City Quitters: An Exploration of Post-Urban Life

What does it mean to leave the city behind? Can the reality of living in the countryside fulfill our desire for a better, simpler, more creative life? Karen Rosenkranz's extensive book sheds a light on what rural life can be like today, with all its joys and challenges, providing a fresh look at the people and scenes thriving outside urban spaces.

From experimental co-habitation in a renaissance castle to oversized artworks on a farm, City Quitters offers a global perspective on creative post-urban life: 22 stories from 12 countries and five continents, all based in places with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants.

 

Product designer by training, Karen Rosenkranz spent most of her career researching people’s behaviour and attitude to help brands design for the future. From her London home-base, her work as ethnographer and trend forecaster has taken her around the world: from listening to young artists in Istanbul to observing mothers preparing dinner in Mexico City and discussing Chinese social media with fashion bloggers in Shanghai. A passion to discover peoples thinking pattern combined with her rural Austrian roots, lead to a personal fascination with the subject matter of City Quitters and the creation of this book.