On a scale of 1-10, how much did you love the lockdown? Most likely, the responses will cluster around either end of the scale. In this age of extremes, love and hate trump the safe centre. Reactions to the pandemic are no different.

For many of us, the biggest lockdown shift has been to a work and social life largely on line.  If you’re a city official, as well as working from home, this may have been compounded by redeployment to new tasks and uncertainty about what’s ahead. For many, the  ‘New Normal’ will mean organisational disruption and budget cuts.

The implications of this are significant for URBACT – and for transnational cooperation more generally. URBACT provides space and resources for cities to collaborate across Europe. It offers a platform for mutual learning, skills exchange and the co-design of solutions. It also encourages frugal innovation and small-scale implementation. How will this working model look as we emerge from the dark tunnel of the pandemic?

It was great to be with all @URBACT APN in a Zoom call with 90+ participants! We are preparing our engines for Phase 2 #foodcorridors #urbact pic.twitter.com/WcBuvHHnYO

— FOOD CORRIDORS (@FoodCorridors) June 5, 2020

It’s not all bad

Let’s start by focusing on the good stuff. The birds are singing, the air is cleaner and the pace of life is slower. Of course, there is the small matter of the economy, but for now, let’s enjoy the moment. For many, this is the world we wanted: fewer cars, fewer planes, and reduced industry emissions. Except, it’s just not how we planned to get there. This truly is a “be careful what you wish for” moment.

But the reality is that the status quo ante was never a sustainable option. If the key messages from the Paris Agreement were not already enough, the EU Green Deal underlined the tension between what we have to do and the way we were behaving. Even if we can return to our old lives, we have a duty to avoid doing that: a duty to the planet, to our communities and those who come after us.

What does that mean for URBACT’s transnational city networks? In the short term it means rethinking and rescheduling. As far as international travel is concerned, we can pretty much say arrivederci to 2020. For our 46 ongoing city networks, this involves lots of creative thinking around working methods. How can we sustain collaborative momentum without the scheduled physical meetings?

For the programme it has required some tough decisions like the cancellation of the URBACT Summer University (USU) in Dubrovnik. This unique capacity building event, gathering 500 URBACT practitioners from across Europe, provides the methodological foundations and the network cement for our Action Planning Networks.

But this is not the time to dwell on what we have lost. Like all moments of crisis, winners and losers will emerge from the rubble of this experience.  Those who can apply the key lessons most effectively will be the biggest beneficiaries. For URBACT, the prize is to redefine the meaning of transnational cooperation in Europe in a way that’s more consistent with our environmental goals. If the COVID-19 experience teaches us anything, it must be the need to ruthlessly prioritise the planet’s needs over everything else.

The end of transnational cooperation as we know it?

This doesn’t mean the end of transnational cooperation amongst Europe’s cities. However, it should mean the end of countless publicly funded plane trips across the continent. At the same time, it doesn’t mark the end of face-to-face meetings. As humans, we need these personal connections, and cooperation is all about strong working relationships. A Zoom meeting with someone you have already met in real life, is a different proposition to exchanging with a stranger via a screen.

In the coming months – maybe years – we will be feeling our way towards whatever the new transnational cooperation model is. This is likely to be a blended approach which combines far fewer physical meetings with a growing number of online collaborative exchanges. Some people won’t like this; for example, those who enjoy the budget air travel experience. But many others will welcome this shift: people with disabilities and those with caring responsibilities amongst them.

How to make it happen?

If your new life is wall-to-wall online meetings with monotonous talking heads, then you’re probably fearing the worst. In reality, the successful future of transnational cooperation is contingent on our ability to do better than this. Much better.

On 4 and 5 June 2020, the APN kick-off online meeting for phase II gathered about 100 people from all across Europe. URBACT team redesigned the meeting for an online environment. This included shortening the sessions to focus on the essentials, allowing participants to float between one and up to 23 breakout virtual rooms, and even testing new online tools. Was this is a taster for what future cooperation could look like?

Overall, participants were positive about the meeting and the possibilities offered by digital technology. Fabiana, Lead Partner of Healthy Cities, said: “I prefer face-to-face meetings, but I’m getting used to this new situation.”

There was also a recognition that URBACT has a key catalytic role here.  Patrizia, Lead Partner of Thriving Streets, said: “URBACT is very much about interactions, exchanges, sharing, relationships: it's not just a matter of using platforms, but also about social innovation, now taking into consideration the digital divide, responding to new ways we relate to each other, new ways of doing, organising and also thinking”.

