“Co-management city assets to improve the quality of democracy” – included within the report “A look at democratic experiments across Europe.”
Luiss professor Iaione calls “administrative collaborative democracy” the idea to establish civic collaborations with local communities, governments, businesses, academics and NGOs.
European cities and their residents are increasingly using collaborative tools which allow inhabitants to participate in the design and management of city assets, a practice which, according to experts, can create more democratic societies and markets.
The aim is to involve residents in the decision-making process and management of city assets or urban commons: “it’s not about just participating in local governments, but it’s about sharing the management of and co-owning the services and assets with city inhabitants.”
Turin’s Bee Ozanam, once a factory, has been turned into a multi-purpose building, comprising also a temporary house for migrants, a restaurant run by disadvantaged workers and a rooftop community garden. This example is the result of community initiatives aiming to regenerate the place. The regeneration process was funded through the ” Co-City” project, under the EU Urban Innovative Action programme.
The aim of the project was to promote collaboration between the local administration and citizens for the shared management and regeneration of urban commons.
We want to thank Silvia Ellena of Euractive for the interview.
This article discusses the concept of Urban Sustainable Development and Innovation Partnerships (USDIPs) as a tool for designing and managing policy experiments in cities to accelerate technological and ecological transitions while ensuring accountability and equality among stakeholders. The article examines inclusive and innovative forms of public-private partnerships, urban co-governance, and citizen science in the context of global and European policy initiatives. The EU Urban Innovative Actions Initiative and the “UIA Co-City Turin” project are used as a case study to demonstrate the effectiveness of USDIPs in promoting sustainable development.
The article identifies four key tools that are instrumental in creating USDIPs:
innovation procurement;
social and sustainable finance planning;
digital tools for multistakeholder cooperation;
investment in capacity building
The article calls for concrete policy action at the EU level to use USDIPs to bridge the gap between different policy agendas related to sustainable development in cities.
Click on the links below to read more about this article.
Many scholars, experts, authors and policymakers have expressed their opinions about Cities and Urbanism today on Sloglaw. Amnon Lehavi, Professor of Law at the Harry Ledzyner Law School, Reichman University also shares his thought-provoking opinions on Sloglaw about the Co-cities book authored by Professors Sheila Foster and Christian Iaione.
He shares how beneficial the co-city framework has been to his hometown, Tel Aviv and how useful this framework will be to other cities in the world.
Professor Lehavi believes that this book: Co-cities has taken an essential journey through space and time. He shares that the co-city framework will help cities be transformed no matter the challenges: be it social crises, financial or economic crises and the many urban issues that come up in cities today.
To read more of this, find below the link and join the urban and city conversation. Don’t forget to share your thoughts. We welcome them and we love to hear what you think.
We are honored to announce that the “Co-Cities Book: Innovative Transitions Toward Just and Self-Sustaining Communities”, by Sheila R. Foster and Christian Iaione won the 2023 Association Of American Publishers Prose Award for Architecture and Urban Planning in Social Sciences Category.
