Networks and cities' news

Falling in love with downtown: the URBACT Cities@Heart network is here!

As a part of the URBACT IV European Programme, ten European urban areas come together to form Cities@Heart, a network dedicated to sharing best practices and innovations for improving city centre management.

Female entrepreneurship - a way to development in rural areas

Within the framework of its participation in the FEMACT-Cities project, the County Administrative Board of Skåne primarily works on how the proportion of female entrepreneurs can be increased and how the amount of venture capital that goes to female entrepreneurs can be higher.

How “Dissonant” Cultural Heritages can foster Democracy in European cities.

The history of Europe has generated a heritage that sometimes is controversial and complex due to belonging to totalitarian regimes or contentious borders. This heritage has been called “Dissonant”, addressing the problematic link between the physical elements like architecture, neighbourhoods, monuments, and urban public spaces, and the historical and political values those elements represent.

ARCHETHICS Network opens a deep reflection on the Dissonant Heritage present in many European cities: it allows us to experience the complex and diverse history of Europe (focusing in particular on the Twentieth Century) and, through a critical examination of the past, come into the present to promote democratic and solidarity values.

Remote-IT: exploring remote work preparedness of cities

EcoCore - Small Cities with Big Ambitions for their Green Transition

The climate time bomb is ticking. This is the most important global systemic threat to the worldwide economy today. In response, government policies from the local to international level are seeking to reshape industrial development towards more environmentally sound practices right across the value chain. This is commonly referred to as the green industrial transition.  

This transition or process of change is resulting in a worldwide movement towards more sustainable and eco-friendly industrial practices. The aim is to move away from traditional resource-heavy and polluting industrial processes to cleaner and more sustainable, efficient and smart alternatives. This will also involve a shift in consumer behaviour towards more sustainable products and services.

Green transition policies aim to reshape productive sectors, from energy to agriculture, mobility, manufacturing and construction. According to a recent paper entitled ‘The green transition and its potential territorial discontents’, there will however be winners and losers.  In short, the green transition may well redirect capital investments towards regions and cities where pre-conditions in terms of infrastructure, skills and governance are more favourable. Those who want to capitalise on the opportunities provided by the green transition – those who want to emerge as ‘winners’ -  need to ensure that these preconditions are firmly in place. 

Cognisant of this, the EcoCore network of nine small European cities have opted to unite in proactively shaping their future fate and seizing the opportunities provided by the green transition for their local economies.  

“Vitamin N” for everyone – Transforming cities’ relationship with nature and the rise of nature-based solutions to tackle the ecological crisis

Bestseller author Richard Louv defined nature-deficit disorder in his book (Vitamin N: The Essential Guide to a Nature, 2016 – where “N” is for “nature”) and launched an international movement to get humans’ connection back to nature, especially in urban areas where this connection has been dramatically lost over the last centuries, as it was painfully, but perfectly showcased during the COVID-19 pandemic.