First published on: Well designed and Built blog
I have been involved in Urbact Networks between 2005 and 2007 with the Hous-es project (about Regeneration of large housing estates in old and new member States) and since the beginning of 2011 in the Links project (about Future Proof Historical City Centers). My point of view is not the one of an external evaluator, but that of an independent researcher on urban policies and projects actively involved in the Programme itself. Attending the first URBACT Local Support Group Summer University that took place in Krakow in September 29th to 31st was an opportunity for a renewed reflection about the Program and how it works.
The First ULSG Summer University organised by URBACT II took place in Krakow and brought together more than 300 representatives of networks and Local Support Groups from all over Europe. The program of the event included short key-note speeches, lectures and interactive workshops about Local Support Group management, the so-called Urbact Cafè, allowing people from the same country or language to exchange in their native language and very few spare time to visit Krakow or meet with your Urbact friends. The work was supported by a fine tuned organisational management, extremely kind and competent polish language assistants and even a video team producing daily reports which are posted on the urbact dailymotion website. To watch some of these very nice videos you can click at the bottom of this blog. Wonderful!
This is all true, and there are many other interesting and exciting aspects of this undertaking that made worthwhile the significant effort required (2 and 1/2 days + travel). On the other side the main reason for this post is to focus on some issues that should be targeted in the next future to make a step forward towards URBACT III.
First of all the “Old Members States Supremacy”. I have no statistics about it, but it is evident that most activities at the Summer University were led and managed by representatives of the old member States. It reflects the fact that also most Networks and Experts are from these countries where eventually the largest Urbact knowledge and experience lies. It is clearly a situation that has developed this way in the years and I am sure that there is no discriminatory thinking behind it, but just some more work to be done at programme level in order to include more contributions by the ‘new’ Member States.
The second remark is related to the first one and I would call it the “English Supremacy”. Working, learning and exchanging with ideas means playing with words and this gives and conspicuous advantage to those who speaks in their mother language. Apparently a language is not only a way of expressing, but also a way of thinking and a channel for a specific cultural approach. This might become a problem for a program like URBACT which aims at putting in value the diversity of European cities (and cultures). Needless to say I love English language and culture and I have English for this blog in order to be able to communicate with colleagues at European and global level. Nevertheless we should always be aware of the language issue which becomes evident in occasions like the Summer University in Krakow.
The third and last issue I like to point out is also somehow linked to the previous ones and is about the fragmentation of these kind of learning events where you find yourself hustled from one room to another to listen, learn and experience things at a considerable speed. For smart professionals familiar with those kind of methodologies (and with their jargon) this might have been a refreshing and exciting exercise. But for some other average practitioner like myself that was sometimes frustrating. In other words I was missing some space to reflect and concentrate on the many issues raised. Of course you can download everything from the Urbact website, but this is not the same thing…
Finally there will be a lot of reporting on those intense days, a lot of homework to be done to become a better stakeholder, facilitator, public officer, planner etc. For the moment I just want to conclude this post with some pictures I took in the beautiful host city, from the airport to the University Guest-house in Florianska street and from there to the premises of the Summer University. That was on the day before the University began and we started our way on the path towards the Dragon’s Den!
by Antonio Borghi, Well designed and Built blog
Read more:
- URBACT Local Support Groups Summer University: Participants first! – URBACT website
- URBACT Local Support Groups – URBACT website
- ULSG Summer University Videos – URBACT website
- ULSG Summer University Photos – Picassa website
