Public spaces are a dynamic and controversial issue in the urbanized twenty-first century. From Tahrir Square in Cairo to Zuccotti Park in New York, they have become the point of culmination of new social designs. In “New Downtowns”, such as in HafenCity Hamburg, new combinations of functions are being tried out. The boom of building cooperatives and similar participatory models are expressions of the citizens’ wish to contribute to shaping their residential and living space. Cultural and neighborhood projects, such as the annual Lendwirbel Festival in Graz, represent attempts by self-organized initiatives to reprogram the urban space temporarily as the setting for cultural events, bringing new aspects of cultural production and city life to the fore. Through exemplary geographies of urban districts, this book analyzes the new forms of urbanity in the twenty-first century, under completely new social, political, cultural and ecological conditions.