EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network - URBACT Partecipando improves citizens’ participation in integrated urban regeneration actions

URBACT Partecipando improves citizens’ participation in integrated urban regeneration actions - South of Italy, IT.

Introduction

The URBACT Partecipando project is a network composed by 22 towns from 7 different European countries, led by the Municipality of Rome. It is aimed at capitalizing and disseminating experiences based on citizens’ participation in urban regeneration policies and practices.

Description

The Partecipando project approach is based on local surveys and thematic workshops for producing valid tools to strengthen the citizens’ awareness as regards urban issues. The Partecipando network objective is focused on concrete experiences implemented to improve the management of the future integrated urban policies. The network is aimed to:

create widen local democratic policies
raise a strategic vision of local development oriented towards environmental, social, economic and political sustainability
improve social networking, solidarity and justice, as well as recognize the value of cultural and natural heritage.

Citizens may play a strategic role in strengthening sustainable territorial development of their towns. Over the last few years, European cities (especially the ones located in deprived areas) experienced a crisis in capacity building and in citizens’ participation. Within this context the decision making process faced several problems. The methodological approach adopted by the URBACT Partecipando network to increase the quality of urban management experiences is based on the principle that citizens’ participation is a complex process whose achievement is closely related to social factors.

Participants

The participants towns are:

City of Rome (Italy)
City of Bordeaux (France)
City of Grenoble (France)
City of Brussells (Belgium)
City of Pamplona (Spain)
City of Newcastle (United Kingdom)
City of Naples (Italy)
City of Reggio Calabria (Italy)
City of Cosenza (Italy)
City of Brindisi (Italy)
City of Foggia (Italy)
City of Stavroupoli (Greece)
City of Paris (France)
City of Venice (Italy)
City of Inverclyde (United Kingdom)
City of Catania (Italy)
City of Belfast (United Kingdom)
City of Evosmos (Greece)
City of Cannes (France)
City of Polichini (Greece)
City of Duzce (Turkey)
City of Maribor (Slovenia)
region of Bruxelles – Capitale
Réseau Hacer (Habitants Citoyens d’Europe en Réseau) – Hacer network (Network of European towns inhabitants). M

Network lead

City of Rome.

Objectives

The URBACT Partecipando network aims at enhancing the European towns involvement in the political debate concerning urban regeneration processes, strengthening the relationship between Public Administrations and citizens, fighting social exclusion and networking experiences on urban regeneration Programmes. The network follows a bottom-up approach consisting in gathering, analysing and reviewing the knowledge gained. The project’s partners identified 5 issues related to participation as follows:

citizens’ participation
stakeholders’ communication and training
methods and tools to grant citizens’ participation
results of citizens’ participation assessed at each stage of the project development
impact of participation.

Starting from these items the project developed analyses, researches and exchanges of experiences.

Products

Over the three-year project, the working agenda consisted in three main steps:

the first step consisted in 9 local surveys conducted in the participating towns to acquire a better knowledge of the issues experienced through the analysis of their strengths and weaknesses
during the second stage 12 thematic workshops have been held on a regular basis to network experiences related to the project key issues
on the third stage the knowledge acquired brought to two relevant products: the European Participation Handbook and the Participation Charter, signed between politic Authorities and the Partecipando network.

EU involvement

EU involvement Following the URBAN Programmes experience, the Partecipando network showed that an integrated approach is necessary when implementing urban policies. Merging the multiple territorial, social, economic and cultural dimensions, this approach enhances the role of local stakeholders thanks to the participatory process. Furthermore, the experience gained within this network concretely showed the importance of fostering a knowledge exchange between European citizens when implementing urban policies.

Contact info

Ministry for Infrastructure
Ms. Daniela Versino

Contact info

Links

Italian Ministry for Infrastructure (in Italian)Urbact Programme (in Italian)

Document type

network

Themes

Urban Policy > Social inclusion & integration > Community development

Keywords

Citizens' participation