This new exhibition at the Van Eesteren Museum is about the just city, but what is a just city? It is a city that residents themselves can change. Whether that involves placing a bench, maintaining a community garden, starting a housing cooperative, or taking over a neighbourhood budget. By changing the city, residents also change themselves. They get to know their neighbours better, build a bond with their place, encounter bureaucratic or financial barriers, have to use their creativity and, above all, perseverance.

However, truly meaningful change can never be achieved alone. It takes a lot of collective strength to actually change something. Do cities still offer enough space for this today? That seems to be less and less the case. However, The Just City shows that it is possible. It presents a wide range of hopeful examples of residents who are working together to shape the city. The Just City is both an initiative and a plea for a city that is accessible to everyone and excludes no one. Above all, it is an invitation to help shape that city yourself.

The exhibition is based on the essay On the Way to the Just City by Simon Franke and Wouter Veldhuis and is a collaboration with the Board of Government Advisers.