Informed

Discover 4 keys to make cities informed:

#Finance - We need new ways of funding

Sustainable and just cities take a critical and values-led approach to the accumulation, use and distribution of capital. Individuals and local governments reorient their consumption to value positive social and environmental outcomes. Governments at all levels play a significant role in funding sustainable and just institutions, while divesting from the ones that do not match their values. Ethical procurement and accurate certification (e.g. fair trade, organic) is promoted.

Related keys: #ResearchAndInnovation #Economy #Responsibility

What approaches can activate this key?

Alternative financial practices and instruments respond to the need for and the wish to build regenerative, equitable and democratic economies. One innovative approach to new ways of funding is Participatory budgeting, a democratic process in which community members decide how to spend part of a public budget. The approach gives people real power over real money. It creates opportunities for citizens to directly participate and engage in policy debates and funding, promotes transparency and provides historically excluded citizens access to important decision-making venues. Other approaches that activate this key are Crowdsourcing, Beyond GDP indicators, Right to housing, and Sharing and cooperatives for urban commons.

What governance arrangements enable this key?

The governance arrangement that best enables this key is “developing resilient and self-sufficient financial arrangements,” which puts initiatives less at risk of failure or severe hardship when funding sources disappear. For example, many communities’ initiatives heavily rely on public funding which, as we saw with the Covid-19 pandemic, could become less stable in times of austerity or shifting of political priorities. More resilient financial arrangements involve considering and mitigating these risks where possible. However, these finance sources should be aligned with the values of the initiative, alongside its environmental and social goals.

What drivers of injustice does this key address?

This key challenges the driver of injustice “neoliberal growth and austerity urbanism,” in that it acts against privatization, commercialization, budget cuts and state withdrawal from various sectors. It also works to overcome the ideology of unfettered economic growth, which often aligns with austerity policies. This key also directly addresses the driver of injustice “material and livelihood inequalities” as urban sustainability efforts reflect the distribution of economic resources, and can therefore reinforce or work to address unjust outcomes. This key also addresses limited citizen participation in urban planning, in which residents have little say in how public money is spent, and unfit institutional structures, which manifests when public offices and administrations stand in the way of developing fitting financial schemes that truly enable sustainable and just cities.

Extra insights from UrbanA Community

• We need to explore more ways of public funding for the urban commons.
• Residents need to have a say in how public money is spent.
• There should be more financial opportunities for communities and residents who want to engage in making their neighbourhoods more just and sustainable.

Inspirational example: Inclusive waste management, Rzgow, Poland

In 2017, the Municipality of Rzgow (Poland) launched a procurement tender, which aimed at coupling their sustainability waste management plan with social inclusion.

The City announced a reserved tender procedure which would award marginalized groups with a contract for waste management. In this tender, marginalized groups were persons falling in one (or more) out of several categories: Unemployed persons, persons deprived of liberty of released from prisons, persons with mental disorders, homeless persons, persons granted refugee status or persons belonging to disadvantaged minorities. The tender also included environmental requirements, such as standards for recycling, recovery and reuse in line with the local sustainability plan. The tender was won by Komunalka Rzgów, a local social cooperative employing long-term unemployed people and people with disabilities. The main activity of the cooperative was to be responsible for the collection and sorting of waste. This example shows how cities can take ownership of their funding and re-channel money towards initiatives that centre environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive activities.

You can read more about this inspirational example here (p. 174).

Avenues for action

Lobby for new funding opportunities and criteria

1. Advocate and lobby for new funding opportunities and reallocate existing funding for initiatives which have the potential of strengthening the link between justice and sustainability.
2. (Re)consider exclusionary requirements to get funding and make justice and sustainability part of the funding criteria (e.g. climate-sensitive participatory budgeting, positive discrimination).

Learn more about Participatory budgeting.

Make wide-ranging funding opportunities visible

1. Make an overview of funding streams across different sectors as to help initiatives working on justice and sustainability to become aware of different funding opportunities.
2. Provide support in accessing these fundings (e.g. municipalities providing consulting for local communities in applying these funds).
3. Private actors and philanthropic organisations wishing to support specific social groups can benefit from identifying and working with non-profits who have pre-existing connections to these groups.

Get inspired by the Ecohouse Antwerp, a one-stop-shop for households offering all city services on sustainable building and living, also giving loans or grants. Listen to Tom Meeuws, Deputy Mayor of Antwerp, talk about his city's work.

#Knowledge - Knowledge is owned and managed by the community

Creating sustainable and just cities is a learning process. Knowledge is created through collaboration at the community level between policy-makers, planners, residents and others. All benefit from this knowledge. Policymakers and political actors, including those from higher levels of governance such as the EU and the UN, advocate for tailored approaches and policies based on knowledge commons (collectively created information) and other forms of citizen science.

Related keys: #Accessibility #Responsibility #Participation

What approaches can activate this key?

