by Alessandra Feola | Apr 4, 2014 | Luiss LabGov 2013-2014
MEETING MINUTES, March, 28th 2014
On 28th of March LabGov hosted the expert in European project management, Silvia Petrosino (Zètema Progetto Cultura srl), who explained the essential instruments to elaborate European cultural projects.
First of all, she specified projects are elaborated in order to respond to tender notices which derive from European policies that are actuated through programs. These projects produce effects on citizens, stakeholders and public institutions. Only legal entities are admitted to respond to calls for proposal.
The current EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation is called Horizon 2020, and it is the successor of the 7th Framework Programme. Horizon 2020 is divided into three categories: Excellent Science, Industrial Leadership and Societal Challenges. Regarding culture, the most important program is “Erasmus+: changing lives, opening minds”, composed by three key actions: mobility, cooperation for innovation and good practices, support for policies reform. This program is financed for 20% by the Communitarian Agency EACEA (Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency) and for 80% by national agencies (for Italy they are ISFOL, INDIRE and Agenzia Nazionale Giovani). Another program is “ Creative Europe” which responds to four challenges : overcome fragmentation, digital shift and lack of data and access to finance. This program is financed with 1.46 billion of Euros shared between culture ( 31%), media (56%) and cross sectors (13%). The objects of “Creative Europe” is to support the capacity of the Cultural and Creative Sector (CCS) to operate transnationally, promote the transnational circulation of cultural and creative operators, reach new audiences and enforce the cultural sector. The instruments for realizing these objects are cooperation, literary translations, networks and platforms.
Secondly, we analyzed a cooperation project realized by Zètema in cooperation with Estonia, Greece and Norway called “FolkMus-Folk music in MusEUMS, young musicians and old instruments” (2010-2012). In two years were organized meetings, 12 concerts, educational activities, workshops in museums involving young musicians coming from Italy, Estonia, Norway and Greece. As Petrosino said, an effective communication program was necessary to promote the event (newspapers, internet, posters ). Moreover, they collected the opinions of musicians and users through questionnaires which revealed the strong audience’s satisfaction. The success of this project was determined by a clear and effective idea, a balanced partnership, richness and cultural diversity, a rational working plan and finally personal commitment.
After this brief overview, the Labgovers were invited to put this knowledge into practice responding to a European call for proposal regarding the relationship between administration and young people.
by Alessandra Feola | Apr 3, 2014 | Luiss LabGov 2013-2014
MEETING MINUTES, March, 14th 2014
The meeting was held at LUISS Guido Carli University and hosts Dino Amenduni, New Media consultant of Proforma (www.proformaweb.it), a political communication Agency from Bari. He also writes a blog for Finegil-Gruppo Espresso and he is also a social media marketing and political communication trainer (www.slideshare.net/doonie).
14.00 – 15.15 – Presentation
15.15 – 16.15 Simulation
16.15 – 16.45 Brainstorming
PRESENTATION
“The end of the world is when we stop having trust” (Madeleine Quellette Michalska).
Dino Amenduni showed Censis Data on Italians’ media diet (data on who votes, how we votes, our sources of information). From 2007 to 2013 the percentage of Italians watching TV has increased, with a current average of more than 4 hours a day (we can speak about a real television dependence).
On the contrary there was a decrease of almost all newspapers’ readers and at this decrease in number does not correspond an increase of views on news websites. Where are the readers gone? The answer is “on social networks”. Therefore it becomes essential for senders to know how to communicate effectively and directly on social networks because, differently from the press, in them there is no intermediation.
Furthermore, Censis Data shows that exist a digital divide but also a press divide, which is the divide between people that have never stopped reading newspapers and people that have never read one. Italians who read newspapers are usually over 65 years old and this data must be considered when we chose the way we are going to communicate during the electoral campaign. About 37 million people today use the internet. In this scenario, it is possible to speak about digital natives (those who are born in the internet era), digital adults (those who experienced the birth of the internet) and predigitals (those who didn’t experience the digital era or do not accept it). Nowadays organizing a campaign only on a single communication level it’s unthinkable: a lot of young people use the Internet to keep informed, whereas mature people still read newspapers.
