How can cities boost their economies and improve the health of their population? By investing in innovation and the knowledge economy in the health field!
Investigating this area is of the main objectives of the 4D Cities URBACT project, which first transnational meeting took place in Igualada (Spain) on the 18th and 19 th of March.
URBACT Local Support Group (ULSG) is paying off handsomely for Torino. Thanks to active ULSG measures, the Chamber of Commerce of Torino has announced it will fund a 100,000 € investment to create a web platform that will promote local markets and test innovative new market services.
Engaging the different stakeholders involved in URBACT projects, whatever their nature, is a key success factor to successful implementation and buy-in from interested parties. That’s one of the guiding principles in the URBACT way.
Torino, one of the partners in the URBACT Markets Project which aims to harness the power of markets to regenerate city centres, create employment and leverage local supply chains, is obviously perfecting the art of inclusion to its maximum with a process they call the Torino Method.
The Torino Method
Firstly, URBACT project leaders identify the people and organizations with an interest in the issue at hand, those that have a role in markets, or people with ideas for the particular aspect of market management at issue. The result is a stakeholder meeting for between 5 and 8 people, with 2 to 3 of these usually facilitators.
Stakeholders range from the Chamber of Commerce, shoppers, local administration’s service providers, residents, regional commerce representatives and market traders, amongst others.
The stakeholder meeting follows a set process: facilitators use a flipchart to note down concrete ideas as they develop throughout the meeting, with the first point at hand giving an overview of the particular topic being discussed as it was in the past. The stakeholders move on to talk about the present, paying special attention to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the current state of the situation and how important these might be. Again, these are all documented on a flip chart as they crop up. The next step is usually the most creative as stakeholders brainstorm the future of the issue, generating ideas that could help improve the situation.
Above all, the process aims for simplicity and buy-in on central issues. These are summed up in a short document highlighting the date and time of the meeting, the participants, an analysis of the current situation with strengths and weaknesses, and ideas for the future. These minutes are being collected by Torino’s URBACT External Expert and they will be presented at a plenary meetings stakeholders during the course of the URBACT Project, with the participation of politicians responsible for commerce, trade and markets and also members of the press.
Read more:
Steven Guest
URBACT Markets Communication Officer
“But I’m desperate…how can you help me?”
“Don’t worry; we have all sorts of options to help you. For example you could go to our incubator unit”
“No, please don’t send me to Cuba!!”
This humorous exchange – between “Dmitri” a young Russian job seeker and a local support worker – was part of a mini-drama prepared during the Dragon’s Den session at the URBACT Summer University. Over the previous two days, delegates had been working on the problems faced by a fictional city called Terga. In the Dragon’s Den four teams competed to convince their peers that theirs was the best action plan for improving the situation for young people. Everyone had a vote and in the end the winners were a team called “Cops can dance”.
I was lucky enough to be working as the Lab Manager with this talented and inspirational group of people. It was a first for me – in fact a first for everyone as the Summer University was an original concept – and I have to say that I arrived in Krakow not quite knowing what to expect. But over the three days I was blown away by the enthusiasm, commitment and calibre of the delegates. The Dragon’s Den was the culmination of an intense, exhausting process yet everyone rose to the occasion – producing robust, well-considered proposals in response to a fictional brief from the city mayor. Yet, as the “Dmitri” exert shows, they managed to do it in a playful way.
During our time in Krakow this was one of the key lessons for me. We work in difficult times – often in tough situations – and to succeed we need to believe that we can make a difference. We also need optimism, energy, and, at times, a sense of humour. There is more than one way to convey a message – and we can be playful and effective at the same time. So, working with groups – including our city stakeholders – we should take risks, be creative and try new things. At times like this there may be a temptation to stick to what we know – but I think the message from Krakow is the opposite. We need to challenge ourselves and those around us. URBACT can play an important catalytic role in encouraging this through the Local Support Groups.
I would hope that participants at the summer university will have come away with this message too and with increased confidence to experiment and innovate. I also hope that we see some direct results coming from this pilot event. It has been an effective networking platform which should help create momentum behind new proposals under the forthcoming URBACT 3rd call. It should also help build capacity through exposure to peers’ experience as well as through raising awareness of the resources available through the programme to support cities. The experience inspired me and I’d like to think that it has had a similar effect on the wider URBACT community. Let’s think big and be bold in the way we approach our work – and try to maintain that summer energy through autumn and beyond!
Eddy Adams
URBACT Expert
Read more:
Guess what? It’s true! We learned and felt another powerful experience in Barnsley during our last URBACT Creative Clusters project thematic workshop. At the same time that our network is reaching the end, we feel that our team building is improving its abilities to share and learn.
