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.
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Bringing (more) sustainability to cities: 5 golden rules
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.
How cities can accompany consumer change practices
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?
Continue readingL’impact des initiatives citoyennes sur la résilience locale
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
Implementing social innovation at city level: learnings from Amsterdam, Gdansk and others
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 the ways we can concretely implement and operationalise social innovation: as a paradigm and as individual and collective projects.
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