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Τελική εκδήλωση για τη διάδοση των αποτελεσμάτων του Δικτύου Μεταφοράς BluAct, 27 & 28 ΜΑΙΟΥ 2021

Με μεγάλη επιτυχία διοργανώθηκε η τελική υβριδική συνάντηση-εκδήλωση (µε φυσική & διαδικτυακή παρουσία συµµετεχόντων) Ανταλλαγής και Εκµάθησης με τίτλο «Starting up the Blue Economy” στο Δημοτικό Θέατρο Πειραιά, στις 27 & 28 Μαΐου 2021, µε στόχο την ανασκόπηση των πεπραγµένων υλοποίησης του έργου αναφορικά µε την µεταφορά της καλής πρακτικής BluAct.

Resourceful Cities: Urban Resource centers explained!

Our new video is launched!

The Action Planning network Resourceful Cities seeks to develop the next generation of urban resource centers, so they can serve as catalysts of the local circular economy by adopting a participative and integrated approach. 'Urban resource centers' are more often seen as one of the solutions in a circular economy.
What are 'uban resource centers' and what is their main purpose? How can local 'urban resource centres’ bring people together and boost local circular economies? Watch this short video to get an insight into this solution and get to know the partnership!

THESSALONIKI TRANSFER STORY

Municipality of Thessaloniki, even though it refers to a city of only 2.5m2 per resident, during the last years supports and hosts in public spaces a vineyard, an orchard, an urban community garden project (Kipos3) and a schoolyard (Triandria school garden). The existence of those productive and “edible” landscapes, within the city center, motivated the Common Benefit Enterprise of the City of Thessaloniki (KEDITH), to participate in the European network Ru:rban of URBACT III. 

Through this experience, the City gained valuable input to structure an institutional tool and a manual in order to multiply its urban gardening initiatives along with the active citizens’ engagement. The rural-urban (“rurban”) blending these initiatives may bring, aims to more cohesive neighborhoods and communities, to more attractive public spaces – especially for the remnant, non accessible and inactive of those -, to a more inclusive, resilient and alive city in the end . Ioanna Kosmopoulou, President of Common Benefit Enterprise City of Thessaloniki "KEDITH"

Quality Brands and Sustainable Food Systems

In April 1957, the BBC broadcasted a short report showing a Swiss family harvesting their spaghetti crop from the family tree. Numerous viewers called the station after the coverage, interested in acquiring their trees. This anecdote, recounted by Carolyn Steel in her revealing essay "Hungry City," reflects the tremendous disconnect that was already beginning to develop between consumers and food production.

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BBC, Panorama (1957)

In recent decades, different individual and collective, public and private, urban and rural initiatives have been promoting the recovery of this lost relationship and re-localizing production under integrated sustainability criteria. Cities and rural territories in the EU are an active part of this process, often around quality brands, considered instruments capable of generating added value and gaining a position in the global market.

In practice, we sometimes find an oversaturated environment of brands that coexist with hardly any articulation between them or any net generation of positive impacts. A reflection on their performance and evaluation seems timely to contribute to the effective development of sustainable food systems.

Vysádzanie stromov podporuje mestskú odolnosť a participáciu: inšpiratívny príklad z mesta Burgas (Bulharsko)

Aby mesto Burgas pomohlo zmierniť následky závažných povodní, otestovalo nové, úspešné formy zapojenia občanov. Vyzbrojené zásobou stromov vybudovalo podporu na zlepšenie odolnosti miest prostredníctvom spolupráce.

A Tale of Two Cities. Transfer Stories from East and West.

Two German cities are currently lead partners in the 23 URBACT transfer networks. Altena in North Rhine-Westphalia and Chemnitz in Saxony. Altena shared its best practices on how to develop sustainable initiatives with a minimum of external resource input. In the Re-growCity network, the partner cities were supported in the revitalization of public services and the economy, regenerate the urban fabric and develop civil society in a context of long term decline. Chemnitz shared its good practice of activating vacant buildings in need of refurbishment in the ALT/BAU Network.

Both cities were forced to develop methods to lessen the impact of the severe population loss. Chemnitz, in the east, lost about 25% of its population after German reunification until 2005, most of whom migrated to the west to find employment.  Altena, in the west, has been losing residents since the 1970s. Between 1990 and 2009, the city was subject to a 15% population decline, making it the municipality with the fastest population decline in NRW.

How did the two cities experience the transfer process in the URBACT networks over the past two and a half years? Volker Tzschucke, ULG member in Chemnitz reports about both cities.