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Check URBACT's latest stories, updates and events!

 

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    An innovative approach to cultural heritage management

    When thinking of economic development in small-medium size cities, cultural heritage always plays an important role in any city strategy, particularly in the historical towns where the valorisation of cultural heritage remains one of the best tools to promote social and economic development. However several factors such as lack of funding, lack of management expertise, are preventing these cities to fully exploit its potential, limiting the capacity to valorise these important assets.

    Pedro Soutinho

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  • Towards new approaches and methods for poverty reduction in deprived urban areas

    As almost all the European cities, partners of URBinclusion are threatened by the increase of social polarisation, which is a consequence of many parallel processes: a growing volatility of employment (due to increased global competitiveness challenges) and a recent boom in migration to Europe and its cities. These factors are complemented by a progressively retreating welfare state and privatisation of services in several countries leading to higher costs for basic needs. Demographic changes also plays a pivotal role in shaping the urban landscape.

    Fernando Barreiro

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  • Tune to implementation

    It’s easy enough in principle to start doing new things. It happens every day, in every walk of life. But it often happens in isolation; one thing over here, another over there. More rarely is there a successful attempt to get everything on the same wavelength and coordinate the implementation of new things, particularly when we are talking about putting complex new polices into practice within cities.

    Ian Graham

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  • Women and the City: Be Bold For Change on International Women’s Day

    8 March is International Women’s Day (IWD) and the campaign this year is #BeBoldForChange. IWD is a worldwide event that celebrates women’s achievements –from the political to the social – while calling for gender equality.  The day is marked around the globe with performances, talks, rallies, networking events, conferences, marches and even strikes.

    Gender equality is a fundamental value of the European Union, enshrined in the Treaty of Rome. It is one of the cross cutting themes to be taken into account by all the Urban Agenda for the EU thematic partnerships. Gender equality and empowerment of women is also one of the new UN Sustainable Development Goals adopted in 2015.
     
    What needs to be done to make cities more gender-equal? What are the key challenges? The actions and solutions required will vary in different parts of the globe, but there are many threads that relate to urban governance, and that are particularly linked to the integrated and participatory approach promoted by URBACT. Here are just a few.
     
     

    Sally Kneeshaw

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  • How the food sector can help reduce youth unemployment in European medium-sized cities

    V Lizboni se bodo 13. in 14. septembra na URBACT Festivalu mest srečali izvoljeni predstavniki, urbani praktiki in strokovnjaki iz vse Evrope, kjer bodo sodelovali, razpravljali o ugotovitvah 20 akcijskih omrežij ter proslavili 15. obletnico programa in vse večji vpliv mest kot nosilcev sprememb v Evropi.

    Miguel Sousa

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  • Turin: A European success story with URBACT and Urban Innovative Actions

    Three of the cities selected in the first call of Urban Innovative Actions (UIA) are working or have worked within URBACT on topics similar to their UIA bids: Turin, Bologna and Rotterdam. 

    We decided to try to understand what made these cities successful at being involved in those two European programmes and whether there is – for these cities - something like a trajectory from URBACT, in which integrated action plans are designed, to UIA, which provides the framework and the support to implement those innovative ideas locally.
     
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    This article is the first of a planned series of three articles on the topic.
    It is based on an interview with Fabrizio Barbiero, public manager at the unit of development of economic development and innovation and European Project, at the Municipality of Turin.
     
     

    s.pruvot@urbact.eu

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