by Maria Elena Santagati | Feb 27, 2017 | The Urban Media Lab
On 7th and 8th February 2017 Marseille hosted the seminar “Patrimoines et biens communs au regard des droits culturels”, organized within the framework of the “Chaniter Patrimoine(s) et bien(s) commun(s)”, a research-action site devoted to analyse, debate and exchange knowledge about the phenomenon of heritage communities, defined by the Faro Convention on the value of cultural heritage for society (2005) as:
art.2.b.“Heritage community consists of people who value specific aspects of cultural heritage which they wish, within the framework of public action, to sustain and transmit to future generations.”
Building on this definition, many community-based initiatives have been developed so far, serving as the Faro good practices[1]: Heritage committee, Heritage walk, Residents’ co-operative, Urban revelation workshop, Metropolitan trail.
Among the case studies presented during the seminar was the experience of Hotel du Nord, a residents’ co-operative which offers hosting and touristic opportunities by enhancing local cultural heritage in the northern neighborhood of the city of Marseille. It began as an experimentation in 2009 and was officially founded in 2011, as a result of the mission expérimentale européenne de patrimoine intégré, an interesting project launched in 1995 by the city of Marseille, the Council of Europe, the University and the CNFPT (the National center for the territorial public service, in the framework of the national program of rehabilitation of the inner harbour of the city). This process was carried out as an intense research and action activity, which led to the foundation of 8 heritage communities. In 2009, the mayor of the northern district of Marseilles also signed the Faro Convention and a first experimentation of residents’ co-operation was carried out during the preparatory process of Marseille European Capital of Culture 2013.
Picture from Stories.com, available here: http://stories.coop/stories/hotel-du-nord-the-cooperative-hospitality/
Hotel du Nord now proposes a network of 70 hosts, mainly residents, 60 bedrooms and 50 heritage walks to discover the natural and cultural heritage of the area. It clearly pursues the main aim of the Faro Convention, that is recognizing and promoting the social value of cultural heritage. As a matter of fact, it aims to obtain economic benefits from local heritage, to be reinvested for its preservation and enhancement, while at the same time improving residents’ quality of life and visitors’ touristic experience, through their active participation. All that adopting an experimental approach which tries to mobilize the social and cooperative capital of the local community. A further step is the experimentation of Hotel du Nord practice at the national level, in partnership with different actors from the social tourism and cultural sectors, through the co-operative Les oiseaux du passage.
As Prosper Wanner, director of Hotel du Nord, affirms: “What we need is a new paradigm triggering changes at least on three levels: cultural, economic and institutional. We try to move from a public policy approach to a public service approach. In cultural heritage policies, many efforts are devoted to promote access to culture, while we are interested in promoting citizens’ participation in the policy process. To this end, a new relationship between civil servants and citizens should be developed. The roles of each actor should change in order to lay the foundations for a better cooperation, in which citizens become co-producers, also by having access to civil servants’ competences. With Hotel du Nord, we also experiment and produce new legal provisions and new knowledge which help the Council of Europe to make progress in the Faro Convention implementation”.
The creation of heritage communities and co-operatives deeply relies on the specific territorial context, thus requiring ad hoc supporting processes. According to Prosper Wanner, “There is not a one-size-fits-all solution. There are some principles and methodologies related to the Faro Convention, which mainly rise from ongoing processes. For instance, what we experimented with Hotel du Nord and later on in Pilsen, within the European Capital of Culture experience, and in Forlì, within the ATRIUM-Architecture of Totalitarian Regimes in Urban Managements project, is a process made up of different steps: a training phase, through “The school of hosts”, opened to residents and professionals, a programming phase to identify enhancement activities, for instance heritage walks, and a promotional activity. In this respect, a networking activity is useful to exchange experiences”.
The Council of Europe works at different levels in order to promote, facilitate and strengthen the implementation of the Faro Convention, with many initiatives included in the Faro Action Plan, like Faro Community, Faro in Action, Faro Spotlight and Faro research. As Wanner affirms: “With the Council of Europe, we are working at least in three directions: developing new narratives as regards cultural heritage, beyond the national one, promoting the approach of cultural heritage as a commons and enhancing citizens participation in public policies for an increased cooperation”.