Very well-organised kick-off meeting of phase 2 of our 23 #actionplanning networks.
Great to be part of the @urbact community, looking forward to seeing all of you for the next city festival anywhere... @ClrmntMetropole #bettercities pic.twitter.com/fDWB3qTfqC

— Urban Energy Pact (@Urb_En_Pact) June 5, 2020

Over the past ten years, the programme has carved out a reputation for applying the principles of participation and interactivity in its networks. Interventions like the Summer University have been vital in conveying this message and enabling city officials to put these principles into practice. In doing so, the programme has built strong trusted relationships in every corner of the continent – and with cities of all sizes. URBACT can now optimise these trusted networks to support the transition to the next generation of urban collaboration in Europe.

Yes, there are significant barriers to this: public authority reticence around digital platforms is one; lack of familiarity with the new tools is another. But these are not insurmountable.

What do you know…the tools were there all along

The digital platforms and tools are already in place. Indeed they have been there for some time, but until recently we have chosen not to embrace them. Instead, we have jumped on planes and, at best, employed digital tools as no more than visual telephones. This is our big ‘aha’ moment, as we realise that the growing repertoire of digital products allows us to do almost everything we do in physical meetings – and more.

URBACT is already in the vanguard of driving this shift. The programme is designing a range of resources to support its networks to optimise digital tools for collaboration. This includes diagnostic research into the growing range of platforms and tools. It also involves research into the competencies required to design and facilitate successful online events. For URBACT, that means sessions with clear objectives that are well managed, highly participative – and also enjoyable.

We won’t pretend we are there yet. This remains work in progress. The redesign of the Summer University as a digital experience and our forthcoming online toolbox are important components of this. So too, are the programme resources to support and build capacity for online facilitation. We are in the foothills of the long climb ahead of us.

What is important however, is that we recognise that going back is not an option. Framed positively, this crisis has helped show the way ahead, not only in terms of a short-term response to the pandemic. The message is clear: we must reshape our working model if it is to be sustainable, and consistent with the policy priorities set out in the European Green Deal. Cities of Europe, are you with us?

The city of Amarante in Portugal is leading the iPlace Project, which also includes Balbriggan (Ireland), Gabrovo (Bulgaria), Grosseto (Italy), Heerlen (Netherlands), Kočevje (Slovenia), Medina del Campo (Spain), Pärnu (Estonia), Pori (Finland) and Saldus (Latvia). It is a partnership of small cities intent on exchanging their experiences in dealing with their respective challenges, ideas and pathways with the aim to find their niches for sustainable local economic development.

Amarante was the location of a very successful kick-off meeting from 14 to 15 October 2019 where all the partner cities discussed the potentials for the project and became familiar with the URBACT method and the programme requirements. Most of all, partners got to know each other, also, with the help of a good session of karaoke!

Photo 1: Karaoke singing
 

The focus of the project

Working together as a network during the Development Phase of the project, partner cities are co-creating the stages of a two-year process to deepen understanding of their respective local economic histories and its value for future economic activity.

The expectation is furthermore that the project will add value by giving partners the opportunity to broaden their knowledge of global trends that will impact on their cities, both as disruptions and as new pathways for economic growth. These trends include the radical shift away from economies based on fossil fuel extraction to low carbon economies; the impact of technology in the world of work, specifically the ability to work remotely, together with the growing automation of manufacturing processes and services; as well as the core elements of local ecosystems that enable innovation and support entrepreneurship.

These trends will be contrasted with the existing place experience in each partner city. Are their cities welcoming places for entrepreneurs to start businesses? Is the infrastructure and connectivity in place to enable relocation to their cities? Do their cities have policies and strategies to make them more liveable, walkable and less car dependent? How family friendly are their cities and is their quality of life a selling point? The analysis will empower partner cities to develop actions during the project lifetime that will create an environment for change in existing economic activities and to initiate new activities with clear short, medium and long-term targets in mind.

Photos 2 & 3: Plotting the project during the kick-off meeting

The project will be a unique opportunity for each partner city to make a journey into their industrial past and re-examine possibilities for new economic activity as well as finding synergies between traditional and contemporary technologies. For example, some partner cities have histories of local enterprises in wood and textile industries who were successful in a previous era. Will new skills and insights be matched with such historical local industrial processes that could lead to innovation and the activation of new markets? The possibilities will be explored in the upcoming city visits to be conducted by the lead partner and the lead expert.

The following graph aptly summarises the focus of the project. Delving into the industrial history of the city, mindful of the existing place experience and the imperatives for change that the future holds, partners will seek to find niches for new local economic development.

