Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CO-CREATION (The Cohesive City: Addressing Stigmatisation in Disadvantaged Urban Neighbourhoods)

Teaser

Cities in the 21st century face complex challenges of integrating urban communities. This is particularly true in the case of marginalised neighbourhoods where the lives of residents are affected by income, other inequalities and the often negative perceptions of the places...

Summary

Cities in the 21st century face complex challenges of integrating urban communities. This is particularly true in the case of marginalised neighbourhoods where the lives of residents are affected by income, other inequalities and the often negative perceptions of the places where they live. Despite a growing recognition in policy of the need for more cohesive and equitable cities these gaps remain. The aim of this project is to connect researchers with practitioners in urban areas in Europe and Latin America to explore new ways of addressing these urban problems through an innovative method of “Co-Creation”; working with stakeholders and artists to harness creativity in marginalised communities to counter negative stereotypes, advance alternative visions and provide residents with new transferable skills and networking opportunities.

This project’s significance lies in: its ability to create opportunities for new collaborations to develop innovatory methods and tools to tackle the challenges of marginalised neighbourhoods confronted by all cities in the EU; the creation of creating lasting innovation networks able to spread this innovative approach across the EU and wider because and in building the skills of a range of future urban actors including policy makers, practitioners, academics and residents.

The overall objectives of the CoCreation project are;
1. To develop an innovative framework for the analysis of urban marginalisation based on understanding from residents, practitioners and academics from a range of disciplines
2. To develop and test a new methodological tool, ‘Co-Creation’, that brings together residents, artists, researchers and urban practitioners to address urban deprivation and stigmatisation; and
3. To draw up policy guidelines and recommendations for policy makers to be applied in different cities, for wide dissemination to audiences, including academics, practitioners and the general public.

To achieve these objectives, the project is undertaking joint activities through a programme of exchanges of academic and non-academic partners within and between Europe and Latin America. It is working across seven cities; Paris, Berlin, Oxford, Brussels, Bath, Rio de Janeiro and Mexico City in order to ground and to test its ideas in a variety of contexts. The innovative programme includes training in the methods of CoCreation, study visits to neighbourhoods in different cities, hands-on workshops in specific localities to develop and test the CoCreation method and seminars and conferences to develop a better understanding of how CoCreation can challenge the processes of marginalisation.

Work performed

Over the first two years of the project substantial progress and results have been achieved including;
Setting up an international network of academics and practitioner and cementing this through over 30 staff exchanges and holding an International Conference which have progressed the project’s work and led to an interchange of knowledge and experience. This has resulted in the development of a critical understanding of CoCreation\'s ability to contribute to better urban places which crosses geographical, sector and disciplinary boundaries, captured in a state of the art literature review.
Drawing up a manual on CoCreation methods and practices for use by project members and others based on drawing lessons from shared activities including conferences, training sessions run by project members on secondment and pilot workshops in Santa Marta, Brazil and St Denis in Paris which trialled CoCreation methods and practices. The work in these two case study areas has been complementary with the St Denis workshop looking at the role of CoCreation and culture in local regeneration and urban policy and the Santa Marta workshop focusing on hands-on workshops with residents, members and artists focusing on the use of poetry, graffiti, photography and community mapping to test different CoCreation methods.
Creating a presence for the project through a dedicated website and social media activity and through holding and attending academic and other workshops. This has led increasingly to contacts with other relevant projects.
Making links in each of the 7 cities with policy makers, practitioners, NGOs, resident associations and artists and identifying localities and issues for further action by the project. This has established a strong base for the next stages of the project.
The development of a robust system of project management which has complemented network activities to establish a strong foundation for the project.
The involvement of young researchers in the programme whose careers have greatly benefitted from the wider understandings and skills that they have acquired through these exchange.

Final results

The project has achieved progress beyond the state of the art;

- By bringing together urban researchers and actors from the global north and the global south to jointly reach new understandings of and interventions in urban problems presented in a state of the art literature review which is one of the first interdisciplinary critical understandings of the possibilities and limitations of CoCreation in addressing urban disadvantag
- By developing and new ways of harnessing cultural and creative practices to address urban disadvantage and by trialing these in two innovatory workshops in contrasting localities.
- By capturing the methods and practices of CoCreation in a manual for use by researchers and practitioners

The project will build on these achievements in its next stages by applying the conceptual and methodological framework established so far to in case studies to be carried out in the 7 member cities. This will lead to further refinements of the methods of CoCreation and greater understandings of how they can address urban disadvantage in a variety of contexts. From these experiences detailed policy guidelines and policy briefings will be developed. Three further conferences will enable a synthesis of the findings and further reflections on and evaluations of CoCreation.

The later stages will also see wide dissemination of the results to a variety of audiences including through policy briefings, the website, case study reports articles in academic journals and a collectively edited book.
The ongoing impacts of the project include;
- The development of an innovatory approach to understanding and addressing urban disadvantage which will be of benefit to policy makers and practitioners in the global north and south contributing to the development of more equitable and cohesive cities, particularly in the case study neighbourhoods.
- Empowering residents in the case study cities to engage with relevant stakeholders to improve the socio-economic conditions in their areas ( and the wider city) and to gain ideas and confidence in the process
- The development of new knowledge about urban transformations through the interactions between the diverse members.
- An increase in the skills and knowledge of participants as a result of the project activities. Young researchers in particular will continue to see their career prospects enhanced through their engagement in the project, increasing the pool of skilled researchers and practitioners both in the EU and wider.
- The creation of an international network which will be sustained during the rest of the project and built on by future collaborations and exchanges once the project has ended.

Website & more info

More info: https://www.co-creation-network.org.