What the Italians do with the Internet? They look for information, watch movies, buy items, carry out civic activities (less frequently). The number of Italians looking for information through the web is increasing. What does this imply? Why the digital age causes difficulties for the printed newspaper? The main risk for newspapers is the loss of readers caused by the fact that they can be anachronistic, like in the case of the Costa Concordia. The recovery of the cruise ship finished at 4:30 a.m and, while the new media covered it in real time, the newspapers were 24 hours late.
Consequences of newspaper sales plummeting consist in a loss of jobs for journalists and a decreased of the possibility to do investigative journalism. Moreover, there is not a corresponding increase in online newspapers readers. So, the role of social networks is now crucial because:
– readers of online articles are directly proportional to the advertisement of the piece on the social networks;
– if online articles are not competitive, they lose readers;
– readers are attracted by emotional approaches: web journalists need to exploit this feature in order not to lose readers.
The concept of information on Facebook is variable, the sources are out of user’s reach and this implies that authoritative contents and gossip can have the same space. The importance of Twitter is less that Facebook one: twitter has 1/6 of users of the ones of Facebook. In other countries differences are far less sensible. In Italy Facebook has primarily a ‘communication’ purpose; Twitter a ‘relationship’ one. Twitter is more used when you want to communicate to elites (politician and journalists) and consequently you want to reach traditional media, whereas Facebook is more used to establish a direct contact with a much wider audience without intermediation.
Significant online interaction BUGS:
– Online reputation is important
– You have to consider young/adult divide
– Functional analphabetism: among OCSE member states, Italy is the country with the highest number of functional analphabets (twice the number of the state in second position)
Case study: Greenpeace
The strength point of Greenpeace actions is that it has no permanent allies or enemies and it has two important consequences: independence and equidistance.
Greenpeace’s most important campaigns are:
– KitKat advertising;
– Save the Artic;
– Fashion duel;
– Io non vi voto (I don’t vote for you);
– Greenpeace vs. Enel (Brindisi)
Considering the first one advertising, the campaign shows a well known Nestlé’s product, the KitKat. Through a very strong and ironic language the campaign is able to communicate the damage that the production of such goods implies, that is the deforestation in Indonesia. Nestlè’s request of removing the video produced the so-called Streisand effect: the effect was contrary to the intentions of the company because in this way an increasing number of people have watched the video due to the fact that was “prohibited”.
SIMULATION
The aim of the simulation was to organize in groups a communication campaign to publicize the Regulation of Bologna between citizens and Public Administration.
GROUP I
Proposal: The first group proposed a communication campaign based on a video and some posters that rise awareness on cooperation between citizens and Public Administration publicizing a contest of ideas about the regeneration of the commons. #comepossoesserciutile? (#howcanIhelpme?)
Problems: Dino Amenduni pointed out that is important to coordinate the different channels if there is a single campaign. The campaign should be recognizable even when different communication channels are used so videos posters must make sense even when viewed separately.
GROUP II
Proposal: The second group proposed the campaign “TUTELACURI” based on two different posters, a video and a Facebook campaign: the first with the superposition of commons like a statue with a human body with the aim to humanize culture and to promote the adoption of a city common.
Problems: Amenduni pointed out the difficulties of the difficulty of carrying out a campaign on too many media with too different languages. The risk is to confuse people who could be not able to attribute them to the same campaign.
GROUP III
Proposal: Masterchef (“this cannot be eaten” – “this is unlivable”). The campaign was based on posters that compare food, something familiar to all, to culture and common goods. The aim was to highlight how food, that no one would want to eat, must be similar to degraded commons that anyone would like to live or have.
GROUP IV
Proposal: ReinventiAMO Bologna
Problems: not fully developed, the idea must be completed with some other elements.
GROUP V
Proposal: LetuemaniperBologna (YourHandsForBologna) Main Slogan + Specific Slogan.