The latest edition of the creative brief planted some of the new seeds that our network has been
harvesting in the last couple of years. Óbidos and Reggio Emilia are working together by putting in practice a common project of developing creativity as an educational resource that could improve intellectual and entrepreneurial skills. Beneath the surface we are all discussing other possibilities of working together. Education, creativity and innovation, new social solutions of community inclusion and technology resources are some of the areas that are in our virtual daily round table. This is one of the signs of our good health or wellbeing.
The final conference in Óbidos, June 9th, will be an important step to reach conclusions
of the work undertaken, but also to establish a platform of common objectives and new solutions for our challenges. Once again we reinforce our invitation for all you to come to Óbidos and activate your brain cells under this stimulating theme: “Creative Footprint – The Next Big Step Will Be a Lot of Small Steps”.
Miguel Silvestre
Creative Clusters Lead Partner
A short overview of the favorite topics of urban practionners
on the web 2.0
Today Urban practionners – architects, urban planners, developers, civil servants – are like everyone else, big users of the web as source of information, exchange, discussion and even maybe knowledge production.
URBACT, in the framework of its communication strategy, has been active in these discussions that deal about real urban issues in the virtual world! Commenting on articles, proposing content emerging from URBACT projects, reflecting interesting ideas and issues in the URBACT blog, or establishing an editorial partnership, we have discovered a large number of websites and blogs dedicated to urban issues.
Here, we have decided to highlight few of them: because the topics they deal with are close to that cities work on in URBACT projects and because they are particularly dynamic and interesting. All these websites and blogs have one point in common: they are seeking for a sustainable city for tomorrow.
They also reflect the diversity of actors that make the city: municipalities, network of public authorities, associations of neighbourhoods, companies, NGOS – quite often coalitions gathering these different types of actors – have developed websites to bring about their experience and showcase their expertise for their territory. But more than that, the bloggers community is also used as a tool to network and to build coalitions between urban actors in order to develop a common approach.
Here you’ll find a review of some websites focused on specific areas: energy, mobility, innovation and social integration.
Urban mobility and urban innovation: Running upfront
Mobility and Innovation are the most discussed topics on the blogosphere and many blogs approach these issues from diverse points of views.
Mobility
Sustainable-
Mobility (Mobilité-Durable for the French version of the website) is a platform on sustainable mobility which showcases actions that try to include transportation means, economic progress and sustainable development. Run by the Sustainable Mobility Institute, the website gives an exhaustive overview of mobility news by publishing articles and interviewing experts, featuring videos and hosting a twitter wall. It also has an ‘invited blogs’ sections, in which an article of Sally Kneeswhaw, Lead Expert for the URBACT EVUE project, on electro mobility has recently been published! Its thematic is close to that of another URBACT project: Active Travel Network (ATN). Maybe one article from ATN will soon be featured there?
Another blog dealing with sustainable transportation on a global perspective – TheCityFix.com – is fed by a network of writers and transport specialists who explore environmentally and socially responsible ways to make cities better places to live. It relies on its international community to provide a global, multi-disciplinary perspective to its coverage of local sustainable urban transport. There you can find out for instance that experts and leaders in sustainable transport from around the world are currently exploring urban transportation solutions at the 2011 Sustainable Transport Symposium beginning today in Kocaeli, Turkey. Sure you’ll be able to find the results too. TheCityFix.com notably consists in a network of city blogs, for instance from Mumbai, Washington D.C and Mexico and is run by EMBARQ – The World Resources Institute Center for Sustainable Transport, a non-profit organization that works with cities in the developing world.
Innovation
Innovation in urban areas appears also as one of the most successful topic in websites and blogs.
Innov’in the City is an information website that analyses technological inventions or services in municipalities all over the world. Innov’in the city is run by the Paris Region Innovation Laboratory which aims at transforming the Ile-de-France territory into an experimentation territory. There you can see how Paris dreams about the Green Canadian way of life developed in Vancouver or you can also find out on URBACT: Innov’in the City also published S. Kneewshaw’s article on the EVUE project!
But urban innovation is also treated from a social angle!
The Social Innovation Exchange website gathers a global community of 100 000 people and organizations that promote social innovation. Its objective is to improve the methods that enable societies to develop better solutions to challenges like ageing, climate change or healthcare. There you can find out on the new intiative launched by a consortium led by SIX, and supported by DG Enterprise entitled Social Innovation Europe : a new website and events series that will bring together social innovators from across Europe. In URBACT, social innovation is treated through the Urban N.O.S.E project. More URBACT projects deals with innovation such as Creative Clusters, ESIMEC, REDIS, RUnUp and UNIC.
Seeking for urban sustainable solutions in targeted areas: energy, environment or public space and integration of migrants
Involvement of citizens in Place making
The Project for Public Spaces website promotes a pioneering approach: the Placemaking approach, which helps citizens transform their public spaces into vital places. Places that highlight local assets, spur rejuvenation and serve common needs. This approach is considered as a transformative agenda to build stronger sustainable, healthy and economically viable communities. There you can find arguments against outdoor advertisements and their impact on communities. Here again, the thematic is close to that developed in some URBACT projects referring to public space such as HOPUS, NODUS and SUITE.
