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Visit of Cascina Cuccagna, a former farm now restructured in an urban social and sustainable food hub during the 3rd EU City Lab in Milan field visits (photo credit: URBACT)
Last month Milan hosted the third EU City Lab on Local Food Systems. What have we learnt about integrated sustainable food systems?
Source: Cascina Claudina, City of Milan, Food Policy department.
Milan will serve the third course of the EU City Labs on Local Food Systems on 23-24 October. Reserve your spot and find out more about sustainable land-use strategies to feed the city.
‘Going local’ is not just a trend or a buzzword; cities throughout Europe are prioritising local food production and consumption as part of a holistic and systemic approach towards integrated sustainable food systems. Scientific and policy research shows that cities with agricultural land have an advantage and opportunity to relocalise their food systems by making farmland and practices more accessible.
On 23-24 October 2024, Milan (IT) will take on sustainable land use at the next EU City Lab, a series of knowledge-sharing events co-organised by URBACT and the European Urban Initiative (EUI).
The Milan edition marks the third EU City Lab on Local Food Systems since March 2024, following Mouans-Sartoux (FR), where we explored changing habits for a healthy and sustainable food system, and Liège (BE), where we considered public procurement for more local, seasonal and sustainable food.
Let’s find out more about what sustainable land-use practices are, why they are important for cities, and what we can expect from the next EU City Lab.
Farming within the city limits
In the EU, artificial land cover increased by 13%, between 2000 and 2018, which accounted for over 1 million hectares of land converted to urban use. Such land pressure has led to uncontrolled urban development (sprawl), together with reducing biodiversity, land for agriculture and increased greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. In a May 2024 report, IPES-Food experts revealed that land inequality is on the rise worldwide. Farmers and the communities, who for generations have produced food and taken care of the land, feel like they are being ‘forced out’.
At a glance, what constitutes ‘available land’ varies greatly between densely populated cities and rural areas, and varied solutions have been applied for the best use of available land. While urban farming will never feed a million-inhabitant city, it can trigger wider changes in overall local production.
European cities – like Milan – are taking necessary steps to make land more available and accessible for farming and food production. Some examples are presented below.
Sustainable practices: how are cities feeding themselves?
1. Strategising the availability and accessibility of land for food production
Source: Cascina Linterno City of Milan, Food Policy department.
Before looking at examples, what do we mean when we talk about land-use strategies to feed the city? Food production is often the competence of the regional level of government rather than of the city itself. The city departments leading on this work are mostly those responsible for employment and sustainable economic development, or agriculture and the environment. In practice, this can be quite technical and administrative, taking the form of special zoning regulations or land acquisition schemes to advertise free land and engage farmers.
Cities have developed tools and strategies to make access to land possible for food production. In Palou – Granollers (ES), the focus was on recovering unused and under-used land for agricultural purposes. The city council used several levers to improve access to land and make landowners interested in farming (e.g. taking measures to classify agricultural land, issuing subsidies and other incentives for landowners to sell/rent land for agricultural purposes, etc.).
Before making land available it is key to make it fit for food production. This is the objective of the UIA SPIRE project led by Baia Mare (RO) which have focused on the reuse of heavy metal-contaminated land in the city, through adaptive phytoremediation and the creation of new urban ecosystems, as a long-term strategy for sustainable local economic development.
Source: School garden activities, City of Milan Food Policy department.
Community gardens, public or private rooftops, and nature-based solutions, such as green corridors, improve the environmental standards and promote climate adaptation solutions. Realistically, municipal farms cannot feed entire cities; yet, by providing foodstuffs for example to school canteens, they are part of wider ecosystemic change. Urban farming practices are highly relevant to educate, raise awareness, create a spillover effect for individual and common practices. This can involve joining a Community Supported Agriculture Scheme or merely become more familiar as to where our food comes from, the way it is produced and as such, where it should be purchased. It can also create vocations for agriculture at the outskirts of cities.
Several of these solutions that make land available to farmers can be found in URBACT cities, through previous and ongoing URBACT Networks and joint initiatives. For instance, Mouans-Sartoux (FR) and Troyan (BG) have been working with municipal farms to feed students in local canteens. This practice was developed and transferred to other European cities through URBACT’s BioCanteens Network #1 and #2.
Almere (NL) and Mollet del Valles (ES) have undertaken ambitious urban farm projects through URBACT Networks. In fact, almost 50% of Mollet del Valles is rural/agricultural land, of which 734 hectares (the Agrarian Park of Gallecs) are protected from real estate to promote employment and entrepreneurship in the organic agricultural sector.
The Milanese experience: Urban resilience through food production
The previous sections present a tapestry of local food production efforts in different European cities. Let’s now look closer at Milan, the host city of the next EU City Lab. With a substantial presence of farmsteads distributed throughout the municipal territory, Milan is the second largest agricultural city in Italy, with 2 910 hectares reserved for agricultural purposes. The city’s 2019 Land Management Plan aims to reserve over 3 million square meters of free and/or cultivated areas.
The 2015 Milan Urban Food Policy Pact was instrumental in reinforcing a commitment to sustainable food systems in Milan, but also throughout Europe. ‘Food production’ is explicitly recognised in the Pact’s Framework for Action. The recommended actions are all those aimed at strengthening sustainable food production, stressing the importance of rural-urban linkages to promote and strengthen urban and peri-urban sustainable food production, apply an ecosystem approach to holistic and integrated land-use planning and management enabling secure access to land for sustainable food production, provide services to food producers in and around cities, support short food chains and improve waste and water management and reuse in agriculture.
Today, more than ever, the theme of agriculture in Milan is developed through a multidisciplinary approach that involves productive, economic, social and environmental aspects. It is worth looking closer at key developments in this local policy framework context:
1. DAM – Milan’s Agricultural District
The Milanese Agricultural District (DAM in Italian) is one of five protected rural areas surrounding the city. The mode of agriculture in this area is closely linked to the city, not only by virtue of its physical proximity to built-up urban areas. The DAM Consortium (Consorzio Distretto Agricolo Milanese) was established in 2011, involving a network of local authorities and companies located near built-up urban areas.
