Levente Polyak

FUNDING THE COOPERATIVE CITY: Our new book about community finance and the economy of civic spaces is released! For more info visit https://cooperativecity.org/2017/06/03/funding-the-cooperative-city/

In late July we were invited by Largo Residencias to participate at a public discussion in the frame of the Intendente Festival, looking into the consequences of touristification, gentrification and displacement, and explore strategies to strengthen local communities in the face of these transformations.

In June, invited by Aspen Institute Central Europe, I joined reSITE Festival to participate in a keynote discussion with journalist Petr Vizina, UN officer Michal Broža and architect Teddy Cruz about borders, spatial inequality and civil society.

In the past months, we have been working along with various EU institutions to support cities in creating more integrated, sustainable and inclusive policies and in using better existing financial resources. We were present at the European Commission / DG Regio’s Urban Development Network meeting in Ghent and moderated a Dialogue event of the European Investment Bank’s Jaspers programme in Vienna.

We have been helping municipalities in experimenting with new programmes and modalities of cooperation with civic stakeholders. In Split and Dubrovnik, in the frame of the Approaches to Participatory Governance of Cultural Institutions project, we met municipal officers and cultural producers who work on new models of innovative cultural institutions based on the principles of participatory governance. In Murcia, we joined forces with the experimental network Urbelac, connecting European and Latin American cities around innovative policies. With the Interactive Cities Urbact Action Planning Network, we organised a study visit to Helsinki and co-designed a transnational meeting in Tartu.

In the past months, we have been touring European cities to present and discuss our work. In Paris, we gave a keynote lecture about the contemporary urban visions of Budapest, while at the Leggere la Cittàfestival in Pistoia (Tuscany) we spoke about civic initiatives and economic stability. In Rome, we hosted a delegation of ministry officers and planners from Congo, we presented the Cooperative City platform at the Time for Impact event in the Casa dell’Architettura, and participated at roundtable discussions at the Forum Pubbliche Amministrazioni and the Biennale dello Spazio Pubblico.