Environmentally sustainable and energy-efficient cities
On the environmental and energetic themes, Energy Cities developed a lively blog. Energy Cities presents itself as the European association of local authorities that « invent their energetic future ». Its objective is to represent the interests of its 1000 member cities and to lobby towards European institutions on topics dealing with sustainable energy as well as strengthening capacity-building and exchanging good practices between cities. That’s why it’s the place to find out about the last plans of the European institutions in terms of transport planning, such as the “Transport 2050” strategy of the European Commission, presented as an ambitious plan to increase mobility and reduce emissions.
The Comment Visions website also explores ways to tackle the energetic challenge. Born out of a partnership between the global TV channel, Euronews and the Brussels-based newspaper, European Voice, in association with Shell, it explores new topics each month, such as How can government and industry win public support for new low-carbon technologies? and presents the personal views of thinkers, innovators and scientists about possible solutions to global warming, overpopulation and dwindling resources.
Comment visions through Euronews recently directed a reportage on Lisbon’s experience regarding sustainable mobility, Lisbon being partner of the EVUE project. This reportage also includes an interview of Sally Kneewshaw
The input of migrants in the city
Finally regarding integration of migrants, Cities of migration - run by Maytree, a private foundation in Canada that provides leadership on diversity and urban prosperity issues – explores the good practices in terms of integrating migrants in urban areas. Its main tools are showcasing 100 Good Ideas for Integration, with all the necessary information to implement successful projects. Online forums enable members of the community to communicate on these issues. It has also developed the format of the webinars, the next one being on Community Policing: Finding Common Ground with Immigrant Communities…Good Ideas from Cardiff and Newport News! Some input from the URBACT MILE, ROMA-Net, Open Cities and CoNet projects has already appeared on Cities of Migration, and more bridges have to be created.
The overview would not be complete without some insight on website developping a multisectoral approach. This will be coming later this week!
Ségolène Pruvot and Alexandra Solom for URBACT
Urbactwebpartners
In the recent increase for demand of technology we often forget the main reason why we invest and develop new technological solutions. The social dimension, the problem-solving dimension, takes a back seat when facing the enthusiasm of the recent creations. The “gadget lifestyle” could improve the economy, but doesn’t solve any of the major challenges of humanity. Why? Maybe because it’s not an answer to any real need of humanity. It’s simply more of the many things we already have.
Cities are made of people. We all know that, even though so many specialists are still selling this fact as solution for cities facing the future. The dimension of our territories, more closure to the measure of mankind, makes this speech obvious and a little redundant. Rather than creating more technology, our goal is to find new purposes, new objectives, real answers and then, use the necessary tools and integrate them with other dimensions of public policies.
The case of Jyväskyla, city partner in URBACT Creative Clusters project, is an example in this mater. Searching, thinking and creating innovative and public policies that involve all the local actors and balance the economy, culture, education, social support, is the overall purpose of this city to create a well being community. That’s why the Human Technology upgrading to a Human Solutions city, where technology is just a part of the solution.
Miguel Silvestre
Creative Clusters Lead Partner
Sevilla (Andalucia-Spain) is partner in the URBACT UNIC project working on how cities can encourage and develop new policies and actions which help their territory and industries, on this case focused on the ceramic sector, in a time of change and economic transition. One of these new actions should certainly be linked to the re-invented image of ceramics cities reinforcing their attractiveness at the European level. Through the URBACT project UNIC, one of the experiences developed has been focused on reflecting how a city can value this ceramic image city.
Sevilla is known in the world for its great and singular ceramic heritage. Different peoples and their cultures, which have settled in the city, have left their mark as much in tableware and decorative items as in the rich tiles that cover facades and interiors of buildings.
Nowadays this activity is kept alive in workshops that continue to turn out pieces of considerable technical and artistic interest. They are mostly around areas as the Triana neighbourhood.
Within the framework of the UNIC project and its URBACT Local Action Plan, Sevilla has put together in a map the urban ceramic pictures and the urban ceramic activity made by the industries and workshops. The map was produced in Spanish/English in order to guaranty its dissemination among tourists from any European and non European origins.
With this guide we hope to draw attention to these buildings and workshops and underline the connection between the city and it ceramics.
This new experience can be an interesting tool for managing economic transition of traditional sector through innovative initiatives in cities.
Read more:
Beatriz Real
Innovation Manager Sevilla Global
Partner in the URBACT UNIC Project
The city of Graz , city partner in HerO URBACT project, now offers visitors the opportunity to explore the modernity and cultural historic flair of the city in an innovative and playful way, making use of the newest iPhone application “Urban Touch – Graz City Guide on iPhone”. Within seconds the Urban Touch provides useful information about Graz’ World Heritage Site, showing maps, photos and historical data.