This agricultural cooperative is made up of more than 30 farms located in the Milan area, covering approximately 40% of the agricultural territory. The work of the DAM Consortium contributes to landscape and environmental redevelopment and to enhancing the heritage of farmsteads and farm centres.
2. Farmsteads and farmers markets
In Milan, farmsteads are also the corporate headquarters of agricultural enterprises that have progressively developed new projects and services for the public. For example, in many farmsteads agricultural and breeding activities are also accompanied by educational farms and agritourism activities. Recently, various farmers markets have been set up in the Milan area where it is possible to buy agricultural products directly from the farmers. There are approximately nine markets where producers display and sell to the public.
Strengthening the city-countryside connection by linking metropolitan agriculture with school’s canteen procurement and the rural landscape with the dimension of urban life has been an objective of the Municipality too. Thanks to the Mater Alimenta Urbe, since 2015, Milan has been able to provide rice for school canteen locally produced within the boundaries of the city in one of the several Milanese farmsteads.
3. Learning and transfer Milan’s experiences through URBACT
Source: Milan agricultural park City of Milan, Food Policy department.
Through the Urban Innovative Actions-funded project OpenAgri, Milan adopted a place-based approach, focusing on new skills for new jobs in peri-urban agriculture. In an urban fringe – transition zone between the consolidated part of the city and the agricultural lands – the city developed an innovative urban service aimed at creating new jobs, skills, start-ups in agri-food sector (including production, processing and food waste) while increasing the level of resilience and sustainability of the city.
With this in view, a series of selected partners have been engaged in using in the best possible way a public-owned 30-hectares plot of land surrounding the south Milan Parco Sud boundaries.
Among other project highlights, OpenAgri has been recognised for exploiting the potential of several food policy experiments within a single integrated ‘Open Innovation Hub on Peri-Urban Agriculture’ to prototype disruptive and innovative solutions regenerating the concerned peri-urban zone of the city by making it an example of social inclusion and innovation.
The practice developed through the project was transferred to three other cities (Stara Zagora, Almere, Vila Nova de Gaia) via the URBACT NEXT AGRI Innovation Transfer Network. The learnings and transfer components of this Network will be front and centre at the next EU City Lab.
What’s on the agenda at the next EU City Lab?
From 23-24 October, the EU City Lab on Land Strategies to Feed the City will provide a nice conclusion to the three-part series on Local Food Systems. While it will broach issues raised in the previous Mouans-Sartoux and Liège editions, ultimately, this edition will be a stand-alone opportunity to learn from Milan and other European cities implementing innovative land-use strategies.
There will be interventions from Anna Scavuzzo, Vice-Mayor of Milan in charge of Food Policy, and others working on Food, Agriculture and Education in Milan. In addition to dedicated sessions on the situation in Milan and multilevel governance, there will be speeches from URBACT and EUI Network partners from different European cities (some of which were featured as examples in this article). If you need to stretch your legs over the two-day event, Milan got you covered and offers you the opportunity to visit Cascina Campazzo and Cascina Cuccagna.
Are you interested in meeting with other cities, representatives and organisations working on this issue? Register here and check out the event agenda. Seats are limited, so be sure to sign up in advance! The programme is still being finalised, so stay tuned for updates, from farm to fork.
Comment comprendre la collaboration entre autorités publiques et initiatives citoyennes, pour augmenter la résilience des dynamiques locales ?
Dimension 1 : La vie de la collaboration
Une collaboration entre deux acteurs a une vie : elle se prépare, se crée, elle se réalise concrètement à travers divers projets, puis évolue et s’entretient sur les longs et courts termes.
Les dimensions de la collaboration
AVANT
En premier lieu, la collaboration se met en place. Elle est prédisposée par une culture de l’engagement citoyen, qui appartient tant aux citoyens qu’aux autorités publiques. Des initiatives permettent de mettre en place une première prise de connaissance, mais aussi un changement d’attitude et de paradigme pour apprendre à « faire ensemble ». Les pratiques visent pour les autorités publiques à clairement inscrire la participation et la co-création avec des citoyens dans une stratégie claire, voire à établir une unité de participation ou à intégrer clairement le rôle des citoyens dans l’organigramme administratif. Cela s’accompagne aussi de changements de fonctionnements internes (New Ways of Working), ainsi que de stimulation de l’innovation au sein même des fonctionnaires. Ce sont aussi les premiers pas pour aller les uns vers les autres : en organisant des rencontres entre citoyens et responsables politiques et administratifs.
Enfin, c’est à travers le développement d’un écosystème que la culture de la participation se développe : en travaillant avec diverses associations, en s’ancrant dans des réseaux plus larges, en favorisant les espaces de co-working ou co-associating, en organisant des universités urbaines et citoyennes et en partant à la rencontre des projets des uns et des autres.
LANCEMENT
Une fois que les premiers jalons de confiance et connaissance sont installés, la collaboration peut se formaliser à travers des projets ou initiatives concrets. Cela nécessite parfois une signature, par exemple, pour un engagement entre l’autorité publique et les citoyens (sous forme de charte) ou bien pour assurer le suivi du projet en passant d’une majorité à une autre (sous forme de convention), mais pas nécessairement. Il s’agit avant tout de « faire ensemble ».
La collaboration peut s’établir lorsque des processus sont mis en place tant au sein de l’autorité publique que des initiatives citoyennes. Les un.e.s travaillent étroitement avec des acteurs de terrain, déléguer certains de leurs tâches à des acteurs de terrain, mettre en place des postes avec une grande partie du temps sur le terrain, ou voire détacher certains de leurs employé.e.s. En interne, ils cherchent des synergies avec d’autres programmes d’activités (comme les Agendas 21) et favorisent la transversalité ; Tandis que les autres, les citoyens définiront une gouvernance claire, parfois avec la nécessité de se structurer en asbl, pour bénéficier de certaines formes de collaboration.
