Outputs

The Guideline for public-private collaboration is not an exhaustive document with the purpose of it being a fail-proof recipe. It is a collaborative document that has took a snapshot of the current realities we have experienced, as a consortium, in different European contexts, and tries to act as a first brick in documenting and inspiring communities to work together collaboratively, as the trio of grass root, academia and administration is key for any systemic impact.

The webinar focuses on ‘Theory of Change’ as an approach for planning, designing and evaluating interventions. During the session, the following topics are presented and explained: concepts and steps in formulating a Theory of Change; key concepts, design methods and tools for impact evaluation; and the relevance of the Theory of Change within social impact evaluation.

About the speakers: Mattia Forni and Harshita Takare

Mattia is researcher at LAMA Impresa Sociale. He holds a master’s degree in political science from the University of Florence, with a thesis in Analysis and evaluation of public policies, on lobbying and interest groups in European decision-making process.

Harshita Takare is a researcher, economist and urban planner with expertise in research and management of international development projects in the context of Europe, Africa and South Asia.

What is the difference between government and governance? How we can organise decision-making processes to ensure that they are accessible for everyone? And how collaborative governance approach can be applied to urban planning?

About the speaker: Dr. Julie Ferguson

Dr. Julie Ferguson is Associate Professor of network governance at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.

Design Thinking is a non-linear, iterative process that teams use to understand users, challenge assumptions, redefine problems and create innovative solutions to prototype and test.

Design thinking is different from other innovation and ideation processes in that it’s solution-based and user-centric rather than problem-based. This means it focuses on the solution to a problem instead of the problem itself.

However, can this approach be applied to urban innovation? What can be the benefits of using it for present-day urbanists?

About the speaker: Alexandra Cotirta Gruicin

Alexandra Cotirta Gruicin is an Organizational Psychologist, certified in Transactional Analysis (Psychotherapy & Organizational Development), Solution Focused Coaching ACC level and Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. Passionate about psychology and human potential, has been working in various projects supporting leaders and teams to achieve significant results, psychological safety, creative solutions and organizational development.

How can you communicate data in a simple and affordable way? How to avoid miscommunication and misunderstanding as data is not always objective.

Visual Data Storytelling aims at designing informative experiences and reducing the gap between information (that we get to know through mediated sources) and experience (that we get to know through direct sources) working on how to trust on data and charts.

About the speaker: Alice Corona

Alice Corona is an adjunct professor at the Department of Statistical Sciences in the University of Bologna. She is also a freelance consultant in the field of data storytelling and data literacy trainings. Co-founder and project leader of Batjo, a Google-funded project investigating and democratizing the use of data physicalization.

Data activist for Inside Airbnb and OCIO, CNN Hong Kong, TalentData and ECIPA. And Alice is a lead data journalist and trainer with the Dutch Startup Silk.co, operating in the field of semantic web for database publication and data visualization.

Urban Stories promotes good practices of grassroots, culture-led urban and social innovation processes across Europe.

In our last episode in the series, we interviewed an independebt cultural centre from Slovakia – Nova Cvernovka. Nova Cvernovka opened their doors in 2016 after they had been evicted from their previous place. The building they are occupaying today is a former chemistry school that is owned by the municipality. The artists who founded the centre managed to build a strong community of artists and creative around the centre and negociate a 25 year-old contract for the building. Nova Cvernovka has also developed deep relations with their neighbours by creating activities specifically targeted to the local community.

How is urban development related to tourism and what are the impacts of unregulated tourism? What are the benefits and possible dangers of rapid tourism and can it be prevented without damaging the economy?

About the speaker: Dr. Amir Gohar (Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning Practices)

Dr. Gohar is a tourism & urban planner and sustainable development expert with nearly two decades of working experience with municipal governments, research institutes, international development agencies, private sector firms and local community organisations. He provides World Bank training for local government officials in Riyadh responsible for large Red Sea tourism projects. He has worked extensively in the MENA region Africa, Europe and Latin America, with specific focus on tourism planning in the southern region of the Red Sea in Egypt with USAID, Agro-tourism planning for different sites in Saudi Arabia, the Cradle of Human Kind Park and the Kalahari in South Africa, and sustainable tourism in Jebel Akhdar (Green Mountains) in Libya.

His scholarship focuses on finding the appropriate balance between the trends of rapid tourism development and maintaining ecological integrity in both dense cities as well as remote nomadic towns. He is currently a senior lecturer in urban planning practices at university of the west of England.

In this webinar we discussed how we can make our urban practices more inclusive and diverse: what methodologies, terms and practices exist and what should be avoided.

About the speaker: Fairooz Tamimi is the Director of Strategic Development at Trans Europe Halles, and is an award-winning author and journalist. She is a Diversity & Inclusion specialist and she worked globally and in Europe to utilize the power of innovation, diversity and culture to achieve sustainability. Fairooz is a winner of ‘Göran Tunhammar’s Award for Openness and Diversity by Herbert Felix Institute 2016.

Urban Stories promotes good practices of grassroots, culture-led urban and social innovation processes across Europe.

In episode 4, we talked to a cultural space from Greece – Communitism – who have been reviving an old abandoned heritage buildings in Athens. They are a collective of artists who believe in commoning practices and have opened their spaces to everyone to visit and take part in.

Urban Stories promotes good practices of grassroots, culture-led urban and social innovation processes across Europe.

In episode 5, we talked to an independent cultural centre Fabrica de Pensula in Romania.