Did we change something, you ask? Welcome to the new URBACT Blog! You’ll see, it does not just look better: it comes with several new features, of which we hope that they will make this blog even more interesting and pleasurable to read than it was already. Shall we take a tour?
For Cities, About Cities, By Cities
URBACT is a European exchange and learning programme promoting sustainable urban development. And it is 500 cities, 29 countries and 7,000 active participants, involved in 61 projects and project networks: quite a unique platform of experts, practitionners and stakeholders exchanging and collaborating on sustainable and integrated urban planning in Europe.
We want this blog to make this network visible, to spread the ideas and experiences it produces, to foster dialogue within the URBACT community, and more importantly, to open it to the broader community of urban planners and stakeholders out there.
Meet the Team!
This is perhaps our main new feature: each of our contributors now has a dedicated profile, where one can access their short biography and photo, links to their pages, social media profiles. Go ahead and meet Alison, Peter, Sally, Eddy, Simone, Petra, Ségolène and all!
Urban Explorers
Our updated categories aim at reflecting this blog’s contributions better. Thus they’re best explained by looking into their content…
Under ‘Inspiration and Solutions from Cities”, our first and most used category, you would for example find an article on the relevance of London’s markets, learn how Placemaking (the word and process) translates into Hungarian, or how Rotterdam re-invents the link between creative classes and the local economy… Those articles report on activities led by current or former URBACT projects, but also on interesting, innovative projects elsewhere which our authors feel are ‘worth spreading’!
‘Ideas, Opinions and Theories” offers a space for a more theoretical approach. Contributions for that category address topics, theories or examples of common interest within the urban sphere of experts, practitionners and amateurs. Currently, entering this category, one would find a web revue on urbanism and the latest football world cup in Brazil, two articles on using indicators (or not) to monitor outcomes of planning achievements, or a state of the art on links between the city and the sharing economy…
URBACT experts are well attuned with the latest developments of the European Urban and Regional policy: as such, they have lately contributed articles on available financial instruments for urban planning, on the discussion on a European Urban Agenda, or, more recently even, on European plans for tackling youth Unemployement . Slightly more technical articles, but which our authors know to make accessible! Those articles are gathered in our category: “European Urban and Regional policy“.
At least since the Chicago School and Robert Park, “nosing around” has been one acknowledged way of gathering experiences and knowledge on cities and neighbourhoods. On and off the job, participants to the URBACT network travel a lot, and often, they get to visit places with local urban experts and practionners. Articles on the category ‘Urban Explorers’ convey those stories and images they gather along the way on cities, their inhabitants and changes they lead or are affected by: their contribution to a growing narrative on the urban experience.
Thank You!
We hope you’ll appreciate the changes we made and that they will improve your experience. Let us know! In the meantime, in the name of the editorial team and contributors: thank you for following this blog!