PENDANT
Une fois que la collaboration est mise en place, des projets peuvent être menés à bien, et des réajustements peuvent avoir lieu. Des apprentissages apparaissent. La collaboration telle qu’établie et vécu au départ évolue au gré du contexte.
Les autorités publiques centralisent la coordination pour faciliter l’interaction avec les citoyens et la rendre plus efficace.
Les citoyens organisent des réunions régulières pour se tenir au courant et agir en collectif. Ils.elles font évoluer leurs modalités de fonctionnement, par exemple en ce qui concerne la gouvernance ou la participation financière.
Des stratégies et politiques sont mises en place pour co-créer des politiques locales, de stratégies locales, des critères de budget participatif ainsi que son évaluation. Des tâches de planification urbaine sont déléguées à des citoyens et l’expérimentation a notamment lieu à l’échelle d’un (nouveau) quartier. En parallèle, l’expertise des citoyens est reconnue, voire monnayée.
La collaboration prend aussi la forme d’un accompagnement de l’autorité publique pour les initiatives citoyennes avec expertise, méthodologie, dans le montage de projets ainsi que de leur mise en œuvre. L’accompagnement peut aussi être proposé par des pairs qui ont reçu une formation.
L’ENTRETIEN
La collaboration évolue au fur et à mesure du temps. Elle est dépendante des personnes la composant, mais aussi du contexte économique, social, culturel, environnementale, … Elle s’adapte et s’ajuste. Sur le long terme elle peut rester dans un format similaire. Elle peut aussi grandir ou rétrécir (en ambition, types de projets, acteurs). Certaines activités de citoyens peuvent devenir salariées. Elle peut aussi changer complètement : se scinder en de nouvelles dynamiques ou fusionner avec d’autres. Elle peut enfin se transformer en changeant d’activité ou se transposer et se répliquer ailleurs.
Pour soutenir cette évolution, des plateformes en ligne sont mises place pour stimuler l’échange entre citoyens et autorités publiques. L’autorité publique organise aussi l’entremise entre parties prenantes, tout en reconnaissant la contribution citoyenne pour le bon fonctionnement de la ville. Cette reconnaissance peut être individuelle tout autant que collective à travers expositions ou journaux. L’autorité publique soutien aussi l’entretien de la collaboration avec un soutien diffus aux projets après leurs fins.
Dimension 2 : Les conditions de la collaboration
Afin d’évoluer dans un projet de collaboration commun, de nombreuses conditions peuvent agir à diverses étapes de la vie de la collaboration. Comme dans un couple dans lequel, par exemple, chacun des membres doit être bien en lui-même avant d’être bien avec l’autre, la collaboration nécessite que chaque acteur.rice fasse un travail interne avant de pouvoir travailler efficacement ensemble. Ce travail a lieu en amont, avant de mettre en place une collaboration, mais aussi à au lancement et pendant, par exemple, afin que les services adéquates d’une autorité publique travaillent de manière transversale pour répondre au mieux aux besoins des citoyens avec lesquels ils collaborent.
7 conditions se dégagent pour une bonne collaboration entre autorités publiques et initiatives citoyennes :
Travailler sur soi: les acteurs de la collaboration apprennent à se consolider, à être bien en eux-mêmes avant d’être bien avec les autres, et adoptent une transition intérieure (par ex. stimuler l’innovation à tous les niveaux, établir des gouvernances et organigrammes clairs, favoriser la transversalité, identifier des financements qui permettent une forme d’autonomie, instaurer la participation, s’inscrire dans une stratégie claire)
Mieux se connaître : les acteurs de la collaboration apprennent à se connaître et se faire confiance, directement ou avec des médiateurs (par ex. aller à la rencontre des uns et des autres, organiser des rencontres entre les citoyens et les responsables politiques, maintenir une plateforme en ligne d’échange entre citoyens et autorités publiques, établir des agents de quartier, organiser l’entremise entre parties prenantes, reconnaître la contribution citoyenne, utiliser les réseaux sociaux pour mobiliser).
Collecter et rassembler des ressources : les acteurs de la collaboration identifient les ressources qu’ils possèdent et le mettent en commun (par ex. établir un budget participatif, louer des terrains, locaux et du matériel pour des activités ponctuelles ou récurrentes, proposer des prêts ou des dons)
S’engager formellement: les acteurs de la collaboration formalisent leur collaboration sous forme écrite ou orale (par ex. structurer juridiquement, établir des règlements spécifiques pour l’utilisation des communs, signer une charte d’engagement entre l’autorité publique et les citoyens, signer une convention pour assurer le suivi du projet, utiliser des outils contractuels « inhabituels »)
Co-construire les projets: les acteurs de la collaboration se projettent dans des projets communs qu’ils souhaiteraient mettre en place sur leur territoire (par ex. co-construire les critères du Budget Participatif ou une stratégie locale de résilience, co-élaborer les politiques locales, déléguer des tâches de planification urbaine à des citoyens, établir l’expérimentation à l’échelle d’un (nouveau) quartier, développer une expertise reconnue (et monnayable)
Mener des projets: les acteurs de la collaboration mettent en œuvre des projets concrets qu’ils réalisent ensemble sur leur territoire (par ex. accompagner le montage de projets et des projets pour la méthodologie et l’administratif, travailler avec une structure intermédiaire permettant un relais avec des citoyens, centraliser l’accompagnement, former des pairs pour accompagner les citoyens au quotidien, mutualiser la quête de financements indépendants)
Vie sociale, entourage, communauté, contexte: les acteurs de la collaboration évoluent dans une communauté et un entourage qui les nourrissent quotidiennement (par ex. créer un écosystème, créer des moments de rencontres entre acteurs de terrain, ancrer l’initiative dans un réseau plus large, créer des synergies avec associations et réseaux thématiques ou de quartier, mettre en place un espace de co-working pour repenser la ville ou une structure favorisant le développement d’un écosystème, organiser une exposition itinérante exemplifiant des projets existants, participer à une université urbaine et citoyenne, ouvrir le projet sur le quartier, publier un journal sur les initiatives locales, organiser des visites thématiques d’initiatives)
Discover how cities have taken on the challenge to push for more organic, local and sustainable food systems.