“I am particularly interested in the perspective of commons as democracy spaces” says Wanner. In this direction, he identified a range of suggestions which could be useful for the elaboration of a cultural heritage as a commons policy[2]:
- create a heritage public service in which citizens co-manage culture heritage
- create a cultural heritage open data system
- elaborate a public regulation on cultural heritage commons
- make the European Heritage Days an opportunity to promote the Faro Convention implementation
- experiment participatory governance of culture according to the heritage committees model promoted by the Council of Europe
- develop an observatory of the Faro Convention implementation within the Council of Europe.
The Hotel du Nord experience and the inspiring ideas laying behind it definitely give us some food for thought!
[1] They are identified by the Faro Community and included in Faro in Action, an active learning platform gathering good practices and promoting exchange and dialogue among practitioners, facilitators and heritage actors.
[2] Published here: https://farovenezia.org/2016/02/17/proposte-per-una-politica-pubblica-patrimoniale-in-favore-del-diritto-al-patrimonio-culturale/
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Le comunità patrimoniali, nate nell’ambito della Convenzione di Faro sul valore del patrimonio culturale per la società, costituiscono un’opportunità importante per favorire un approccio al patrimonio culturale come bene comune. Tra queste, esemplare è l’esperienza di Hotel du Nord, cooperativa di abitanti della città di Marsiglia che propone ospitalità e interessanti modalità di fruizione turistica, in un’ottica di valorizzazione del patrimonio locale e di massima cooperazione tra cittadini e istituzioni.
by Francesca Spigarolo | Feb 13, 2017 | The Urban Media Lab
On the 16th and 17th of February a 2-days workshop about resourcing and monitoring, organized within the framework of the TRANSIT (TRANsformative Social Innovation Theory) Project, will take place in Maastricht.
TRANSIT is a research project, co-founded by the European Commission, which addresses the question of “How social innovation can interact with other forms of (transformative) change, and how actors are (dis) empowered therein”. The projects aims at developing a theory with practical relevance, and in order to do so it adopts a research method which encourages feedback from social entrepreneurs and innovators, policy makers and academics.
In line with this approach, the workshop organized in Maastricht will bring together experts from TRANSIT with practitioners, funders and change agents working on transformative social innovation. The workshop will focus on the question of resourcing and monitoring, which are key issues we need to address in order to help social innovation initiatives going beyond the local achievements they are collecting, by joining forces in seeking contextual and institutional change. To activate an institutionalization process, resourcing and monitoring – two dimensions which are closely linked – are fundamental. Addressing these two dimensions means addressing 5 sources of tension which are being faced by social innovation initiatives: the question of the internal struggle over growth and direction, the fishing in the same pond issue, the internal and external need for monitoring, the problems of base founding and the co-option from imposed agendas. The workshop will also offer the occasion to review the latest research insights of the TRANSIT project about Social Innovation Initiatives resourcing and monitoring based on in-depth analysis of 20 transnational networks and 80 local manifestations of social innovation.
Professor Christian Iaione, LabGov’s co-founder, will be between the participants in the event, which will be a valuable occasion to exchange insights with other experts and change agents, to discuss and critique different strategies for resourcing, monitoring and sustaining SII, and to develop guidance for policymakers and practitioners on facilitating SII contributions to transformative societal change.
by Francesca Spigarolo | Feb 1, 2017 | The Urban Media Lab
Creative regeneration of public spaces and innovative public policies will be at the center of the reflection that the public meeting “RELAZIONI. Ecosistema città, governance diffusa, comunità creative” will activate.
The Municipality of Ruvo di Puglia is inviting its citizens, local associations and political groups to participate in the event, which will take place on Saturday the 4th of February in the hall of Palazzo Caputi.
