UPSTAND - Urban Partnerships and Strategies for Transforming Attitudes, Norms, and Data for inclusive safety and equality

UPSTAND – Urban Partnerships and Strategies for Transforming Attitudes, Norms, and Data for inclusive safety and equality (Working Title)
 

Project Rationale
Across European cities, public spaces are not experienced as equally safe, accessible and inclusive by all citizens. Women and girls, as well as LGBTIQ+ communities and other vulnerable groups, continue to face disproportionate levels of harassment, intimidation and perceived insecurity. This is not merely the result of isolated incidents, but of persistent social norms and behavioural patterns that normalise boundary-crossing conduct and shape how public space is used. As a consequence, many individuals adapt their behaviour: they avoid certain areas, alter their daily routines, or withdraw from public life altogether. This silent adaptation undermines not only individual freedom, but also equal participation in urban life, social cohesion and democratic engagement.
The Municipality of ’s-Hertogenbosch (NL) proposes a fundamental shift in addressing this challenge. Rather than focusing on the behaviour and resilience of those experiencing insecurity, this project addresses the norms, behaviours and social dynamics that produce unsafe environments. Central to this approach is the recognition that men and boys play a key role in shaping social norms in public space. Engaging them as active agents of change is essential to achieving sustainable transformation. At the same time, the project explicitly avoids simplistic or polarising narratives, adopting a context-sensitive and intersectional approach that reflects the diversity of urban environments.
Urban safety is understood as a social, spatial and systemic phenomenon. Public space is not neutral: it actively influences behaviour, interaction and perception. Likewise, data systems and digital technologies shape how safety is measured, interpreted and governed. Yet, current approaches often treat these dimensions in isolation.
The envisioned URBACT Action Network responds to this gap by proposing an integrated, action-oriented approach, combining social norm transformation, spatial design and urban interventions, data and digital innovation, and governance and institutional embedding. In doing so, the project directly contributes to the priorities of the EU Gender Equality Strategy 2026–2030, which emphasises that preventing gender-based violence requires addressing attitudes and behaviours, engaging men and boys, and leveraging urban planning and digital tools as drivers of change.

Core Objective
The UPSTAND network aims to co-develop, test and implement integrated, place-based approaches that transform social norms, spatial environments and governance systems in order to create inclusive, gender-equal and experienced urban safety. The network will move beyond knowledge exchange and focus on implementation through concrete local actions, ensuring that a substantial share of the project effort is dedicated to real-life experimentation and delivery in partner cities.

Integrated Thematic Framework

Theme 1 – Social Norms & Behaviour Change
 

This theme addresses the root causes of unsafe environments: the social norms and behaviours that enable and normalise inappropriate or harmful conduct in public space. Cities will design and implement interventions that engage men and boys as active bystanders and norm carriers, stimulate peer-to-peer dialogue and behavioural reflection, promote positive role models and social accountability, and develop targeted campaigns in specific contexts such as nightlife areas, neighbourhoods, and schools.
The shift from victim-focused approaches to norm-focused prevention represents a significant innovation and directly responds to European policy priorities that emphasise the importance of addressing attitudes and behaviours in preventing gender-based violence.
 

Theme 2 – Data, Perception & Digital Tools

This theme addresses a critical gap in urban safety policy: the mismatch between measured safety and experienced safety.
Cities will collect and integrate qualitative data on lived experiences, develop participatory mapping tools, create local dashboards combining objective and subjective indicators, and explore innovative digital applications such as Digital Twins or AI-supported analysis.
By developing hybrid knowledge systems, this theme enables more accurate, inclusive and actionable insights, strengthening evidence-based policy making.
 

Theme 3 – Public Space as a Social Environment
 

This theme redefines public space as an active component in shaping behaviour and social interaction.
Cities will conduct safety walks and participatory spatial analyses, identify and redesign locations where insecurity is experienced, and experiment with spatial interventions such as lighting, greenery, visibility and functional mix, not as technical safety measures in themselves, but as tools to stimulate different behaviour, social interaction and positive social norms in public space. Cities will also apply and further refine “safety by design” principles.
Rather than treating spatial measures as purely technical safety solutions, this approach recognises public space as a social environment that actively shapes behaviour, interaction and social norms, thereby influencing how safety is experienced and negotiated in everyday urban life.
 

Theme 4 – Systemic Change & Urban Governance
 

This theme focuses on how cities can structurally embed inclusive safety and social norm awareness into urban governance, policy making, and everyday institutional practice. Cities will develop new forms of cross-sector collaboration, integrate inclusive safety into urban planning and decision-making processes, strengthen institutional responsibility for experienced safety, and build long-term capacity across municipal departments and local partners. The aim is not only to implement temporary interventions, but to create lasting systemic change in how cities design, govern and evaluate public space.

Why This Approach Makes the Difference
 

The added value of the UPSTAND network lies not in the individual themes, but in their systemic integration. Urban safety is typically addressed through fragmented interventions: behavioral campaigns without spatial follow-up, urban design without social engagement, and data systems without lived experience. This project connects these dimensions into a single, coherent framework, enabling cities to move from fragmented and reactive measures to integrated, preventive and systemic approaches. This integrated model is both innovative and highly transferable, allowing cities across Europe to adapt it to their specific contexts.

We are seeking cities from across Europe with diverse profiles and experiences that are interested in working on this topic and jointly fine-tuning the project concept.