As part of our Good Practice campaign, we investigated in a previous article what makes an URBACT Good Practice ‘good’. Two distinguishing features are ‘local impact’ and ‘transferability’, which can take many forms and contexts – as evident in the 97 URBACT Good Practices awarded in 2017. 

This article focuses on one practice in particular and its transferability and local impact: the Playful Paradigm. Find out how one city in Ireland adapted an URBACT Good Practice, developed by an Italian city, and transferred it at a national level. Your city could experience similar benefits if you send us your good practice! 

Defining ‘transfer’ in the URBACT programme  

In the context of the URBACT programme, a ‘good practice’ can be transferred through a specific model of ‘understand-adapt-reuse' supported by transfer networks. In the Playful Paradigm Transfer Network, as Lead Partner, Udine found a way to make the city landscape playful, officially recognised as an URBACT Good Practice. Awarded by URBACT in 2017, Udine’s experience with modes of play provided a template for not only reanimating underused, car-dominated public spaces but also to improve social inclusion and initiate community-led placemaking.

Through the URBACT Playful Paradigm Transfer Network, Cork (IE) developed a host of play actions in line with Udine's Playful Paradigm practice. “We went for something that was very pioneering in terms of trying to create a ‘playful city’…what does this actually mean?”, explains Kieran McCarthy, Lord Mayor of Cork (2023-2024) and an independent member of Cork City Council. ‘It’s really about re-thinking how we use our public spaces: closing off streets and creating playful areas’. 

Cork was inspired by the Udine example to develop a variety of play actions, including:

- The re-pedestrianisation of the Marina walkway, a historic walkway dating back to the 19th century.

- Getting permission to temporarily open streets for play (for example every Sunday for a month).

- Promoting the concept of Play Streets which at its core is the repurposing of the street for free play (setting up tug-of-war stations and big Connect 4 stations).

- Playful Cultural Trail of cultural institutions (including museums, art galleries, community centres, etc.).

According to Lord Mayor McCarthy, “These spaces were playful areas in the past, so it’s great to see families engage and discover these streets, their origins, and even their own neighbours.” As a transfer partner city, Cork also embraced the power of the practice (of play) to address other urban challenges (e.g. public health, environment, place-making, etc.). For instance, play packs and place-making training helped to reduce social isolation of Cork’s elderly population during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Cork’s application of the URBACT Good Practice proved its transferability, not only to other European cities but cascaded at national level. 

Continuing the transfer from European to national scale

Starting in 2021, the Cork URBACT Local Group spearheaded URBACT’s National Practice Transfer Initiative (NPTI) in Ireland – one of five intra-country transfer pilots reinforcing best practice exchange and URBACT’s added value in different European countries. With the support of the Irish National URBACT Point and a national URBACT expert, Cork helped to transfer the Playful Paradigm practice in 5 Irish towns:  Donegal, Portlaoise, Rush, Rathdrum and Sligo. “The different groups and town representatives came to Cork”, remembers Lord Mayor McCarthy. “I had the chance to speak to them about the impact of URBACT, and why they should engage with the URBACT programme.”  

Inspired by the Cork example, the five Irish partners got to work imagining how they could make it work in their own municipalities. The partner towns developed and implemented transfer plans, involving a variety of actions based on Cork’s experience with the Playful Paradigm Project. These plans were different, depending on the local context, but all focused on liberating streets and public places to the public – not just children, but all generations and groups.  

In Donegal Town, for instance, the Diamond town square was turned into play areas, and residents young and old were invited to have fun and connect with each other. Just north of Dublin, in Rush, the URBACT Local Group (ULG) created a Play Street. An area typically occupied by cars, this space became ‘open for play’. The Rush ULG members also created a storytelling trail involving the local library and community centre. Local community organisations in Portlaoise prioritised involving disadvantaged or vulnerable communities; in particular, the town got the Ukrainian refugee community involved. Sligo reanimated its town centre with new pedestrian sidewalks and cycle lanes as well as improvements to benches and street furniture. Play events, where busy retail streets in the centre were temporarily closed for car traffic, were well received by residents and businesses alike. Some of the successful elements that Sligo decided to implement following the Cork visit included installing the first parklet in the town (taking out two parking spaces and creating a seating area where residents and visitors can meet and linger) as well as a space for colouring chalk on the street. They are now partner in a new European network called Cities@Heart, to create a healthy and harmonious heart of the city. 