The public meeting will see the participation of Christian Iaione (UniMarconi e LabGov – LABoratorio per la GOVernance dei beni comuni) and Annibale D’Elia (Comune di Milano, Associazione INnovare X INcludere), two experts who, since a long time, have been practicing and experimenting with innovation in governance and public policies. Starting from examples of local creative regeneration experiences, the discussion will explore the opportunities generated by political innovation, which has the potential to multiplicate human and social relations and to strengthen urban life dynamics. This meeting will allow for a deeper reflection on how citizens’ involvement can be stimulated through innovative public policies aiming at assessing the value of common goods and at structuring their collective management.
As explained by Monica Filograno, Councillor in charge of the city’s Culture Department whose speech will open the meeting, this event will be an important occasion to draw hypothesis on the future administrative path to be followed by the Administration and to discuss together the value of the commons in city’s life. The innovation process that the local Administration intends to activate in order to strengthen collaboration and sharing in city management requires us to reflect on the best direction to take, understanding also the broader international and national context in which “efforts to rethink cities as ecosystems in which everyone can find a space to express himself” are being made. The meeting will be then concluded by a speech of Pasquale Chieco, Major of Ruvo di Puglia.
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Rigenerazione creativa degli spazi urbani e innovazione nelle politiche pubbliche saranno al centro dell’incontro pubblico “RELAZIONI. Ecosistema città, governance diffusa, comunità creative” che avrà luogo sabato 4 febbraio presso la sala eventi di Palazzo Caputi a Ruvo di Puglia.
Durante l’evento, organizzato dall’Amministrazione comunale, queste tematiche saranno affrontate attraverso un dialogo con due esperti e “pratici” che da tempo sperimentano con l’innovazione nella governance e nelle politiche pubbliche: Christian Iaione (Roma UniMarconi e LabGov) e Annibale D’elia (Comune di Milano, Associazione INnovare X Includere).
“A partire da alcune esperienze concrete di rigenerazione creativa di spazi pubblici, nel corso dell’incontro si racconteranno le tante possibilità di moltiplicazione delle relazioni umane e sociali e delle dinamiche della vita cittadina che possono essere generate dall’innovazione politica”.
by Francesca Spigarolo | Jan 25, 2017 | The Urban Media Lab
When looking for examples of innovative experiments in urban governance and collaborative practices, many observers are turning to the city of Bologna and to its experience with the Regulation on public collaboration between citizens and the city for the care and regeneration of urban commons and with the legislation “Collaborare è Bologna”. In the last years the city has dedicated a lot of efforts to the promotion of a culture of collaboration and has tried to fill a legal gap, reducing the distance between the local administration and its citizens and bringing all urban actors to work together around the city’s common goods. These efforts are not going unnoticed, and numerous observers are looking at the city with curiosity, recognizing it as an innovative experimentation which could lead to creation of a new urban governance framework based on collaboration.
In a similar perspective, the Bologna case will be presented and discussed in Berlin on Friday the 27th of January during the Urban Change Talk: Bologna – a Laboratory for Urban Commons?, an event organized by Actors of Urban Change, a program aiming to achieve sustainable and participatory urban development through cultural activities, in cooperation with the Urban Research Group ‘Urban Commons’ at the Georg Simmel Center for Metropolitan Studies of Humboldt University.
The event will consist in a conversation between Dr. Martin Schwegmann, member and founder of the Urban Research Group “Urban Commons” and program manager of “Actors of Urban Change”, and different actors engaged in research and practice around the urban commons, coming both from Bologna and from Berlin. Professor Christian Iaione, LabGov’s coordinator, will take part in the event and, together with Giovanni Ginocchini, (Director of the URBAN CENTER BOLOGNA), will present the case of Bologna, while Marco Clausen, (Prinzessinnengarten), and Dr. Mary Dellenbaugh from the Urban Research Group “Urban Commons” will contribute to the conversation by also considering the experiences that are taking place in Berlin.
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Venerdì 27 Gennaio avrà luogo a Berlino l’evento Urban Change Talk: Bologna – a Laboratory for Urban Commons?, organizzato da Actors of Urban Change con il supporto dell’ Urban Research Group ‘Urban Commons’ del Georg Simmel Center for Metropolitan Studies della Humboldt University.