URBACT cities and networks have been very active in the development of innovative approaches and solutions when it comes to public procurement and gender-sensitive responses. Their practical insights and experience are told in the different modules of the Strategic Public Procurement Online Course. Some municipalities have also taken advantage of it to re-think the ways we produce, distribute and consume food. Read on to see how cities are taking matters into their own hands.
Food procurement relates to the provisioning of food, via catering services (with or without supply), canteens, and vending machines. It targets the public sector and sectors managed by public authorities: school and childcare centres, health and welfare centres (including hospitals), senior or retirement homes, and public administrations.
This article follows an in-depth talk we had in December with the ASToN cities sharing lessons from the URBACT programme. URBACT has funded 162 EU networks and over 1000 cities since 2002 and inspired the creation of the ASToN network.
This article shares case studies and key takeaways from the URBACT programme about how cities should approach sustainability of their projects, and begin planning life after the ASToN funding.
Bringing EU and local policies closer to each other.
URBACT has been a strong supporter of local and sustainable food production in cities. The programme backed-up the 2021 Glasgow Food Declaration, reinforcing the COP26 commitments of local authorities. This is merely an example of how URBACT cities are using international and European frameworks as enablers for local actions, to promote sustainable food systems.
At the same time, legislative frameworks can also be perceived as barriers by city-practitioners. European towns and cities need to learn to navigate initiatives such as the Farm to Fork Strategy, not to mention complex regulations related to public procurement. So how can they make the most of these rules and commitments, ensuring a positive transition towards more sustainable food systems? This was the issue explored by city representatives and experts at the recent 2022 URBACT City Festival session ‘Let’s talk about food: bringing EU and local policies closer to each other’. Read on for their answers…
Each year, EU households throw away millions of tonnes of food. What can cities do to support the fight against food waste?
Approximately 20% of all food produced in the EU is wasted, leading to annual emissions of 186 million CO2, writes Antonio Zafra, Lead Expert of the URBACT FOOD CORRIDORS network, in a recent article, drawing on figures from the European Environment Agency. So, with more than 50% of that food waste coming from households– on average, 47 million tonnes a year – what actions can local authorities take to help us limit and prevent this waste? And how is URBACT supporting them? URBACT Programme Expert Marcelline Bonneau investigates…
After the two months of July and August 2021, the temporary outdoor Swimming pool Flow, coordinated by POOL IS COOL at Pont Pierre Marchant / Digue du Canal, in Anderlecht, Belgium, has come to an end. “We just want it to happen again next year”, said Nabil A., neighbour and visitor of the site. Both adults and children loved it. Inhabitants from the neighbourhood and beyond enjoyed it enthusiastically. What has this Flow been about then?
Here are some crossed reflexions and suggestions for the next editions, combining analytical insights from Marcelline Bonneau with those of a local resident, Nabil A.
Towns and cities must boost local actions to reduce carbon emissions and combat climate change. Three URBACT cities show how…
COP26, the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference,
is on its way. In November, governments from around the world will
gather in Glasgow (UK) to reaffirm their commitment to tackling climate
change. Meanwhile, without waiting for the next COP, many URBACT cities
have already been developing their own strategies, activities, and
partnerships to move towards greater integration and transversality in
their local climate policies.
Cities are the level at which most emissions are recorded. The world’s cities consume 60–80% of natural resources(link is external), producing 50% of global waste and 75% of greenhouse gas emissions. And this is set to increase:75% of EU citizens(link is external) live in urban areas; 66% of the world’s(link is external) population is expected to live in cities by 2050; and cities’ global carbon footprint is predicted to triple by 2030. As a result, an estimated 93% of cities face threats such as floods, storms and heatwaves, and although many are taking action to improve resilience, up to 400 million people(link is external) could be living in cities with no plan to tackle climate by 2030.
La région de Bruxelles-Capitale, Belgique, est entrée dans la matière de l’alimentation durable à travers le gaspillage alimentaire. En utilisant des outils traditionnels des politiques publiques (Plan de réduction régional des déchets, financement européen INTERREG, …) elle a développé une série d’outils visant à soutenir la réduction du gaspillage alimentaire auprès des ménages. Ces approches se sont notamment basées sur des cadres analytiques percevant le comportement comme résultant d’une approche linéaire, elle-même découlant d’une intention et d’une volonté d’agir directe. Or, ces approches ont montré leurs limites, et ce, malgré l’existence d’une série d’outils et conseils pour réduire le gaspillage alimentaire. A travers un projet financé par Bruxelles environnement pour mettre en place un réseau de Maîtres Frigo (des citoyens formés d’une part aux « trucs et astuces » pour lutter contre le gaspillage alimentaire et d’autre part au relais de cette information vers leurs pairs) nous avons testé une approche par la théorie des pratiques, en cherchant à développer une formation innovante tant par son contenu que par sa forme.
Dans ce cadre,
nous avions développé des outils d’animation d’événements et ateliers utiles
pour des atelier anti-gaspi mais aussi pour tout type d’événement ou atelier,
associatif ou semi-professionnel.
Il s’agit d’un « tableau de bord » pour mener votre projet, soutenu par :
2021 is a ‘food year’ for URBACT: promoting food democracy and food sovereignty at the initiative of URBACT good practice city Mouans-Sartoux (FR) and the URBACT Transfer Network BioCanteens that it has led (with partner cities in Belgium, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Romania).
URBACT
will be supporting regular activities of networks around food topics
and also creating a specific web page of the URBACT Knowledge Hub,
dedicated to urban sustainable food systems – all with the aim to support cities in their transitions to more sustainable food systems!
