McGuirk is well aware of the factors working against serious housing reform. Decades of austerity imposed on poor countries by powerful actors like the International Monetary Fund have straitjacketed social-housing efforts. Even in affluent places, the cavalry of the central state isn’t coming, except maybe to spur more gentrification-led displacements. In a decentralized, stateless age, provincial and local officials—more importantly, citizens themselves—must figure out their own ways to more humanely reconfigure living conditions in cities. 

No wonder Radical Cities looks to Latin America, whose ballot-box revolutions largely rejected austerity politics and, at the very least, created space for community activists to go their own ways. Moving beyond the hyper-individuated cult of the starchitect, the designers McGuirk profiles take activist stances, with or without the help of the state. In some cases, communities even reshape their own aesthetics without architects. These are new experiments in direct democratic control over resources, community engagement, and shared space.