L’evento consisterà in una conversazione tra diversi attori impegnati nella ricerca e nella sperimentazione sui commons urbani che analizzeranno il caso della città di Bologna, considerato un esempio di pratica innovativa attraverso cui viene promossa una cultura di collaborazione e si sviluppa un nuovo modello di co-governance urbana. Il caso bolognese verrà presentato dal Professor Christian Iaione, coordinatore di LABGov, e da Giovanni Ginocchini, Direttore dell’Urban Center di Bologna, che racconteranno il percorso di CO-Bologna, dal Regolamento sulla collaborazione tra cittadini e amministrazione per la cura e rigenerazione dei beni comuni urbani e la politica “Collaborare è Bologna” alla sperimentazione nei cantieri.
by Francesca Spigarolo | Jan 24, 2017 | The Urban Media Lab
On January 10th, a one-day long seminar organized by the interdepartmental agency PUCA (Plan Urbanisme Construction Architecture), sponsored and hosted by the French Ministries of Housing and the Environment in Paris, gathered researchers from different fields (urbanism, architecture, law, and sociology) to discuss the state of the art and the future objectives of the research on habitat participatif[1]. This seminar has been an opportunity to retrace the origins, evolution and main implications of habitat participatif since the movement has gained momentum in the 2000s.
Over the last fifteen years, France has witnessed a resurgence of interest in residents-led housing projects as a response to the difficulties that a growing number of households encountered in getting access to housing due to the economic, financial, and real estate crisis. In particular, middle-income households – until then protected by their level of education and social integration – have seen their chances to get access to decent and affordable housing, especially in major cities and towns, seriously undermined[2]. On the one hand, the speculative rise in house and land prices prevented these groups from entering the private real estate and rental market. On the other hand, their income level was far too high to be eligible for social housing, also provided that the supply of social accommodation was unable to meet the demand of an increasingly large share of the population.
The instability created by the crisis, however, has served as the breeding ground for the re-emergence and spread of residents-led housing initiatives in France and, since the beginning of the 2000s, new housing projects have developed throughout the country and they are now in the hundreds[3]. At the heart of this spontaneous, residents-led mobilisation there is an increased awareness of the importance of protecting and fostering values such as environmental sustainability, mutual solidarity, citizens’ participation, and sharing of resources, knowledge and expertise. Rather than relying on the private market or being the passive recipients of social housing policies, groups of residents have increasingly been engaged in the conception, building, and management of their own housing projects, so playing an active role in shaping the city in a way that better responds to their needs and expectations. The multiplicity of terms that are used in France to describe these projects – habitat groupé, habitat autogéré, habitat alternatif, habitat participatif, habitat cooperatif and cooperatives d’habitants – captures the diversity of values, principles, layout, design, and legal arrangements that characterises the projects[4]. However, in spite of this heterogeneous mix, the expression habitat participatif has been increasingly chosen as a term capable of referring to all housing projects whose common goal is to place the resident at the earth of the realisation and management of her living space and to provide a valuable alternative to both the private market sector and public-led initiatives[5].
Grown out from the mobilisation of groups of residents, the habitat participatif movement has also acquired a national and institutional dimension due to the creation of national networks[6] and the involvement of social housing promoters[7] and other institutional players[8]. The dialogue among the different stakeholders culminated, after a long process of public consultation and discussion, in the legal recognition of the habitat participatif in the Loi ALUR[9]. The law reformed the Code de la construction et de l’habitation by introducing in the Code a definition of habitat participatif and by providing a new legal framework for its practical implementation. On the one hand, the law defined habitat participatif as a “citizens-based initiative that allows individuals to associate, if necessary with legal persons, in order to participate in the definition and design of their individual dwellings and common spaces, to construct or acquire one or more buildings and, where possible, to ensure their management”. Emphasis is placed on sharing and solidarity, since the habitat participatif is meant to promote “the construction and the supply of housing, as well as the development of collective spaces, under a logic of sharing and solidarity between inhabitants” [10]. On the other hand, the reform provided a completely new legal framework to be used by habitat participatif projects, and notably the cooperative d’habitants and the société d’attribution et d’autopromotion[11], which should replace, at least to a certain extent, the legal scheme of the copropriété des immeubles[12].