These efforts also aim to build energy and commitment towards the Glasgow Food and Climate Declaration – drafted by a coalition of subnational governments, UN agencies and NGOs in consultation with city and regional governments – which will be officially launched at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in November 2021. We will be encouraging as many cities as possible to sign the declaration!
So, we have quite a busy year ahead that we describe in more details here…
This Zoom-In presents an infographic of the analysis contained in the article Food-related activities as a leverage against urban poverty. It is based on interviews with the UIA TAST’in FIVES project partners and seeks to present in a concise and communicative ways the learnings of the TAST’in FIVES project on the impact the use of food as a concept and a tool has benefitted on the one hand the beneficiaries of the activities, on the other, the organisers of these activities.
Some of the
most prominent impacts presented in this graphic are detailed here, whereas
further details can be found in the above-mentionned article.
I have been the Manager of the REGIO Communities of Practitioners for 4 years now. 4 years during which we have experimented on various ways to bring together practitioners of ERDF and Cohesion Funds, in the best possible ways for them to learn and exchange amongst each other.
Discover how URBACT cities are using sustainable food and urban agriculture to address an array of local challenges.
In this article, URBACT Programme Expert Marcelline Bonneau shines a light on several URBACT partner cities making the transition towards more sustainable local food ecosystems – and some of the practices they have developed in the process. She concludes with a reminder of the importance of integrated food policies at city level.
A multitude of local food solutions in URBACT cities
The
diverse topics covered by these URBACT cities reflect the complexity of
our food systems and the interlinkages between sectors and policy
priorities, as presented in the overview below.
The UIATAST’in FIVES project, taking place in the Fives
neighbourhood of Lille, France, has aimed at using the concept of food (from
growing, picking up, preparing, cooking, and eating) to propose a systemic model to fight against urban poverty, including
social and economic inclusion, health, education, and empowerment.
Indeed, with a population of 20,000 inhabitants, 50% below 30 and 22%
unemployed, 45% of the households of Fives live below the poverty threshold[1].
More than 1,000 families receive food parcels from the Secours Populaire
Français. The area suffers from poverty, with under and malnutrition, as well
related health issues (obesity, cholesterol, diabetes….).
Yet, TAST’in FIVES has not sought to address those directly and to carry out a top-down health-focused project convening moralising tips for everyday life: it has intended to provide a convivial place and useful activities where each participant could find a direct benefit from herself or himself. While indirectly addressing poverty issues, it sought to have a wider impact on residents’ lives, using food-related activities to create commensality, share moments, empower, enable socialisation, develop skills, and support access to the job market.
People of varied backgrounds and from all over the world met at the UrbanA Community Conversation on 30th June 2020 to address the question of food poverty and solidarity. UrbanA Fellow Marcelline Bonneau, an expert in both the URBACT programme and the Urban Innovation Actions initiative, led the conversation. She began by sharing her experience and understanding of how European municipalities have approached food poverty during the COVID19 crisis. She focused on three questions:
How have cities supported those in need of food during the crisis?
How have cities reorganized traditional food aid systems, such as funded meals in canteens or regular food distributions?
Cities have shown how agile they can be in addressing increased needs of their local population in terms of access to (healthy) food. As the economic crisis unfolds and hits the most vulnerable first, it is important to think about what cities can do to sustain and transfer such good practices and what support they need at national and European level.
“The idea behind all initiatives is not to leave anybody behind during the Covid-19 crisis.” Josep Monras i Galindo, Mayor, Mollet de Vallès (Spain)
Examples of temporary experimentations in cities worldwide have boomed in the last decade: whether they take the form of disruptive usage of public space for artistic purposes or to look at urban space differently, whether they become the trendiest spot to go out or do shopping, whether they incubate the city of tomorrow, whether they are led by citizens, private companies, universities, public authorities or all of these together, they all play a crucial role in today’s cities .
Digitalisation is omnipresent in today’s social and urban life and URBACT cities are seizing the opportunity.
Alison Partridge, Lead Expert of the TechRevolution transfer network, has been an advocate for cities to ‘adapt or die’ for many years: “cities
of all sizes need to better understand the opportunities offered by
digital and tech and jump on them to grow higher value jobs and
start-ups for local people”. Indeed, at all levels of society and
of governance, services and products are going digital: online
availability, digital tools for access, compiling and using data to
proceed to meta-analysis.
The transition to a society based on
“virtual”, intangible, vectors, using computing techniques and
algorithms – a digital transition – is on the up in European cities,
meaning more intrusions in our daily lives.
The territory of Drome Valley/Val de Drôme, from the Alpes to Rhone’s valley, close to Valence and Montélimart, covers 2 200 sq. m. for 54,000 inhabitants and has long been known as a nest for innovative ways of living. Since the 60s, together with an exponential arrival of neorurals in the last decades, it has seen the emergence of ecological communities such as at Les Amanins, as well as laboratories for new forms of citizens-led democracy, such as in Saillans. Its geography, climate, economy, history at the crossroads of migrations and host to the first French Water Development and Management Scheme (Schéma d’Aménagement et de Gestion des Eaux – SAGE) is not without influence in this process (the report of LPTransition on these questions is particularly enlightening). In particular, alternatives have been prominent in the food sector, and this under the responsibility and leaderships of different groups of stakeholders, some of which are presented here.
How are cities putting sustainable urban development into practice?
Here are 5 golden rules from URBACT’s City Lab.
The second URBACT City Lab took place in Brussels (BE) on 2nd and 3rd July 2019: “How are cities putting sustainable urban development into practice?” was the core question that drove us through general and specific considerations in the fields of Air Quality and Mobility, Energy Transition and Climate Adaptation and Sustainable Food Systems. When seeking to feed into the work of the updated Leipzig Charter, it appeared that on the one hand sustainability is still a complex paradigm to get into and embed for a city, but on the other, cities are leading the way in what can be done.
Here are 5 golden rules for cities to become sustainable.