Problems: the message must be more easily understood and there must be a description of the common.
GROUP VI
Problems: need for efficacy increase, the commons must be allocated, the length of the campaign must be expanded.
SIMULATION CONCLUSION
INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE: a message is more easily understood through simple and frequent words and you can not base a campaign only on negative aspects or on what does not work: the positive effects of the proposed activity must be always underscored.
by Alessandra Feola | Mar 31, 2014 | Commons Press
A collection of essays on the Commons, edited by Gregorio Arena and Christian Iaione
Air, water, environment, urban spaces, legality: commons. The public debate about these resources neither public nor private is increasingly more alive in Italy. Citizens, above all in this moment of crisis, re-think their way of living together democracy. We are talking about citizens that, in their everyday life, devote time and competences to the entire community and take care of all these collective resources, cooperating to the better quality of life for all. We are talking about active citizens.
The activities of daily commitment of these individuals received new impetus from the Constitutional Reform of the Title V of the Italian Constitution.
The introduction of the principle of horizontal subsidiarity in the Constitutions provides that the Republic “shall promote the autonomous initiatives of citizens, both as individuals and as members of associations, in carrying out activities of general interest, on the basis of the principle of subsidiarity”. Active citizens have not waited over. As highlighted the two editorsin the Introduction of the book: “the explosion of civic energy to support and protect the commons is an important novelty in the Italian scene, at least for the dimension of the phenomenon in the last years. […] However the element of innovation is that during the last years has become a mass phenomenon […]”.
The editors and supporters of the project.
The publication of the book “Italy of the Commons” edited by Gregorio Arena and Christian Iaione aims to testify the development of this innovative process. The volume, edited by Carocci with the contribution of Roma Third Sector Foundation, aims to make an overview of the situation of the commons in Italy. The two editors are respectively, President and Director of Labsus: Laboratory for the subsidiarity. Labsus was born as a magazine online and scientific journal and progressively became a cultural and political point of reference for the thousands of those active citizens and several administrations that are involved daily in the shared care of the commons. From 2006 the creators of the project are committed to spread the idea of the necessity that more citizens become responsible and interested in the matter, following the experience of all those active citizens that longtime are engaged in improving the care and maintenance of an important common good such as their Country.
Moreover Labsus acts as resonance box for experiences of participation: wherever there is a shared garden, an initiative of civic agriculture, the promotion of way of life respectful of the commons or a group of citizens that are organized for adopting and maintaining squares, streets, parks of our cities, in every of these situations Labsus is there to testify.
Labsus is a factory where are experimented new paradigms for life in society. The Book “Italy of the Commons” highlights as a main purpose the activities of study and documentation about the several facets of the term “commons”. For a real understanding of the change taking place in the society it is necessary to clarify the issues of the commons. The dynamics that bring people to cooperate for the protection of the commons must be identified. In particular potentials and implications for the safeguard of these resources from institutions and citizens must be understood.