In a quirky turn of events, different communities decided to use recycled materials to play. Deep in the woods of Rathdrum in County Wicklow, locals took part in ‘snowball fights’. Instead of waiting for snow, old (washed) socks were used to kick off play activities. The town’s new library provided a perfect location to adapt a variety of play actions, including a community play bag loaning system. This system has been expanded to all libraries in County Wicklow. 

Exceeding expectations:  making play a priority in Irish towns 

Throughout the URBACT National Practice Transfer Initiative, Cork was able to delve deeper into its own recognised playful practice based on engagement with Udine and other European partner cities. Cork also took a hands-on role in offering material support and guidance to the partner municipalities (e.g. a manual for incorporating playfulness, Let’s Play Cork brand guidelines, etc.) 

Looking closer at the impact of the national transfer, it is clear that the learning exchange went both ways between the Lead Partner and partner cities.  

Irish partners answer Cork’s call to action 

Feedback has been positive across the local partners, according to Wessel Badenhorst, the URBACT Lead Expert who accompanied the transfer process. Partners in the five transfer towns and cities brought fresh perspectives to the conversation with Cork on the Playful Paradigm, pushing the boundaries of what playful spaces, events and engagements could look like in a specifically local, Irish setting.  

“It is worth noting that all partners in the Ireland transfer initiative reported that the impacts of their play activities and interventions exceeded their expectations,” stated Wessel. The most telling endorsements were that residents are requesting more play activities and that funding for play activities are being secured from national and municipal sources. All partners implemented their transfer plans, hence proving the value of the adapted and re-used actions first observed in Cork (the transfer city). And, although most people instinctively know that play makes everyone feel better, the national initiative helped the partner towns to observe and understand how, over time, the opportunities for free play in public spaces in Irish towns have been reduced for example by allocating too much space for the exclusive use of cars. With practical low-cost play activities, the partner towns demonstrated to their residents that a more liveable alternative is possible.  

Cork finds its playful calling 

According to Martha Halbert, Social Inclusion Specialist in Cork City Council: “Showcasing the work to our colleagues across cities and towns in Ireland represented not only a unique network building exercise for local government colleagues, but it encouraged us to look at the local factors which made the work unique and transferable.” Lord Mayor McCarthy can attest to this: “I’ve seen the joy my team gets from telling the story of Cork and the Playful Paradigm.” 

In addition to the types of connections and exchanges, the national transfer component has also helped to boost staff training: not just keeping staff skill sets up to par but also informing them of developments in the playful paradigm in the EU context.

Stepping back even further, the URBACT Playful Paradigm kick-started Cork’s investment in restoring public spaces as ‘playful places’. They secured Healthy Ireland funding to employ a Play Coordinator for Cork City, who is dedicated to increasing the profile and value of play in communities as well as at strategic policy level. Martha adds, “Play learnings are firmly embedded in the policy and structural landscape in Cork City now”. It also provided a stepping-stone for the city to get involved in other EU-level initiatives such as Horizon projects, and the EU Mission for Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities, of which Cork is one of the 112 selected laureates.

Children playing in activities of the Playful Paradigm initiative.

URBACT’s call for Good Practices: Cork’s advice

URBACT has a legacy of recognising specific methods, approaches and tools for making cities green, just and productive. These URBACT Good Practices are part of a legacy of positive change, not just at European but also at national and local levels.

"My call to any local government is to submit your good practice!” encourages Lord Mayor McCarthy. “Some of the world’s largest challenges exist in urban areas, and every municipality across the European Union is working on some important nugget that can help other cities and towns. Don’t leave it to others to write up the good practices!”

We hope that Cork’s experience inspires you to share your good practice. 

Interested in applying to the new URBACT Call for Good Practices (open until 30 July 2024)? 

All you need to know can be found on urbact.eu/get-involved.  

Thanks to Wessel Badenhorst, URBACT expert and the six URBACT local group coordinators for the materials provided: Joy Herron (Donegal Town), Aoife Sheridan (Rush), Martha Halbert (Cork City), Leonora McConville (Sligo), Ann-Marie Maher (Portlaoise) and Deirdre Whitfield (Rathdrum).
 