What success will mean for the project partners

The success of the project at city level will be evident when each partner city will have produced a robust strategy which will be the product of a process through a number of stages of action development including: an intense place and opportunity analysis using best available tools and techniques; sharing and learning good practices with and from partner cities; creatively engaging local communities and stakeholders in co-creation by exploring ideas, listening to feedback and understanding local challenges; tap into international expertise related to specialist knowledge required for the project made available by URBACT; and experimenting with small actions to test the core actions that will form the foundations of the strategy.

Photo 4: Visit to IRIS, Social Innovation Hub in Amarante
 

At project level success will be measured in the delivery of a set of coordinated network activities where partner cities will use a series of transnational meetings, hosted in turn by each partner city, to conduct seminars on global trends; to showcase good practices that demonstrate the agility of small cities to be competitive; to jointly train and develop skills and techniques that will build the capacity of partner cities to unlock creative responses in their communities and business groups for addressing local economic challenges; and to utilise the collective knowledge of visiting cities to conduct peer reviews that help host cities to see their challenges and opportunities through ‘fresh’ eyes.

Photo 5: Group photo on the historical bridge in Amarante
 

In conclusion, the iPlace Project can best be visualised as a journey where the partner cities are fellow travellers who are always seeking to find niches appropriate for their cities, while deepening their understanding of the nuances that make their cities special but also the dimensions that make them similar to others, with the determination to use the knowledge they gained for nesting new ideas that will sprout more sustainable local economic development.

CSR, in short, can be broadly defined   as the "the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society" (European Commission, 2019). The idea is that enterprises integrate social and environmental concerns into their mainstream business operations on a voluntary basis. So they respect human rights wherever they produce their goods and services, they treat staff well, don’t pollute the environment and are not corrupt. In a nutshell: responsible business. Sounds familiar, but where is the link to our cities, communities and civic services?
 

This is where our brand new URBACT Action Planning network comes in. Fancily named ‘CITIES4CSR’, this 10-city pan-continental project is in a unique position to explore in practical ways how CSR can make a difference to our urban societies. Using the proven URBACT-principles, methods and tools - it sets out to support building, testing and implementing ‘comprehensive municipal strategies to foster and stimulate corporate responsibility in urban areas’. In other words, we aim to work towards realising a new vision across our European continent: cities not as places where local administrations rule top-down, but as sites where government and business are sharing urban responsibilities! We want to show how Corporate Social Responsibility can be lifted to a new level: Corporate Urban Responsibility.
 

What makes our approach somewhat unique compared to other networks is the fact that what binds our cities together is not foremost a concern with changing one particular urban outcome. Rather, it is all about building purpose-designed local CSR-toolboxes that help to challenge the local status-quo in very different policy realms. Just like a building company may use its machinery, people, experience and know-how to build a train station in one city, a TV-tower in the next one and a shopping centre in another city, our joined efforts may trigger beneficial transformations in different policy areas in different cities. Actually exactly there where cities feel need is most pressing.
 

So value could be added in urban regeneration, environmental protection, social cohesion or educational policies; you name it. The glue between cities, and the common concern, is the focus on how the aspirations, resources and leadership of the local corporate sector - in partnership with government and other stakeholders – will be the in the heart of change. 
      

Corporate social responsibility is surely not a new concept. Academic debates link the ascent of CSR to five societal transformations: more affluent societies, growing sustainability concerns, intensified globalisation, stronger role of the media and the rise brands (Chandler and Werther, 2013). CSR can be implicit, embedded in the values, norms and rules of societies, or explicit, encompassing voluntary programs and strategies by corporations based on their discretion (Matten and Moon, (2008). And, across Europe there seems to be a CSR-gap as more progressive policies in Western Europe, Scandinavia and the Anglo-Saxon countries have not been equally shared by governments in Central and Eastern Europe (Steurer, 2015). µ
 

The good news is that we don’t have to wait for business to come forward in urban affairs; local governments can be incredibly proactive. Our toolboxes are already filled with a variety of proven CSR policy instruments, from awareness-raising that can spread the word about CSR to procurement strategies that require suppliers to meet certain environmental and social criteria. So no reinventing the wheel. Yet, finding the right CSR-solution may mean confronting deep-seated trust issues between public authorities and corporate actors and differences in terms of everyday languages, work habits and planning horizons. In other words, we should not be surprised to encounter gaps of various kinds, misconceptions and stumbling blocks in our project.    
 

So who are the ten cities that take on this challenge? Lead Partner is Milan (Italy), a city with profound experience in managing European projects. Partners are: Sofia and Vratsa from Bulgaria, Kekava municipality from Latvia, Rijeka from Croatia, Molina de Segura from Spain, Guimarães from Portugal, Budaörs from Hungary, Bratislava from Slovakia and Nantes Metropole from France. The network covers different geographical parts of Europe relatively well, and incorporates varying sizes of local government. Excitingly, we are proud to have in our midst the 2019 European City of Innovation (Nantes) and the 2020 European City of Culture (Rijeka). 