The various contributions
The essay authored by Carlo Donolo introduces to the concept of common good and to the role of “basis for social life” which it covers. According to Carlo Donolo the commons are hidden everywhere, they are numerous and of different kind: the climate is a natural common good; instead the networks are an artificial common good, finally security is a good that can be found also within private goods such as houses. Trust, knowledge and subsidiarity are commons of which all citizens are provided. From the point of view of the author what is interesting is the possibility to consider the subsidiarity both as an organizational principle and as capabilities-building practices. The subsidiarity allows citizens to discover the role of the commons and the public goods contributing to their propagation. Maurizio Franzini follows a different approach looking at the commons from an economic perspective. The majority of economists do not deal with this subject. The author’s question is about the existence of a solution that on the one hand counteracts the excessive exploitation of common resources, by now a manifest phenomenon, on the other hand allows the common enjoyment without resorting to the privatization. A solution of this question can be found in the creation of institutions and procedures that promote the spread of cooperative behavior in society. Therefore citizens have to cooperate to contribute to the common social and economic wellbeing. To protect the social wellbeing means to care about the maintenance of the welfare State and of democracy itself. Christian Iaione raises meaningful questions about the connection between commons and the quality of life of people: “where does a person go if she lives in a city, […] and feels the need to stay in a natural environment, to do jogging, to read a book on a lawn to breathe clean air? How can this person nourish its will of social relations and meet new people […]? Where this person can cultivate its sense of belonging to a community […]? What are the infrastructure and the services that allow a life worth living […]”. All those questions have always the same answer: the urban spaces and services of common interest. Nowadays these space and services are in crisis. Why? The reasons are the lack of affection of the citizens and the cuts in the budget of local authorities. What is the result? Urban degradation. And what is the solution? Active citizens shall be empowered with the right to manage urban commons. To take care of our cities is in the interest of all citizens because there is an indissoluble nexus between the commons and the achievement of the individual and common wellbeing. The conditions that guarantee the welfare of an urban space have to be preserved and maintained by the citizens. This is the best solution for two reasons: first, local government can rely on the competences and abilities that citizens can offer for the care of the urban commons; secondly, citizens can develop new competences and capabilities by taking care of urban commons. According to Iaione the principle of horizontal subsidiarity has to be considered as the founding stone of a new system of urban welfare. Labsus documents every day a lot of experiences of citizens that activate themselves for defending their city against urban degradation. It looms on the horizons of a new model of administration in which citizens are the main actor together with institutions, of the governance of the commons.
A further approach is given by Giuseppe Cotturri. The Author identifies a link between the citizens’ action for the protection of the commons and the development of the South of Italy. This is a current topic in this time of crisis. Precisely from the crisis and from the need to overcome it Gregorio Arena moves to develop its reflection about community welfare. In Italy there is a strong tradition of solidarity that has its roots in the Social Doctrine of the Church and that manifests itself through the principle of subsidiarity. In the encyclical Caritas in veritate is affirmed that the subsidiarity promoting “«freedom and participation as a means for the assumption of responsibility» encourages the development of free, active, responsible and united persons able to take care of the common good”. This principle could be the way out of the crisis because allows the realizations of an organizational model where the local government is the hub of a network composed by citizens and administrations that share the duty to protect the commons and thereby produce welfare for the entire community.
Conclusion
The reflection developed in this book represent a useful point of departure to continue in the study of this subject that emerges from the social, economic, legal and institutional dynamics. However, the theoretical reflections and the documentations of cases and experiences are not enough. In fact the editors highlight that in order to create a new model of administration it is necessary to begin a cultural action also in schools and institutions. Indeed Labsus is not only theory. With the support of Fondazione Roma Terzo Settore, Labsus started an educational project called “School of civic maintenance of the commons – Rock your school” (www.rockyourschool.org). The pilot project has been made in two high schools of Rome. The concepts and reflections about the commons have come to life in the hands of young and active citizens. Labsus has also been involved in a new project with the Fondazione del Monte di Bologna e Ravenna and the Municipality of Bologna that consist in the practical experimentation of the techniques of shared administration of the urban commons.
by Alessandra Feola | Feb 8, 2014 | The Urban Media Lab
From the streets of Bologna to the Italian Constitution, a newly conceived local regulation on public collaboration for urban commons.
Collaborative governance will become the salient characteristic of the City of Bologna and paragraph 118(4) of the Italian Constitution, introducing the principle of horizontal subsidiarity, will finally become the keystone of a new relationship between cities and governments. Horizontal subsidiarity demands all levels of governments to find ways to share their powers and cooperate with single or associated citizens willing to excercise their constitutional right to carry out activities of general interest.
The project “City as a Commons” has demonstrated that a partnership between public administrations and citizens is today possible. Public administrations shall no longer govern only on behalf of citizens, but also together with citizens, acknowledging that citizens may represent a powerful and reliable ally capable of unleashing a great source of energy, talents, resources, capabilities, skills and ideas that may be harnessed to improve the quality of life of a community or help contribute to its survival.
