From Understanding to Action: Building Social Cohesion One Neighbourhood at a Time
Across Europe, cities are looking for new ways to strengthen social cohesion in increasingly diverse neighbourhoods. The question is not only how to support newcomers, but how to create places where everyone – long-term residents and new arrivals alike – can learn, connect, develop and contribute.
In this context, the URBACT Plan Einstein Academy network has been exploring how Utrecht’s innovative social transformation model ‘Plan Einstein’ (Netherlands) can be transferred to five European cities of different sizes and characteristics.
Innovation transfer involves sharing and adapting approaches across cities. But as URBACT’s model anticipates, in Plan Einstein Academy, the partners found that this process went beyond simply reproducing an existing model. The network’s journey has been a story of understanding, experimentation and adaptation.
