Reflections and Contributions

This page presents selected contributions developed within the Inclusive Cities project—including curated essays, visual reflections and project-based outputs—by participating researchers, academics and students as well as members of the project team.

We warmly invite you to contribute and be part of the dialogue!

For details, see our ›Call for Contributions‹

Entries can be filtered by thematic tags to support focused exploration ↓

Beyond Work and Room: Everyday Public Life at the Edges

By: Nusrat Jahan

In Muscat, the migrant men who build the city live largely between work and a rented room. Public life takes shape in the time and space left over: a few minutes at a tea stall, a chair on a rooftop. This visual essay follows where that everyday life gathers, and how it shifts. Faces are obscured throughout, a condition of the work as much as a courtesy to its subjects.

From Observation to Participation: How Listening Reshaped My Approach to Public Space Design

By: Zeina Koteit

This reflective contribution explores how the Inclusive Cities Workshop, “Shaping Inclusive Cities: Dialogues on Participation and Placemaking,” in Weimar reshaped my approach to public space design. Using Sophienstiftsplatz as a case study, it examines how conversations with local residents and collaborative activities revealed perspectives that physical site analysis alone could not capture.

Beyond Work and Room: Informal Third Places and the Negotiation of Public Life among South Asian Blue-Collar Migrant Workers in Muscat

By: Nusrat Jahan

This thesis examines how South Asian blue-collar migrants in Muscat engage with informal social spaces beyond work and accommodation, and what these practices reveal about the conditions shaping everyday public life under temporality and unbalanced urban access. Situated within the context of rapid urbanisation, labour migration, and car-oriented planning in Oman, the study moves beyond site-based or design-centric approaches to public space by adopting a people-centred qualitative framework.

The SUSTAINABLE VISION “Education & Urban Development”

From 23 to 29 November 2025, the Scientific College of Design (SCD) in Muscat, Oman hosted "The Sustainable Vision: Education & Urban Development," - a workshop of the DAAD-funded project "Inclusive Cities".

Between Overcrowding and Decay: Processes and Effects of Village Revitalization in Rural Oman

By: Leon Wiesemann

In Oman, efforts to preserve and revitalize historic urban fabric have gained increasing momentum in recent years. As part of a nationwide program, these initiatives form part of a broader strategy to sustainably transform and diversify the country’s economy.

Between Inclusion and Exclusion: The Politics of Public Space in Muscat

By: Martje Abelmann · Ruweida Aljabali

In Oman’s rapidly urbanizing capital, public beaches offer rare open spaces in an increasingly commodified city—yet subtle social divisions remain.

Call for contributions

By: Inclusive Cities

We are always excited to receive new contributions for the online publication section of the project Inclusive Cities!

Beyond Work and Room: Every­day Pub­lic Life at the Edges

By: Nus­rat Jahan

From Obser­va­tion to Parti­cipation: How Lis­ten­ing Reshaped My Approach to Pub­lic Space Design

By: Zeina Koteit

Beyond Work and Room: Infor­mal Third Places and the Nego­ti­a­tion of Pub­lic Life among South Asian Blue-Col­lar Migrant Work­ers in Muscat

By: Nus­rat Jahan

The SUS­TAIN­ABLE VISION “Edu­ca­tion & Urban Development”

Between Over­crowd­ing and Decay: Processes and Effects of Vil­lage Revi­tal­iza­tion in Rural Oman

By: Leon Wiese­mann

Between Inclu­sion and Exclu­sion: The Pol­i­tics of Pub­lic Space in Muscat

By: Martje Abel­mann · Ruweida Aljabali

Call for contributions

By: Inclu­sive Cities

Beyond Work and Room: Everyday Public Life at the Edges

By: Nusrat Jahan

From Observation to Participation: How Listening Reshaped My Approach to Public Space Design

Beyond Work and Room: Informal Third Places and the Negotiation of Public Life among South Asian Blue-Collar Migrant Workers in Muscat

By: Nusrat Jahan

The SUSTAINABLE VISION “Education & Urban Development”

Between Overcrowding and Decay: Processes and Effects of Village Revitalization in Rural Oman

By: Leon Wiesemann

Between Inclusion and Exclusion: The Politics of Public Space in Muscat

By: Martje Abelmann · Ruweida Aljabali

By: Inclusive Cities