Ileana Toscano, lead expert

Playful Paradigm II is a “transfer” network stems from the long-time experience developed in the City of Udine (Italy) focused on play as a tool to foster social inclusion and participation.
In 2017 the European Union programme called URBACT labelled Udine “Good Practice City” thanks to the play approach developed at city level. URBACT funded two project editions of Playful Paradigm, where Udine led the two Networks to transfer to other EU cities the play-based philosophy and approach. In total, 12 European cities were involved in reflecting about play. The first project edition have seen involved as transfer cities: Klaipeda (LT); Esplugues de Llobregat (ES); Viana do Castelo (PT); Novigrad (HR), Cork (IE), Larissa (HR), Katowice (PL). While in the second project wave, the transfer partners are: Grosuplje in Slovenia, Jelgava in Latvia, Lousa in Portugal and Igualada in Spain.

The experience of the URBACT Network “Playful Paradigm” offered the opportunity to reflect on the strictly relation between “play and cities”. Play is essential for children’s health, physical-and emotional growth, and intellectual and educational development. But in cities, especially in suburbs, children do not have adequate spaces for playing and play poverty is on the rise, as is the number of children living low-play lives. Public spaces should be re-designed to welcome play and reflect values of democracy, respect, and solidarity. Play can support the urban planning activity by transforming public spaces through play place making initiatives and fostering citizens participation. In other words, well-planned cities foster play and play supports this positive city transformation through playful initiatives.

Why PLAY is important to trigger Participation and transform Urban Public spaces?
Play is a versatile tool to easily engage with children and families, also in difficult contexts such as suburbs or deprived neighbourhoods. The Municipality of Udine get awarded about this huge potential of play more than twenty years ago, when they started to promote play through the Ludobus-initiative - a mobile toy-library used to promote play activities both in the suburbs and in the city centre. They have had the opportunity to experiment Ludobus as a powerful tool of inclusiveness, because there are no barriers of culture, languages, gender or age while playing.
Udine experienced that the Ludobus can transform public spaces making them places for play. The Ludobus brings an important message: “all spaces of a city are places for play”, “all public spaces are spaces for children and for all”. Ludobus is a catalyst: people start playing without being address and previously informed. Ludobus is also a tool to reach families and involve them in participatory urban processes.
Having discovered the social impact of play at city level, the Municipality of Udine set up a municipal office dealing with play. Thanks to that, the city has becoming lead city of play in Italy and Europe and it has been able to manage several play initiatives, as: setting up a toy library, collaborating with schools and educational centers, developing healthy programmes through play for elderly people and people with special needs, organising several play events in the city, preventing gambling problems through dedicated play programmes, opening the National Archive of Game and, of course, managing the ludobus activities.
 
Inspired by Udine, the Playful Paradigm partners started to experiment play outside playgrounds, organising play initiatives in their city. They organised temporarily closure of streets to cars, to allow people play and stay together. They transformed urban spaces in places for play: the areas in front of schools, that allow pupils play before going to school, the market streets, that can host children and family in a relaxed atmosphere, and so on. All city partners organised the World Game Day on 28 May 2022, experimenting the intergenerational approach and learning process fostered by play for children and adults.

Playful Innovations for cities
Considering the experience of the first project edition and the long experience of Udine, the second wave of Playful Paradigm followed on four dimension of the play approach aiming at further enhancing Playful Paradigm by fostering the inclusion of marginalised communities and promoting the gender based approach to re-think public spaces. That are:

1. PLAY FOR SUSTAINABLE URBAN REGENERATION analyses the possibility offered by play to re-think urban public spaces. Starting from the Ludobus initiative and the play placemaking experiences, it addresses the gender sensitive approaches about public spaces and playgrounds and the intergenerational approach to include older people and adolescents in city life.
2. PLAY FOR INCLUSION & PARTICIPATION seeks to develop a new concept for Toy Libraries looking at novel opportunities to transform them into inclusive living labs.
3. PLAY FOR EDUCATION focuses the attention on the innovative approach in education by providing playful experiences both in formal and informal learning environments.
4. PLAY FOR HEALTH AND WELLBEING promotes an integrated approach – social, economic and environmental - through the “WHO Healthy Cities” philosophy, involving Project Partners in a co-creation of novel solutions to foster health and wellbeing in local communities.

