Commonspoly played during the Idea Camp. Photo by Julio Albarrán
Listen to Europeans working with local governments and making a difference. Affordable housing, urban poverty, sustainable use of land and diverse communities: European cities face the same social challenges.
In the evening of 25 February we will co-create recommendations of good urban governance for the EU Urban Agenda. The cities of Bologna, Solin and Leeuwarden have used support of citizens and cultural change-makers to come up with creative solutions for social issues. Our speakers have tested alternative forms of cooperation and come up with new ways of participatory governance:
- Antonija Eremut has demonstrated with the City of Solin in Croatia, that citizens can work together effectively to reclaim public space that had been abandoned.
- Christian Iaione, founder of the think-tank Laboratory for the Governance of Commons (LabGov) is pioneering in Italy with students, citizens and the city government on institutional innovation, of which the Bologna’s Regulation for the Care and Regeneration of Urban Commons has been the most impactful.
- Sjoerd Feitsma, Alderman Leeuwarden. Leeuwarden-Fryslân, European Cultural Capital in 2018 has convinced the jury of the European Cultural Capital with their topic ‘mienskip’ (= community) that participation of communities and culture are driving engines for socio-economic development in Europe.
- Pedro Campos Ponce of the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations is leading the process towards the EU Urban Agenda of which good urban governance, including citizens’ participation is one of the priorities.
What concretely changes when citizens are included in the process of decision-making tackling urban challenges? What are good models of civic-public partnerships, how to apply these models and what are necessary steps for citizens and governments in realising participation to tackle urban challenges?
During the evening, we will present the Build the City, Towards a Practice-Based Manifesto that highlights 23 models of civic-public partnerships and provides recommendations to energise urban governance in the EU Urban Agenda. We will refine the recommendations based on your input!
Further reading:
- Build the City book
- EU Urban Agenda - 12 themes
- About Antonja Eremut's project: the project's website (including info in English), Mayday za Majdan (review in Croatian),and a PDF of the results and methodology.
- Towards an EU Urban Agenda, with an introduction by Pedro Campos Ponce.
- An interview of Christian Iaione by Michel Bauwens.
- Quiet Innovation – Interview with Christian Iaione
The European Cultural Foundation organises this event in collaboration with Europe by People, Kunsten ’92, Leeuwarden – Fryslân 2018 European Capital of Cultural, Netwerk Democratie and Pakhuis de Zwijger.
Together with Netwerk Democratie and Pakhuis de Zwijger, we organise New Democracy, a series of events on democratic and cultural renewal in Europe from a citizen’s perspective. The series is part of the Europe by People programme and FabCity campus, in the framework of the Dutch Presidency from January – July 2016.