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Check URBACT's latest stories, updates and events!

 

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    Simple is the new smart: lessons from the refugee crisis

     


    “Refugees don’t just come to nations; they move to cities” writes B. McKenzy at Brookings Institution. Whether we agree on not with this catchy phrase, it is true that cities administrations, and simply citizens, are front-runners in dealing with incoming refugees. 

    Laura Colini

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  • The importance of procurement to city economies

    This article explores why procurement is increasingly being seen as a way of addressing some of the economic, social and environmental issues facing our cities. It does this through reflecting on: the legislative framework for procurement; the activities of the Procure network; the importance of understanding where procurement spend goes; and how social considerations can be more effectively embedded into procurement processes.

    Matthew Baqueriza-Jackson

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  • Squatting for cultural use toward commons: The case of Rog factory in Ljubljana

    During their 100-150 years of history industrial (or in a broader sense, non-residential) buildings face many challenges. Not only technology may change but whole industries might become outdated and shut down. Moreover there is a spatial factor: a factory built on the periphery of a small settlement might find itself a few decades later in the centre of the expanding city, occupying areas with much higher land value than justified for industrial use. 

    The problems of such outdated industrial places, the conflicts and their potential solutions have large relevance for many ongoing URBACT Action Planning Networks, such as Second Chance (dealing with re-use of abandoned large buildings), Refill (focusing on temporary use), Sub>urban (exploring new approaches to transition zones of cities), Maps (discussing options for former military sites). For all of these URBACT networks the story of the Rog factory in Ljubljana is interesting, as it highlights most of the key aspects and dilemmas of abandoned industrial places, while also confronting with each other the most important approaches to find solutions. 

    Ivan Tosics

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  • Digital Uber Alles

    Hands up those of you who have used Uber. Or Airbnb? I thought so. Increasingly, if you ask that question to a group of people, a forest of hands shoots up. When I asked it at a German Marshall Fund event in Bilbao last month, people with their hands down were a small minority.

    We were exploring the challenges that the 'Gig Economy' poses for equity and urban governance in the U.S. and Europe. As digital platforms become increasingly common, these new business models are generating new and complex questions for policy makers at all levels of government.
     
    So, what are the principal issues cities face in relation to these developments? How can they strike the right balance between regulation, designed to protect citizens, and innovation, which city authorities are keen to support? What can we learn from the experience of cities so far, and what can Urbact do to support decision makers as they grapple with these wicked issues? That’s what we’ll be exploring here.

     

    Eddy Adams

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  • The challenges of implementation

    “The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something.” All European cities can certainly endorse this quote by President Obama and testify that taking action – or implementing – presents a whole set of challenges that can sometimes be daunting. How can delays in implementing a strategy be anticipated? How can expectations or potential conflicts be managed around the implementation of a strategy? How to remain within the initial budget planned for the strategy during its implementation? These are some of the issues that the newly launched URBACT Implementation Networks are now set to work on. 

    Soraya Zanardo

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  • Creating urban environments that inspire young people into ‘creative-tech’ careers

    Across the whole of Europe, the growing shortage of technical talent is starting to impact on urban economies. In this article, Jim Sims, the Lead Expert on the Urbact GEN-Y City Network, looks at educational and skills policy across Europe and makes the case for cities to be orchestrators of urban environments that can inspire young people into ‘tech’ careers. 

    Jim Sims

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