Co-learning and knowledge brokerage, based on collaborative forms of knowledge generation like co-production, co-inquiry, community-based and community-led research, participatory action research and Citizen science, are key processes in the effective co-generation and mobilisation of knowledge. They depend on effective Data collection, and ideally sharing of data, which can draw on the aforementioned citizen science and other forms of collaborative inquiry. This may take place within the context of Crowdsourcing efforts that invite people from all walks of life to contribute to identifying issues and courses of action. Integral MetaMapping can also help develop a common language that links different kinds of stakeholder knowledge.

What governance arrangements enable this key?

Any meaningful participation process requires both that citizens are well-informed, and that their knowledge and insights are taken into account. Creating a comprehensive vision of change also means drawing on and bringing together the knowledge of diverse stakeholder groups in a city. Accessing this knowledge means it is necessary to tap into existing community networks, while exchanging knowledge and information is, in itself, an important way to build bridges between different stakeholder groups.

What drivers of injustice does this key address?

This key is a direct remedy for a Lack of effective knowledge brokerage and stewardship opportunities. Wider access to knowledge is crucial to overcoming Limited citizen participation in urban planning, and can help address weakened civil society. Sharing knowledge more widely and ensuring that decision-making processes and organizational structures both enable and reflect this is an important part of overcoming unfit institutional structures.

Extra insights from UrbanA Community

• The big challenge will be to transfer knowledge to citizens and enable citizens to create and share knowledge. (Davie Philip, Sustainable Ireland)
• Design thinking, citizen science and the arts could all play key roles in empowering communities to collect and create collaborative data, and build knowledge commons. (Davie Philip, Sustainable Ireland)
• I think accessibility should also be beyond physical spaces: How to access information, how to communicate through e-platforms, how to access education, how to access democratic online participation tools. Is information from the city website accessible? Can people understand what it says? Can they see what it says? Are all the city apps accessible?. (Pilar Orero, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

Inspirational example: The city as commons, Ghent, Belgium

The Ghent Commons Transition Plan was commissioned by the Mayor and Council of Ghent in Northern Flanders.

Its aim was to document and understand the emergence of the commons in the city in order to identify what forms of public policy could best support its further growth. It was developed on the basis of a broad participatory inquiry during early 2017, which aimed to capture the knowledge of those involved in sustainability and equity initiatives across the city. A key outcome was understanding the city itself as a commons, in which active co-creation and exchange of knowledge support collaborative action between authorities and local residents. One such initiative explored in the process was the Living Streets project, which supports citizens in redefining urban spaces by closing streets to traffic for extended periods.

Avenues for action

Connect economy and ecology in learning programmes

1. Reconsider and redevelop what knowledge we teach and how we teach it by incorporating sustainability and justice (e.g. Doughnut Economics) in curriculums and other learning programmes.
2. In economics programmes in particular, champion the need for a curriculum which includes an ecological perspective, recognising that these two concepts are intrinsically connected.

Learn about the Doughnut Economics Action Lab. Listen to Satish Kumar explaining the conceptual and etymological connection between economy and ecology.

Use creative ways of making knowledge accessible

1. Experiment with new, alternative and accessible ways to create, manage and share knowledge. Use storytelling methods, visualisation and mapping (e.g. GIS), and 1-on-1 discussions as means of communicating knowledge.

Get inspired by [UrbanAPI (Interactive Analysis, Simulation and Visualisation Tools for Urban Agile Policy)|UrbanAPI].

#Translocal - Sharing local learning brings transformative change

The inhabitants of sustainable and just cities learn from and with each other as they experiment with social innovation and path-breaking solutions. Though locally-rooted knowledge is vital, its translation to other locations, contexts (e.g. rural areas) and spatial scales (e.g. national, regional, global) inspires transformative change. This is also referred to as “translocal learning.” Cities are connected through networks, but translocally inspired solutions are neither copy-pasted nor imposed top-down; they are shared and then adapted to specific contexts. City-makers are unafraid to share their mistakes, so that all can learn from them.

Related keys: #Knowledge #Regional #Participation (LINK TO THEIR CLUSTER PAGES)

What approaches can activate this key?

What governance arrangements enable this key?

What drivers of injustice does this key address?

Extra insights from UrbanA Community

Inspirational example

Avenues for action

You might be wondering, what everyday actions can I take to put all this theory into practice? Take a look at the avenues for action, below, for some practical guidance.

#CivilSociety - Anybody can be a change-maker in their community

Sustainable and just cities support spaces and processes that empower civil society. Grassroots initiatives and other civil society groups and individuals are at the forefront of demands for sustainability and justice. Using their grounded and place-specific experiences, they address issues relating to social inequality, exclusion and injustice alongside ecological unsustainability, often highlighting health, security, livelihoods and other at-risk considerations for the well-being of vulnerable populations.

Related keys: #Participation #Solidarity #Power (LINK TO THEIR CLUSTER PAGES)

What approaches can activate this key?

What governance arrangements enable this key?

What drivers of injustice does this key address?

Extra insights from UrbanA Community

Inspirational example

Avenues for action

You might be wondering, what everyday actions can I take to put all this theory into practice? Take a look at the avenues for action, below, for some practical guidance.