Yang Tongyan (April 12, 1961 - November 5, 2017), a famous dissident writer and social activist better known as Yang Tianshui, was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment for “subverting state power” because of his critical essays on overseas websites, as well as his political activism.

We are a global network of leaders who together accelerate placemaking as a way to create healthy, inclusive, and beloved communities.

Carolyn Steel is a leading thinker on food and cities.

Kang Yuchun, a doctor at Beijing Anding Hospital, sentenced to 17 years in prison for political issues in 1992, was released on the 28th October 2003 due to an imprisonment reduction of 5 years and 7 months.

Zhang Lin (June 2, 1963 - ), a dissident writer and social activist, was arrested in 1994 and then sentenced to three years of Reeducation-Through-Labor after contacting foreign journalists about human rights violations near his home village.

Shi Tao (July 25, 1968-), a poet, journalist, editor and writer, was arrested in 2004 after sending an email to the editor of an overseas website summarizing instructions from the General Office of the CPC Central Committee to the newspaper where Shi was employed. He was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment for “illegally providing state secrets overseas”.

Liu Xiaobo (28 December 1955-13 July 2017), a renowned Chinese literary critic, dissident writer and human rights activist, was sentenced to 11 years’ imprisonment for “inciting subversion of state power” based on his writings criticizing Chinese authorities and his participation in drafting and launching Charter 08. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010.

Tan Zuoren, a doctor, environmentalist, editor and freelance writer, was arrested in 2009 for publishing a documentary article on the June 4th Massacre after reporting a name list of children killed in the Sichuan earthquake, and was eventually sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for “inciting subversion of state power”.

I am the Chief Operations Officer for the New York Chapter of the Congress for the New Urbanism. I have also recently helped create PLACE Initiative, which is an organization working to address climate change, social justice, and the need to create receiver cities to accommodate the migration of people who will need to move out of harm's way.

Dr. Yu Zhang is the Secretary-General of The Independent Chinese Pen Centre. He’s defending freedom of speech.

I have been involved in urban renewal and revitalization, historic preservation, main street planning and design, tourism development, and economic development for over 40 years. I have worked in Canada, USA and Southeast Asia. Very much concerned about how place making can become better known as part of the overall urban and rural development process.

Independent Chinese PEN Center (ICPC) is a nongovernmental, nonprofit and nonpartisan organization beyond borders based on free association of those who write, edit, translate, research and publish literature work in Chinese worldwide.

The Ukrainian centre of PEN International (PEN Ukraine) was established in 1989 and now unites 140 Ukrainian authors and intellectuals (among them writers, human rights defenders, translators, journalists, humanities scholars, publishers, and cultural managers).

Michael H. Shuman is a leading visionary on community economics.

PEN Cambodia promotes writing and reading culture through training writers and by producing literary and academic works for the youth and general public in Cambodia.

PEN Zimbabwe aims at creating the space for literature, language, ideas, opinions, debate in diversity mainly in gender and political diversity issues and dialogue to flourish and also the creation of opportunities for diverse, dissenting and unknown writers to be heard.

TransLAB.URB is an autonomous collective that develops projects in the field of experimentation and practice in Urban Social Innovation, divided into 3 categories: Co-creation & Participation, Urban Pedagogy and Urban Activation.

Open Cities Lab (OCL) is a non-profit organisation that combines the use of action research, co-design, data science, and technology with civic engagement, to enable the development of inclusive cities and urban spaces.

I'm a regenerative and sustainability designer, complexity analyzer, and alternative and art therapist, mixed with teaching spirituality and sustainability in the nexus of social sciences, deep ecology and spirituality.

Our work is about transforming the discussion around food and farming, using ethics and values as our foundation, to pave the way to a fair food system that respects people, animals and the planet.