Who hasn’t tried to get rid of old habits, whether in relation to the way we eat, sleep, interact with each other, work, travel, or do sports? Who hasn’t ever faced the difficulty of moving away from anchored routines to newly adopted ones? Who has ever struggled to unravel the complexity of the psychological but also social, technological and infrastructure-related mechanisms that make it difficult to transition?
Dans quelle mesure les initiatives citoyennes ont un impact sur la résilience locale? De quelles initiatives parlons-nous, de quelle résilience s’agit-il, à quel impact nous intéressons-nous ?
1. LES INITIATIVES CITOYENNES
Cette analyse se base sur deux objets d’étude principaux – les Quartiers Durables Citoyens (QDC)en les intégrant dans plus largement dans une étude des « initiatives citoyennes », dont voici quelques ébauches de définitions empruntées à des recherches précédentes. Continue reading →
Getting to know Gdansk and its inhabitans and vice-versa. Source: Maciej Moskwa/TESTIGO.pl
In these times of democratic crisis, Social Innovation as a baseline paradigm for city governance is more than even needed. Its power and potential for change is strong as reminds us the recent murder of the Mayor of Gdansk, Pawel Adamowicz.
The question which appears then relates to theways we can concretely implement and operationalise social innovation: as a paradigm and as individual and collective projects.
En quoi les dynamiques locales contribuent-elles à la résilience de la ville (y compris en ce qui concerne leur impact environnemental) ?
Lorsque l’on s’intéresse à l’impact des dynamiques locales sur la résilience de ces entités, il est important de distinguer deux éléments : premièrement, la résilience est un concept qui s’applique à l’analyse des systèmes. La ville doit donc être comprise comme un système, un écosystème. Un tel écosystème des villes est composé de relations flux d’énergie, eaux et matières (Ecole de Chicago) mais aussi de toute une écologie urbaine, composée d’interactions urbanistiques, sociales, économiques, culturelles, … Ce sont ces écosystème que les perturbations des villes affectent.
It has been years since I have been concerned with the issue of our consumption behaviour and practices. How can we make ourselves better consumer in order to enhance the resilience of our ecosystem? How (and who) can we provide support to our peers to this process?
You appear to be enthusiastic, positive, very creative and always looking upfront/forward and, not letting down. How is it to be an innovative project coordinator?
Who can still remember vacant spaces and buildings, which someday were spaces free of rules, a ground for fertile experimentation, individual empowerment and creativity development? We could grow and empower ourselves as we can remember from the 50s’ film “Le chantier des gosses (link is external)”, where children were spending their leisure time in an yet-to-be-built abandoned lot in the very centre of the city of Brussels, and where the nephew of Tati’s “My Uncle” was eating doughnuts and whistling at pedestrians so that they would bump into a lamppost.
Vacant (abandoned places, urban wastelands, brownfields, derelict lands, degraded and deteriorated lands or buildings) can still foster creativity and experimentation for the city, benefitting from a Temporary Use. And many cities have experimented with them over the past few decades, putting together a source of inspiration for innovation and change and thus providing a new driver and incubator for urban development.
The URBACT City Festival in Lisbon, Portugal, on 12-14 September 2018, was the third URBACT City Festival that had taken place and that I had attended. Back in 2015, the first City Festival in Riga promoted the launch for the new URBACT III Action Planning Networks and we facilitated a workshop on our capitalization work on Social Innovation in cities, together with François Jégou. The second City Festival, in 2017 in Tallinn, promoted the 97 labelled Good Practices and I facilitated two workshops including one citizens’ and stakeholders’ participation for environmental projects. This years’ festival was going back to the Riga one by celebrating the URBACT III APNs, where François Jégou and I diffused the outcomes of the REFILL network on Temporary Use.
URBACT is good at capitalising: at extracting what takes place in cities in order to make it visible to other but also at gratifying those making a positive change, and acting as drivers, at home and beyond, for a more sustainable society. My fanaticism for URBACT is not new.
The URBACT City Festival in Lisbon, Portugal, on 12-14 September 2018, is the third URBACT City Festival that has taken place and that I have attended. Back in 2015, the first City Festival in Riga promoted the launch for the new URBACT III Action Planning Networks and together with François Jégou, we facilitated a workshop on our capitalization work on Social Innovation in cities. The second City Festival, in 2017 in Tallinn, promoted the 97 labelled Good Practices and I facilitated two workshops including one citizens’ and stakeholders’ participation for environmental projects. This years’ festival is going back to the Riga one by celebrating the URBACT III APNs, where François Jégou and I will diffuse the outcomes of the REFILL network on Temporary Use.
URBACT is good at capitalising: at extracting what takes place in cities in order to make it visible to other but also at gratifying those making a positive change, and acting as drivers, at home and beyond, for a more sustainable society. My fanaticism for URBACT is not new. Each time URBACT surpasses itself and goes in unexpected directions. The first City festival was highly intense, diverse and rich, with a high focus on creativity. The second one was focusing on the experiences of the good practices – and their concrete work, networking, and learning from each other. This year, it is expected to be once again full of energy and key takeaways, while focusing on what we have achieved in the APN but also in the past 15 years of URBACT. How is going to feel like? Who are we going to meet and get inspired from? Who and what will surprise us? What will we take home? I must say, a few days before the opening cocktail, I am both excited and curious: what has URBACT imagined this time, in order to make change happen in our cities, throughout concrete actions, a network of like-minded practitioners and experts, serious and intense work, under the misleadingly relaxing name of “CITY FESTIVAL”?
This blogpost will be updated with key insights after the City Festival will have taken place.
Interview with LionelLarqué,General Delegate of ALLISS, on 29 August 2018 in Paris, 9th.
I met Lionel Larqué in March 2018 when the Scientific Committee of the VILCO – a project which dealt with cooperation between public authorities and citizens in the context of a research and experimentation project funded by the Co-Create programme of Innoviris – which I contributed. His interventions prompted me to meet again to discuss his experience of collaboration between research and civil society and vice versa. Here are some notes of this discussion.