Although major innovations have been accomplished by this law reform and projects are flourishing throughout the country, the habitat participatif keeps raising important questions that deserve further study and investigation, as emerged during the afternoon workshops of the PUCA seminar. A first suggested line of research might investigate the major implications and changes that the institutionalisation of the habitat participatif, recently accomplished by the Loi ALUR, have brought about. A second line of research might instead focus on the individual/collective dimension of the projects and address issues related to the residents’ life and sustainability of the projects in the long-term. From a legal perspective, focusing on the individual/collective dimension of the habitat participatif would also lead to investigate and reconsider the way ownership, and multi-owned housing legal schemes in particular, have been conceived of and used so far in the framework of these projects[13]. Finally, a third line of research may attempt to further explore the reciprocal interaction between habitat participatif projects and the city, by examining both the role of the stakeholders involved and the outcomes of this interaction.
To conclude, what the state of the art of the research on habitat participatif has revealed is that habitat participatif represents more than a means to get access to housing by way of sharing common spaces and services; rather, the values it promotes and its structure deeply affect the role individuals play within the community and in the city. As Alain Jünd observed during the seminar, habitat participatif not only concerns the way in which projects are built and spaces shared, but also represents an entirely new way of “fabriquer la ville collectivement” [14].
Fabiana Bettini, Postdoctoral Researcher, Sciences Po Law School, Paris
This article is drawn from a broader research conducted in the framework of the ERC-funded project “INCLUSIVE” (2014-2019) led by Professor Séverine Dusollier and hosted by the Sciences Po Law School, Paris
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[1] The program of the seminar and the links to the relevant documents can be found at http://www.urbanisme-puca.gouv.fr/seminaire-l-habitat-participatif-les-derniers-a1048.html
[2] S. Bresson, L. Tummers, L’habitat participatif en Europe. Vers des politiques alternatives de développement urbain?, in Métropoles, 15 (2014), 15 décembre 2014, available at https://metropoles.revues.org/4960.
[3] Data are taken from a survey of habitat participatif projects made by La Coordin’action, an association that gathers and coordinates fourteen French associations involved in the promotion, development and realization of habitat participatif projects as well as in keeping the dialogue with other institutional actors open. The mapping of existing habitat participatif projects, at the different stage of their completion, is available at http://www.habitatparticipatif.eu/cartographie-de-lhabitat-participatif-2017/.
[4] S. Bresson, S. Denèfle, Diversity of self-managed co-housing initiatives in France, in Urban research and practice, 8:1, 2015, p. 5-16. On the major trends of habitat participatif projects, their roots and ideologies, see A. D’Orazio, La nébuleuse de l’habitat participatif: radiographie d’une mobilisation, in Métropolitiques, 16 janvier 2012, available at http://www.metropolitiques.eu/La-nebuleuse-de-l-habitat.html.
[5] This is the definition given in the preamble of the Livre Blanc de l’Habitat Participatif, where the term habitat participatif is used to encompass “toute une série d’initiatives dont l’objectif est la recherche d’alternatives aux cadres de production classiques du logement, en positionnant l’usager au cœur de la réalisation et de la gestion de son lieu de vie. […] il pourra s’imposer comme une voie alternative au logement aux côtés du parc privé et du logement social”: Livre Blanc de l’Habitat Participatif, Strasbourg, 2011, p.1. The Livre Blanc has been realised by the association Eco-Quartier Strasbourg on behalf of the Coordin’action in the aftermath of the national habitat participatif meetings held in Strasbourg during 2010.