Among them, two innovations in promoting play have been followed up by Playful Paradigm second wave: the Gender sensitive playgrounds & Urban Public spaces & the Toy Libraries as living labs.
The re-design of play places like “school yards, playgrounds and recreational spaces” through a gender sensitive approach can provide an important contribution to deconstruct gender stereotypes and the inequalities starting from early age. The redesign of play places should prioritise gender neutral colours and multiple play ‘worlds’, as opposed to one central, that promote interaction between girls and boys and versatile space uses. It should foster creativity and engage with nature, as well as sports and active games. In this way, children can choose the way they play without the pressure of conforming to stereotypes.
Toy Libraries are key within new innovative and more dynamic urban policies reflecting the huge demographic change happening in societies. Toy Library helps meeting different objectives: promoting play, educating children but also supporting families. In deprived neighbourhoods when the street means the only option kids have to socialize, Toy libraries can help families keep kids away from the dangerous exposure to petty crimes or drugs.

The Playful Paradigm promotes the concept of Toy libraries as hands-on public spaces addressing novel opportunities of participation, equality, and intergenerational learning.
They can be improved by Local Administrations and transformed in truly “inclusive living labs” to engage with all citizens, families, boys and girls, elderly people, children, and adults, taking care to leave no one behind. Toy Library-Living Lab can be a new home for families positioned in the centred the needs of children, girls and boys and their parents, with a special attention to those in the fringe.

Playful Paradigm Alliances!
Playful Paradigm has been promoting the collaboration between cities not just at the transnational project level but also at local and national level. Thanks to Playful Paradigm local alliances were boosted, aimed at promoting play urban policies. In Catalunya, Igualada (2nd Wave), Esplugues de Llobregat (1st Wave) and Barcelona started to collaborate to share play approaches and co-design city play plans. In Ireland, the city of Cork has been leading a network focused on play as cascade effect of Playful Paradigm. Jelgava Local Municipality in Latvia and the Municipality of Klaipeda in Lithuania have shared a play strategy to promote the “Play for Education”approach in schools.

Moreover, the Playful Paradigm cities has been collaborating with other cities and international organisations, such as: UN agencies, EU partners, Private organisations, Arup, LEGO, etc.

Have a look at the Final Product HERE

You can explore a diversity of approaches implemented in the cities covering the majority of different climate conditions for beekeeping, various types of bees, as well as different situations related to the perception of bees among the general public in inspiring stories of Bansko (Bulgaria), Bergamo (Italy), Ljubljana (Slovenia), Osijek (Croatia), Sosnowiec (Poland).

Find out more:

Visit webpage: www.urbact.eu/Bees

Contact us: beepathnet@ljubljana.si

COPYING NEIGHBOURS…
How to facilitate the collaboration between territories, the exchange of inspiring cases, the translation between governance cultures, the emulation and transfer between cities and resilience through cooperation in the face of such as the pandemic, the Ukraine crisis, or other unprecedented future problems?
BioCanteens is one of the 23 URBACT Transfer Networks engaged in a form of “action-research” to transfer "Good Practice" from one city to a set of partner cities across Europe. In this augmented edition completing the first publication based on the experience of BioCanteens1 with the experience of BioCanteens2 “second wave”, you will find out...

...LESSONS OF BIOCANTEENS TRANSFER NETWORKS
BioCanteens Transfer Network is about ensuring the distribution of sustainable school meals in participating cities as a key lever towards the development of an integrated local agri-food approach, protecting both citizens’ health and the environment. The project aims to transfer Mouans-Sartoux’s Good Practice based on the daily distribution of meals that are 100% organic and mostly composed of local products, the drastic reduction of food waste thereby fully compensating the higher cost of switching to organic products, and the organisation of dedicated educational activities to raise children’s awareness about sustainable food. It tells the various “Transfer stories” of the 9 BioCanteens city partners: Gavà in Spain, Liège and Pays des Condruses in Belgium, Rosignano-Marittimo in Italy, Torres Vedras in Portugal, Trikala in Greece, Troyan in Bulgaria, Vaslui in Romania and Wroclaw in Poland. You may also learn about “Transfer outcomes” after BioCanteens 1 & 2 and in particular the European online event organized in March 2021 in partnership with URBACT and the Glasgow Declaration and the Mouans-Sartoux Food Festival « À TABLE ! » organized in September 2022 to share the networks experiences, to raise European cities’ awareness on food sovereignty and to call on Europe to consider the need for a food exception in public procurement.

