Meet on the ground floor of QNC, on or near the gray slab benches at 7:20ish, and a regular will let everyone into a room in IQC for 7:30 pm. You can see the precise location on plus.codes. The benches are near the Ring Road entrance, and across the hall from an orange-tinted lab space.

As always, vegetarian snacks will be provided.

Activity

This week, we will discuss Charter cities by listing pros and cons.

Readings

What if we could redesign society from scratch? The promise of charter cities - Rational Animations (2024)

Charter Cities: Q&A with Paul Romer - CGD (2010)

Prospectus On Próspera - ACT, Scott Alexander (2021)

Optional Readings

The For-Profit City That Might Come Crashing Down - NYT, Rachel Corbett (2024) << Non paywalled

A Quick Case for Charter Cities: - Caplan (2011) << fixed formatting issues in claude, text is unchanged

The Hong Kong Experiment - Milton Friedman (1998)

Labour Rights in Special Economic Zones - Cotula ET AL. (2021) << Critical POV

Honduras Is Fighting Back Against Corporate Colonialism - Grace Blakeley (2023) << Critical POV

Building Radical Charter Cities - Paul Healy and Matt Prewitt (2020) << Supportive but socialist POV