Networks and cities' news

In Glasgow, food became a symbol of urban resilience

In Glasgow, the neighbourhoods around the Possilpark area are some of the city’s most deprived. The stresses experienced by these communities are disproportionate when compared to the rest of the city, and are consequences of decades of de-industrialisation that have resulted in poor health, low life expectancy, high levels of unemployment, and vast areas of contaminated derelict land.

SmartImpact Final Conference

Join us for the SmartImpact final conference in March 2018 to discover our findings and for a chance to learn from leading cities about the real world challenges and opportunities of becoming a smart city.

How to create Urban Inclusion (and not exclusion, segregation or integration)?

January 2018, by Øystein Leonardsen, Tabitha Burke and Aleksandra Galazka

A short discussion note on civic participation for migrants and refugees

 The fifth workshop in our transnational learning and exchange programme will focus on the theme of “Civic participation of migrants and refugees” (1). This will take place in Val de Marne from 16-19 January 2018.

From participative to personal budgets: the power of responsibility sharing

We can improve public services for local communities and individuals by giving them more control rather than imposing top down governmental programmes on them. This belief has led to a boom in “participative budgets” witnessed across Europe (and the world), as one of the easiest tools putting rights in the hands of communities. However, there has been less attention on the individual level, i.e., personal budget schemes that could activate citizens to make a change in their lives. URBACT CHANGE! partner city Aarhus (DK) was recently awarded the URBACT Good Practice Call label for its pioneering personal budget scheme tackling long-term unemployment. This article gives an overview of this innovative set of policy tools and suggests we might pay more attention to them.

Anne Mette, a graphic designer living in Aarhus, had been out of the job market for a lengthy period, mainly caring for her three young kids and chronically ill husband. Looking to return to work, she found herself in an extremely challenging situation when the local Jobcentre asked her the following question: what could she do with a personal grant of ca. €6725 if she could decide how to spend it in order to get a job. She hesitated but finally took the opportunity. Anne launched a micro-business with the grant. Now she produces hand-made, leather aprons for local restaurants with a great and increasing success. This is still not a big business, but a huge first step for Anne Mette. 

Sharing responsibility leads to stronger citizenship

How do URBACT Good Practices strive towards more sustainability together with citizens and other stakeholders?

Striving towards sustainability together

The occurrences and types of events and catastrophes related to climate change (environmental , biodiversity, human, social or societal concerns) have been constantly increasing for more than a century and especially in the last decades. Although these are mostly observed at meta level, it is a local level that both public authorities and citizens should act to implement and undertake concrete actions for a wide societal change. Some URBACT Good Practices understood it quite well and are developing not only sustainable strategies that are local and concrete, but also participatory ones: this is what Manchester (UK), Santiago de Compostela (ES), Milan (IT) and Tallinn (EE) addressed during the “Together for sustainability panel” of the URBACT City Festival held in Tallinn, Estonia on 5 October 2017.

The incremental integration of citizens in sustainable policies