Read the full document HERE and start your revolution!

In addition to Ljubljana’s (Slovenia) practice of urban beekeeping and its ‘Bee Path’ the full guidelines contain case studies and inspiring examples from five BeePathNet project partners cities (2018 – 2021; Amarante, Portugal; Bydgoszcz, Poland; Cesena, Italy; Hegyvidek, XII District of Budapest, Hungary and Nea Propontida, Greece). In the shortened pocket addition we added short information on activities of additional four BeePathNet Reloaded project partner cities (2021 – 2022; Bansko, Bulgaria; Bergamo, Italy; Osijek, Croatia and Sosnowiec, Poland).

Guidelines:

- Evolving into a Bee Path City – short guidelines (EN, SI, BG, DE, EL, ES, FR, HR, HU, IT, PL, PT)*

- The evolution steps toward a Bee-friendly city’ - Full guidelines (EN)

- Bee Path Cities Philosophy (EN, SI, BG, EL, FR, HR, HU, IT, PL, PT) 

Comments: In addition to the English and Slovenian language version the short guidelines will be available in several other EU languages shortly.

If your city is seeking to understand, adapt and re-use the inspiring ‘Bee Path’ practice of Ljubljana (Slovenia) and other principles described in the guidelines, then the next step is for you to join the Bee Path Cities network. It was launched in October 2022 to continue the exchange and learning opportunities for cities beyond URBACT support. It is now open to all urban authorities in Europe and across the world. Find out more on www.urbact.eu/bees.

The partner city representatives were greeted by Anna Jedynak, Mayor’s Plenipotentiary for External Funds and Social Matters. She highlighted important accomplishment directly resulting from this project such as 20 URBACT local group members deeply involved in environmental protection, establishment of a biodiversity park, also new municipality legislation on beekeeping, implemented educational programme and several new products. The city of Sosnowiec is already introducing these solutions across Poland. In her opinion the best impact of this project is a change in Sosnowiec citizens behaviour and their way of thinking.

Partners presented the progress they made with their Bee Paths and how they deal with new products in their cities. Bansko (Bulgaria) and Osijek (Croatia) are focusing on marketing aspects. Bansko, wants to introduce bee products such as honey, pollen, wax … in different forms. One of their most unusual products is a tea made of dead bees as a source of different microelements, acids and chitosan. The city of Osijek highlighted good marketing possibilities of honey vinegar and their intention to promote apitherapy as a rather unknown service in Croatia. Bergamo (Italy), a UNESCO site of gastronomy, successfully established synergies among beekeepers and cheese producers. They matched their nine special types of cheese, protected with EU label Protected geographic origin, with regionally specific honey types. On the other side, Sosnowiec focuses on awareness raising. They encourage restaurants to use honey in cooking, organised various pollinators and environment protection related events and celebrations with an excellent citizens response, awareness building for children in Zaglebie Media Library … They also made a bee mascot.

This meeting was also an opportunity to discuss the final outputs that need to be produced as well as the work on partner’s mid to long-term urban beekeeping plans. One of the most important aspects of the meeting was the finalisation of preparations for the network final conference and launch of the Bee Path Cities network which will occur at the same time. In discussion on issues related to the future the first five partner cities representatives (BeePathNet) also joined us via zoom.

The most inspiring part of the meeting was the visit of the Sosnowiec Bee Path where we learnt of different approaches the city employs to bring bees closer to residents. In the Katowice special economic zone, Agnieszka Glińska (Anna Kopka) of the Sosnowiec and Dabrowa subzone presented their work, which was followed by a presentation by Bożena Wroniszewska-Drabek from Humanitas University on how to use marketing support for new products. Among the points visited were Sielecki Castle, Schoen Museum, Zaglebie Media Library, Honey Comb Charity Shop, Museum of Medicine and Pharmacy and many more.

It was an amazing trip! We learned a lot from each other and now we are more ready to bring sustainable solutions to our cities! The last 2 days of BluAct we said goodbye to our good partners and friends, but we are all sure that we will meet again, in our common paths of starting up the Blue Economy! You can find all the material (photos, presentations, live videos, etc) online at: www.bluact.eu/piraeus