Armed with this knowledge, we collaborate with advocates, organizers, and public agencies to hold discriminators accountable and push for stronger fair housing policies. Our vision is a New York City where everyone can find a safe, healthy, and secure place to call home.

Urban Displacement Project | Berkeley, California

The Urban Displacement Project (UDP) is a research and action initiative of the University of California Berkeley and the University of Toronto. UDP conducts community-centered, data-driven, applied research toward more equitable and inclusive futures for cities. Our research aims to understand and describe the nature of gentrification, displacement, and exclusion, and also to generate knowledge on how policy interventions and investment can support more equitable development.

The goal of UDP is to produce rigorous research and create tools to empower advocates and policymakers, to reframe conversations, and to train and inspire the next generation of leaders in equitable development.

Urban Praxis Workshop | Detroit, Michigan

The Urban Praxis Workshop is an experimental platform for developing tools, methods, and knowledge through informed action. The workshop is a space for the co-creation of knowledge that explores the possibilities and limits of community driven research, training, and action.