Finally, an ethic of curious reading scales into policy. Martha Nussbaum’s Poetic Justice (1995) argues that narrative enlarges empathy, the soil of inclusive planning. Porto Alegre’s participatory budgeting (from 1989) shows how shared learning can redesign spending priorities; Bogotá’s Ciclovía (since 1974) reveals how a cultural idea can open streets weekly to bodies instead of cars. On a neighborhood level, Little Free Libraries (since 2009) stitch micro‑commons into the urban fabric. In each case, appetite for the unfamiliar becomes infrastructure—turning pages into pathways, and pathways into a more legible, human city. [...]