[6] The Réseau national des collectivités pour l’habitat participatif formed in 2010 with the aim of bringing together municipalities, groups of municipalities, and regions, whose involvement in participatif housing was increasingly requested by the citizens’ initiatives. The brochure of the network is available for downloading at http://www.strasbourg.eu/developpement-rayonnement/urbanisme-logement-amenagement/projets-urbains/autopromotion-habitat-participatif/reseau-national-collectivite-habitat-participatif. Likewise, associations involved in supporting and promoting habitat participatif gathered into a national network called La Coordin’action : http://www.habitatparticipatif.eu/la-coordinaction/.
[7] Social housing in France is mostly provided by the organismes d’habitations à loyer modéré (HLM). They are organized in the Union Sociale pour l’Habitat and the Fédération des Coopératives HLM. For the role played by HLM organisms in the context of the habitat participatif projects, see La place et le role des organismes HLM dans l’habitat participatif, Réseau HLM pour l’Habitat Participatif, septembre 2016, available for downloading at http://habitatparticipatif.hlm.union-habitat.org/ush/Blog/La+note+de+positionnement+du+Mouvement+Hlm+sur+l%27habitat+participatif+est+parue.
[8] Other institutional players have been the Ministry of Housing, the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, banks (and notably the Crédit Mutuel), the Architectes Association, the CAUE Federation for Architecture, Urbanism and the Environment, the National Chamber of civil law notaries. The process of institutionalisation of the habitat participatif movement has been explored by C. Devaux, De l’experimentation à l’institutionalisation: l’habitat participatif à un tournant?, in Métropolitiques, 23 janvier 2012, available at http://www.metropolitiques.eu/De-l-experimentation-a-l.html, and more extensively, C. Devaux, L’habitat participatif. De l’initiative habitante à l’action publique, PUR, 2015.
[9] Cfr. Loi n°2014-366 du 24 mars 2014 pour l’accès au logement et un urbanisme rénové, available at https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000028772256&categorieLien=id.
[10] Art. 200-1 provides that “l’habitat participatif est une démarche citoyenne qui permet à des personnes physiques de s’associer, le cas échéant avec des personnes morales, afin de participer à la définition et à la conception de leurs logements et des espaces destinés à un usage commun, de construire ou d’acquérir un ou plusieurs immeubles destinés à leur habitation et, le cas échéant, d’assurer la gestion ultérieure des immeubles construits ou acquis. […] L’habitat participatif favorise la construction et la mise à disposition de logements, ainsi que la mise en valeur d’espaces collectifs dans une logique de partage et de solidarité entre habitants”.
[11] See articles 201-1 to 201-13 and articles 202-1 to 202-11 of the Code de la construction et de l’habitation. More detailed rules are still in the process of being adopted thorough implementing decrees of the Conseil d’Etat.
[12] Copropriété des immeubles is the most widespread legal arrangements used in France for multi-owned housing and a large portion of habitat participatif projects so far built have resorted to the copropriété scheme. Although the Loi ALUR has provided a new legal framework mostly based on cooperatives, copropriété will still be used in the future to a certain extent.
[13] This is the main focus of the research conducted in the framework of ERC-funded project “INCLUSIVE” led by Professor Séverine Dusollier and hosted by the Sciences Po Law School, Paris.
[14]Alain Jünd is Deputy Major of the city of Strasbourg responsible for town planning and environmental transition, and president of the Réseau national des collectivités pour l’habitat participatif.
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Il 10 gennaio a Parigi ha avuto luogo un seminario dedicato all’habitat participatif (abitare partecipativo e collaborativo), una pratica abitativa sempre più diffusa, caratterizzata dal coinvolgimento degli abitanti nella progettazione, realizzazione e gestione dello spazio abitativo. Questa soluzione, nata dalla mobilitazione di gruppi di residenti, rappresenta una valida alternativa sia al mercato immobiliare privato, con i suoi prezzi sempre più proibitivi, che alle iniziative di housing pubblico.
Ciò che emerge dalle ricerche sull’habitat participatif è che questa soluzione abitativa, oltre ad offrire una modalità differente di accesso all’abitazione, basata sulla condivisione di spazi e servizi, genera una profonda trasformazione nella concezione del ruolo dell’individuo all’interno della città e della società.