The Urban Touch is initiated by the company ARCH’IN Information Architecture Helmut Pierer and developed in collaboration with technology partner Exthex GmbH. The application includes a large selection of clear high quality photos of more than forty attractions in the World Heritage area and many other snapshots of the Styrian State capital.
Furthermore the users have access to the entire city map of Graz and a large amount of high-resolution aerial photographs, which offers them the possibility to take close look at the different
objects before defining their actual path. Because the digital city guide is an offline version, it has no roaming costs. The development is a further step in e-services towards citizens and is a basis for the development of other e-services. The intention is to continue with the improvement and strengthening of the application to create even more benefits.
This could be for example a calendar of events, an expansion of the sites and images (showing not only the exterior but also the interior of the monument), the adding of attractive places for youth and the implementation of the most common e-government solutions. Urban Touch currently works on the iPhone and iPad OS4. The appropriate version for iPhone 3G is coming soon. In addition it is already planned to make the electronic guide operational with Android and Windows Mobile.
Read more:
Barbara Bühler
HerO Project Communication Officer
The public consultation period about the Green Paper on Cultural & Creative Industries [“Unlocking the Potential of Cultural and Creative Industries”] made by DG Education and Culture was over last Summer. It is clear that Paper comes a bit late, when many EU cities and regions are displaying strategic visions and specific agendas in promoting creative industries, especially in UK, Portugal, Nordic Countries and in Central Europe.
The document is right in summarizing a range of basic statements, namely: the powerful linkage between cultural and creative industries and education; the promising role of CCIs in the new post-crisis productive model; underlining the connection to the digital economy and the EU digital agenda; ICT-based creative firms and professionals and its role in innovation diffusion; links to the EU strategy on intellectual property; or the cluster approach when addressing this kind of industries.
Nevertheless the Green Paper is clearly poor when proposing comprehensive guidelines to promote creative industries. For instance, it is not enough to demand a place-based approach. On this point the reaction by URBACT Creative Clusters submitted to DG Education and Culture has been focused in enhancing creative-based local strategies as an opportunity window particularly for middle-sized towns in intermediate region contexts, or as a way to re-think rural development nowadays.
Also the Paper is lack of considerations on the nature of the space of the creative class: meeting places, work-private life interactions, mix of uses in promoting creative districts and so on. And it shows an absence of fresh ideas related to specific financial support tools for creative entrepreneurs. Summarizing, in my view the document does not give a basic comprehensive and strategic framework for promoting creative clusters by regional and local governments. Anyway, let’s see how all the contributions submitted during the consultation period can revitalize a flat starting point.
Miguel Rivas
URBACT Creative Cluster Lead Expert
Probably since the very beginnings of ceramic production there has been a duality of purpose, to make objects designed for daily (even construction or industrial) utility but also objects with a decorative or ornamental quality. This has, together with use of local materials and colour preferences, shaped the development of different decorative national or local styles, which are evident in the traditions of the URBACT UNIC project partners. Everyone has an image of what Limoges or Delftware means. Or we can imagine the intricate often Moorish or Asian influenced patterns reflecting the historic cultural exchanges which define the Portuguese experience. The tableware and “azulejo’s” are instantly recognisable even if, in the interim, industrial production has responded to contemporary needs and desires in terms of functionality.
Today the ceramic industry in Aveiro (URBACT UNIC partner) but also in the area around Obidos (URBACT Creative Clusters partner) in the neighbouring Caldas da Rainha, bear testimony to this tradition. However in an effort to explore and capture new markets, creative designers are experimenting with innovative extreme temperature kiln techniques, successive heating and (shock) cooling, alternative raw materials (including recycled production waste), grains and compound compositions, to produce ceramics often with utility value, but also primarily as artworks or even purely sculptural pieces. So while the value and appreciation of the traditional local style and production of objects, even for daily use, remains a keystone of production – new objects are attracting new clients to the shop windows in historic cities like Obidos.
The departure from local source styles but using the technical skills and knowledge developed in these areas over centuries, is giving the sector a new and innovative dimension to stimulate small local industries and exploit sales potential for delicate articles, where transportation is an added marketing consideration. The relationship between artistic creation and the heritage city, providing a high quality exposition space while at the same time delivering a specific clientele, represents an important asset in heritage linked urban economies. It brings the issues concerning a number of URBACT projects into sharp focus. The “Guardian” journalist Andy Beckett suggests that “property firms have learned the big lesson of gentrification: where artists go, estate agents follow”*. Perhaps urban heritage and other sectors of the economy could be equally added to this equation.
*(“In the gaps developers left, another world is being built” – The Guardian newspaper 21/08/2010)
Philip Stein
Thematic Pole Manager