The City as a Commons project started in June 2012 thanks to an initiative of Fondazione del Monte di Bologna and Ravenna led by professor Marco Cammelli. The Cities as a Commons project is based on the “City as a Commons” background study presented at a workshop held in Imola on December 11th, 2011 organized by professor Cammelli in his capacity as president of the Scientific Committee of Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Imola. After the Imola workshop, the idea was presented to the City of Bologna and the Mayor of Bologna, Virginio Merola, decided to run an administrative experimentation program entrusting the project supervision to Commissioner Luca Rizzo Nervo and Director General Giacomo Capuzzimati.
The project applied an empirical approach. First a research unit collected, studied and analyzed cases already carrying at least some collaborative governance features in Bologna and other cities with the aim to demonstrate how this model of government could be useful to update the traditional paradigm of government and was already being implemented by the City of Bologna without being full aware or not harnessing its full potential. The research unit organized then a training program for the internal administrative task force coordinated by Donato Di Memmo, coordinator of the Active Citizenship Office and established within the Institutional Affairs and Decentralization Department led by Anna Rita Iannucci. The research unit and the administrative task force formed a project steering committee and together designed experimentations to get to a prototype of a governance/regulatory tool based on the principle of horizontal subsidiarity and on collaborative governance mechanisms. City officials, with the help of a local partner, facilitated the birth of experimental partnerships between the City and local residents with regards to the management of three urban commons (e.g. a public square, a piece of the lengthy network of the so-called “portici” and a public building, all assets in need of cooperative placemaking). On the basis of the lessons learned on the field through the experimentations and after all the necessary tests and analysis on the current national, regional and regulatory framework, three City officials, Donato di Memmo, Chiara Manaresi, Antonio Carastro, and two external experts, Gregorio Arena and Christian Iaione, received from the Mayor of Bologna the mandate to draft an innovative piece of local regulation. The draft was then subject to public consultation and reviewed by some of the most prominent Italian administrative law scholars.
On February 22nd, 2014 the results of the project were presented in Bologna. On that very day the draft of the Regulation on collaboration between citizens and the city for the care and regeneration of urban commons was unveiled and submitted for final approval to the City Council which finally received approval on May 19th, 2014. The project has been awarded the Medal of Representation of the President of the Italian Republic. The Bologna regulation on collaborative governance of urban commons has been proposed and made available to all Italian cities and Mayors. The cities of Siena, Ivrea, L’Aquila have already approved almost identical regulations. Many other cities like Genova, Palermo, Firenze, Bari, Salerno, Rome are considering the adoption of the Bologna regulation. The City of Bologna is now working on a new public policy called “Collaborare è Bologna” based on the regulation on public collaboration for urban commons and is willing to act as a mutual learning laboratory for any city official, public servant, expert, scholar, activist or citizen willing to work on the advancement of the social, economic, political, urban transition towards the “co-cities” paradigm.
by Alessandra Feola | Jan 15, 2014 | The Urban Media Lab
How to tell the story of the queen of the commons, Eleonor Ostrom? Whith a movie.
Eleonor Ostom, first woman to win the Nobel Prize, highlighted the role of commons and citizen participation. With her husband Vincent, a scholar of public administration, founded in 1973 the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis. Theirs ideas change the way in which to look at shared resources, public spaces and services, environment, climate change and much more.
“Actual World, Possible Future” will be the story of the life of Eleonor and Vincent that according to the Director «in their half-century relationship, built an enduring, loving marriage; an influential intellectual partnership; and a wide-ranging movement of people dedicated—as the Ostroms were—to addressing the enormous problems that plague human societies»
But it doesn’t end here. The Director of the movie Barbara Allen, filmmaker and Political Science Professor at Carleton College, but above all friends of the couple, launched a crowd-funding campaign to finance part of the realization of the movie. In a perfect “commons style” she asked the contribution of all people that want Elionor Ostrom and her ideas spread around the globe through a film.
If you want more information on how to support this project see at: http://igg.me/at/ostromsthemovie
MEETING MINUTES, March, 28th 2014
