Mari-Anne Harstad: Converting a military legacy into an instrument for peace”
Mari-Anne Harstad is justice of the peace in Medway, Great Britain. She is also Lead Partner in REPAIR and passionate about regenerating military sites in urban environments. Here is a portrait of a woman with convictions.
At the age of 31, Mari-Anne Harstad belongs to a new wave of committed young professionals working on URBACT II projects. Her career has been both varied and out of the ordinary: a magistrate, she is now justice of the peace in Kent. She previously worked as a volunteer in Africa, as a manager in business, and in a hospice before then joining the banking sector and, ultimately, working on sustainable urban development in the district of Medway in Great Britain.
With ASCEND, a project conducted under the Interreg IIIC programme, she began to be interested in issues linked to military heritage and gets her first experience managing a network of cities. Building on the work carried out by ASCEND, REPAIR is now looking to create value from the “exceptional potential offered by disused military sites and to revive the process of sustainable urban development in towns”.
For Mari-Anne Harstad, REPAIR is hugely symbolic. “The history of a large portion of this military legacy reflects a divided Europe. In today’s European Union, citizens are able to live together in complete freedom, comparing and understanding their differences,” she stresses. In a Europe largely at peace, many military sites have gradually fallen into disuse.
While this is a positive sign of European peace and stability, the military's retreat from these barracks has sometimes had disastrous effects on local economies and communities. "In an urban environment, life revolved around the barracks, and in some areas the withdrawal of troops caused pockets of unemployment and urban deterioration," Mari-Anne Harstad explains.
“The military legacy of interest to the network comprises a mix of old historic fortifications and modern buildings that have recently fallen into disuse, varying in each of the five partner countries.” Medway (United Kingdom), Rostock (Germany), Kaunas (Lithuania), Karlskrona (Slovenia) and Thessaloniki (Greece) will face the challenge of suggesting ways to socio-economically revitalise these areas in line with the Lisbon-Gothenburg strategy . But, as Mari-Anne Harstad emphasizes, “the focus of this revitalisation must not be centred only on a competitiveness objective, but should also be conducted with a view to promoting sustainable urban development”.