A trained oceanograph, Lionel Larqué has a PhD in physics and political science, and is an activist and actor of popular education since the 1980s. He was successively : Federal Commissioner for Cultural affairs at the national Léo Lagrange Federation, Deputy Director of the French Association of Small Hustlers (2003 -2012), founder and leader of the Global Forum sciences and democracy (2007-2013), founder of the European Network YPSSI and coordinator of “Youth, Science, Europe During the French presidency of the European Union (2008), initiator and executive secretary of the Alliance Sciences Société ( since 2012), co-director of the book “Science, it looks us” (2013).
The case of Integrated Actions Plans of the URBACT MAPs network, output from the Transnational Meeting of 12-13 December 2017 in Szombathely, Hungary.
WHERE DID WE START FROM?
The cities of the MAPs network who took part in the meeting in Szombathely were quite stressed about the design of the governance model to ensure an adequate implementation of their Integrated Action Plans (IAP)[1]. How can we ensure that everybody will take part in it? How can we ensure that responsibilities are well allocated? The City administration should let go! (vs. the City administration should be in strong control of the process)We are engaging the ULG members but they do not want to co-create, merely to react on proposals! We want to be sure that our governance model is relevant and effective!
Le projet VILCO s’intéresse aux manières d’améliorer la collaboration entre pouvoirs locaux et collectifs citoyens pour augmenter la résilience des dynamiques locales en faveur de l’environnement. Il est financé pendant trois ans par l’Institut Bruxellois pour la Recherche et l’Innovation, Innoviris[1], dans le cadre de l’action « Co-create » qui depuis 2015 finance des projets de recherche appliquée ou de développement expérimental. L’objectif de « Co-create » est de « soutenir l’innovation via des processus de co-création » (Innoviris 2014)(p.2). Au fur et à mesure des années, Innoviris a changé son approche sur l’apport de la recherche académique dans les projets. En 2015, l’accent était porté sur le concept de « co-création » et la recherche associée aux modalités des Livings Labs : « Cela signifie que la plateforme expérimentale ne doit pas uniquement être un espace/terrain pour réaliser l’étude mais bien un espace de recherche participative en co-création. » (Innoviris 2014)(p.8). En 2016, il inscrivait la recherche participative dans la dimension de « Recherche et Innovation Responsable (RRI) » (Innoviris 2015) (p. 3). En 2017, il se référait à la « Recherche Action Participative » (RAP) (Innoviris 2016) (p.3).
Bien que les premiers projets, Co-create 2015, aient tous été portés par des centres de recherche (académique ou non), des projets du Co-create 2016, dont le projet VILCO, sont portés par des acteurs de terrain.
… yet, we need to go beyond labelling: the wider the definition of social innovation the wider we can experiment”, stated by Fabio Sgaragli during the BoostInno network’s Summit in Paris on the 6-7-8 November 2017. Three days of intense visits and work showed a wide range of concrete projects of what social innovation is and can be. Fair enough, the network started by going through dozens of definitions before identifying that the concrete projects are more than a definition. As Piotr Wolkowinski, Lead Expert of the project, stated “what is important is the story telling. But the story needs to be interesting”. And indeed, over these three days, we went through very varied socially innovative projects from Paris and other cities of the network rich in learning and exemplification.
La Louve FoodCoop in Paris
“Classical economy does not bring us the answers to what we need” (Antoinette Guhl, Deputy Mayor of Paris). Such answers are found in responsible consumption (La Louve food cooperative) or reduction of food waste (Le Chaînon Manquant collecting food surplus from events), circular economy projects (the Tale Me Lab proposing a service of children’s and pregnant women’s clothes renting) also combining it with local anchor in the neighbourhood (La petite Rockette with a ressourcerie, café and local initiatives), or increased carbon-free mobility with empowerment (Solicycle for learning to self-repair bicycles).
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.
Two years ago, I launched a citizen initiative in a park close to where I live. My motivations were to act as a responsible and engaged citizen – as I had been working on this field for quite some time – and to experiment moving from a passive attitude to an active one: the park seemed to be abandoned from the City Council, it looked really dodgy and I became scared of going there to throw away my compost. After having read the book on the Incredible edible, I thought to myself that I could maybe become an actor of change. That was the beginning of a personal transformation, learning about what makes citizen activism possible and pushing city administrations to evolve.
La collaboration entre autorités publiques et initiatives citoyennes ne fonctionne pas bien. Pourtant, elle peut s’améliorer. D’entrée de jeu, le ton de l’atelier « gouvernance » organisé par l’équipe du projet VILCO dans cadre des Rencontres des initiatives citoyennes durables à Bruxelles du 13 mai 2017 au BEL est donné.
Pensez-vous que cette collaboration puisse s’améliorer?
Pensez-vous que la collaboration entre acteurs publics et initiatives citoyennes fonctionne bien?
C’est à travers des dynamiques locales que les autorités publiques, régionales et communales, et les initiatives citoyennes établissent des modalités de coopération qui cherchent à augmenter la résilience de la ville. Malgré le score sévère du premier baromètre, les participants présents ont d’abord présenté de nombreux exemples de modalités de collaboration qui fonctionnent.
This was the topic of the first Forum Camping organised by Yes We Camp , as a deep immersion at les Grands Voisins in Paris from 14th to 15th June 2017, day and night. Project holders, makers, artists, researchers, experts, public institutions from all around France and beyond exchanged on what makes a space move from being “public” to being “common”.
How come some spaces bring about a sense of legitimacy, welcoming feeling and invitation? Which systems can combining freedom and trust, to provide space where we are allowed to test, expand and open ourselves to others? What are the ingredients enabling to learn from one another and reduce the boundaries between social groups? These were some of the questions that guided our exchanges during those two days.