Our network has plenty of opportunity to build institutional bridges. For example with the United Nations Global Compact that constitutes the world's largest corporate sustainability initiative. Its urban arm, the UN Global Compact Cities Programme, promotes city and regional governments collaborating with the private sector and civil society in order to address complex global challenges on the local level; implementing the so-called Melbourne Model. CSR-initiatives can also be directly related to the European Urban Agenda and the European Commission.  Finally, CSR Europe’s vision is that by 2030 the European urban population, or three quarters of the total population, will be living in sustainable cities that will provide them with economic opportunities, reliable infrastructure and high standard of living.

The Melbourne Model – Cross-sectoral collaboration to address complex urban challenges (Source: UN Global Compact Cities Programme)

The work has already begun. Our network kicked-off in gorgeous Milan in September, where well-organised site visits taught all participants much about local corporate initiatives that in very practical ways help local communities. Currently the various local baseline study visits are getting under way, problem analyses are being conducted, and first ideas about solutions and small scale actions are being developed. Local multi-sector stakeholder groups are slowly emerging.
 

”As SMEs we are so busy, so focused on our businesses and on making money – but we can’t do it without having a focus on the outside world. It is crucial to look outside, and around you.”

Jean-Marc Barki  - Executive Director, Sealock, French SM
 

It is already clear that one of the policy focus will target the small-and medium sized enterprises (SME), a sector that often forms the backbone of European urban and regional economies but so far is rather seldom considered as member of the CSR-community. Neighbourhood upgrading appears to be another objective for corporate urban engagement. We are very curious where local path-finding will lead to. One thing is for sure: cities can gain a lot when they turn to their corporate stakeholders. Doing meaningful urban business without spending money does not have to be a fairytale!
 

The author acknowledges the creative input from Lead Expert Project team in Milan, with special thanks to Giusy Chierchia for coming up with the title for this article!

From unique shopping experiences, distinctive local products and cultural events to community engagement and financial incentives, smaller cities are looking for ways to stay attractive – and convince enough business, talent and visitors to resist the pull of larger urban areas.

Hundreds of small towns and cities have joined URBACT networks over the years, working with local groups and international expertise to find sustainable, cross-sector solutions to problems such as empty high streets, dwindling jobs or ageing populations.

URBACT networks RetaiLink, Agri-Urban and City Centre Doctor shared a selection of such solutions at a Vitality of Smaller Cities conference in Barcelona (ES). Read the full report with case studies and policy recommendations here. The event brought mayors, city officials, urban practitioners and researchers from 23 countries together to investigate how to create lively city centres, boost the marketability of local produce – and make smaller cities a priority.

But why are smaller towns and cities so important?

“Small cities are the backbone of the territorial equation of Europe. These cities are scattered all around the continent and play a very important role to bring services in the closest way to citizens,” says Emmanuel Moulin, Director of the URBACT secretariat. “Europe can do more for small cities. Sometimes the focus is only on big metropoles, based on the perception that they are the drivers of economic development. I think that Europe needs balanced territorial development and should give more support to smaller cities.”

Larger, better-known cities can act as major focal points for urban economic development and innovation. And with the potential for agglomeration and significant infrastructure investment, they can have distinct advantages over small and medium cities.

But the Urban Agenda for the EU recognises that urban areas of all sizes can boost growth, create jobs for citizens and enhance Europe’s competitiveness in a globalised economy. As the Netherlands’ Urban Envoy Nicolas Beets says, “the European Union is for its citizens and there are at least 40% who live in small and medium sized cities”.

Establishing the EU Urban Agenda in 2016, the Pact of Amsterdam states that although urban challenges are of an increasingly local nature, they require “a wider territorial solution (including urban-rural linkages) and cooperation within functional urban areas”. The pact calls on urban authorities to “cooperate within their functional areas and with their surrounding regions, connecting and reinforcing territorial and urban policies” as urban solutions can spark wide territorial benefits.

Here are just a few URBACT-inspired resources for cities of all shapes and sizes

• Vitality of smaller cities in Europe (Building on the work of URBACT networks RetaiLink, Agri-Urban and City Centre Doctor)
• URBACT Good Practices
• Remaking the city (Building on the work of URBACT networks 2nd Chance, REFILL and sub>urban)
• TechPlace resource for cities developing their tech economies (Building on the work of URBACT networks including TechTown , GEN Y CITY and Interactive Cities)

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