European, regional and local public administrations are increasingly facing budget cuts. Yet, these concern mostly their internal budgets and affect in particular their human resources: the pool of employees decreases whereas the amount of work remains the same or increases. This is particularly the case with the rise of citizens’ initiatives, transition processes and movements, and new (co-creation and participatory) governance methods, be they top-down – inscribed in strategies – or bottom-up – led by spontaneous grassroots movements. At the same time, the financial package available for contracting increases: it is not so much for questions of legitimacy or transparency that authorities contract more and more some tasks of public service delivery. Rather, it is due to the fact that certain tasks cannot be carried out internally: either because of a lack of internal capacity or the fact that these (new) tasks are not inscribed (yet) in new strategies and cannot be managed by someone from the administration. What are some of the consequences of contracting service providers for such projects?
In 2014, a group of citizens of Saillans – 1 200 inhabitants in Drôme, France – concerned about acting directly for their city, and in the light of increased well-being, presented themselves, apolitically, for the mayorship of the city. They won the elections and paved the way for a new type of city governance. They particularly sought to address two main caveats in the traditional way city councils and city governance in general work: on the one hand the Mayor and the deputy mayors’ appropriation of all the city power; on the other, the low participants of inhabitants, merely asked to express themselves through elections once every 6 years.
The city governance focuses on three main pillars:
En réponse aux pressions économiques, sociales et environnementales du système alimentaire actuel, de nouvelles formes d’achat en vente directe de produits alimentaires auprès du producteur émergent depuis les 15 dernières années. Ces systèmes en circuit court proposent un rapprochement de la consommation alimentaire vers la production, tout recréant un lien personnel, direct et de confiance, entre le consommateur et le producteur (Herault-Fournier, Merle, Prigent-Simonin 2012). Ces alternatives prônent une production plus respectueuse de l’environnement, du producteur, dans un souci de développement de l’économie locale, et d’un rapport à taille humaine (Maréchal 2008). Elles proposent de diversifier les points de vente et d’achats de produits alimentaires, et par là-même les choix de produits. Les paniers bio sont un de ces systèmes qui permet à des clients de bénéficier de produits, bio et de saison, provenant directement d’un producteur, de proximité, ou avec un minimum d’intermédiaires. L’origine des produits y est clairement identifiée et transparente et différentes formules d’abonnement et de choix de paniers sont disponibles (Bioguide 2013).
Pam Warhurst and Joanna Dobson’s book on the Incredible Edible was my holiday book last summer. The wealth and details accounting for stages, encountered difficulties and envisaged solutions soon appeared to be a crucial case to analyse and try and understand the dynamics behind citizens’ movements which seek to improve the world.
Throughout the world, the Incredible Edible movement represents groups of citizens planting in towns and in walking areas, giving free access to herbs and plants to all. These are sometimes rich and beautiful gardens, inviting walker to help themselves, sometimes they seems abandoned. Some people complain about the fact that planting next to the road or in wheels is unpretty and worst for health than products from (conventional) agriculture. All in all, it launches debate and acts for (re) action.
I love URBACT. Don’t get me wrong. I know URBACT is not perfect, and I am not idealising it. But I love it. Because as an EU programme, it corresponds to me to a carebears’ world I had long be longing for.
Just look at some TV news on any Central or Eastern European-related event broadcasted in Western Europe during the summer (whether it relates to financial issues, to market or stock of a given product, to youth or elderly people…) : you will always see people in padded coats, wearing fur hats and clapping their hands (carefully wrapped in thick woolen gloves), breathing white frozen air … As if these images extracted from the news’ stock were reflecting the piping hot and sunny reality of these countries in summer….
What about social innovation developments in those countries? Can we actually observe that there are indeed some striking differences between East and West or do we have more similarities than differences? Aren’t we biased by what already seems a long distance, and related gap, between the different parts of Europe?
“Upscaling social innovation” is the main concern of all those dealing with the need to operate a transition towards a more sustainable society. How do we ensure that social innovations are maintained and do not fade in time? How can they be supported in their expansion? Should they grow? Should they be replicated? How can new initiatives emerge while learning from the others, but without reinventing the wheel?
I recently led a workshop on “Sustainable city” at SPF Justice (the Federal Ministry of Justice in Belgium) as part of its “Day of Sustainable Development”. This workshop was a mixture of a lecture on the concepts and concrete examples relate to “sustainable city”; interaction and discussion; as well as a role game on “what sustainable city are you”.
The participants came up with their own understanding of this concept, and “sustainable city” to them in particular meant:
On the 8 July, we were at the out centered French Business School ESSEC talking about Social innovation and civic engagement. More precisely, the aim of the Mid-Term Conference of the FP7-funded project ITSSOIN , which we attended, was to present intermediary results on the way it was seeking to investigating the impact of the Third Sector and civic engagement on society (going beyond their economic benefits or the natural virtue of caring for others).
Some cities are developing new approaches to ensure that resources are available to experiment with new solutions to their problems. They are using their buying power to orientate, speed up, amplify and sometimes systematise the development of these social innovations. The experiments show that social innovation is not only for wealthy communities, which can free up the necessary time, financial resources, human resources and interest, but is accessible to all cities that want to take risks and experiment.
The first ever URBACT City Festival in Riga is over! These have been three “professionally, emotionally and physically intense” days as one of the participants reported during the final session, called reflexively “Urban Futures”.
Launch of the first dementia-inclusive shopping centre in Ireland, Mahon Point, 14 November 2023
During the farewell speeches given to Cllr Kieran McCarthy at the Annual General Meeting of 21 June 2024, many councillors praised the artistic vibe of the outgoing Lord Mayor. He was, indeed, praised, in the general public, as the “singing Lord Mayor”. While being a singing aficionado for 20 years, having played in multiple plays and concerts, and benefitting from weekly coaching, he continued his passion while making the most of it during his mayoralty.
The best demonstration of the power of singing for Kieran is through the favourite moment of his mayoralty: when invited to launch the first dementia-inclusive shopping centre in Ireland, he sung from a single voice with people suffering from dementia. During that short moment, all the patience got reunited, in time and space, beyond illness, to be together.
