Walkscapes: Urban Regeneration through Education

Walkscapes: Urban Regeneration through Education

Over two-thirds of the EU population lives in urban areas, accounting for almost 80% of total energy consumption and 85% of GDP. While representing the engines of the European social and economic life, acting as catalysts for creativity and innovation, cities are where the most severe social problems, such as unemployment, segregation, homelessness and environmental degradation, more easily persist.

Rapid urban development and a growing population has led to an increase in demand for practices of sustainable urban development. In this regard, the Sustainable Development Goal 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities requires cities to be liveable, safe and participative. This goal serves as a milestone in advancing practices of sustainable urbanism, as it shifts the attention towards a stronger social integration for sustainable urban planning and management.

Similarly, the European Commission defines the EU approach to a sustainable and integrated urban development as characterised by “a multi-level governance and multi-stakeholder approach, which coordinates different actors according to their respective roles, skills and scales of interventions, ensuring that citizens are actively engaged”.

The project “Walkscapes: Urban Regeneration through Education” fits in this context by adopting the practice of the “Walkscape” as a tool to increase young citizens’ awareness about sustainable urbanism and promote their engagement in active citizenship.  Illustrated by Careri1, a Walkscape is a group walk designed to explore neglected spaces in urban and peri-urban areas to understand their transformations. It represents an invitation to observe, listen, draw, write, photograph, collect and learn to deconstruct and reinvent the identity and function of those places whose role in our cities is ambivalent and prone to decay. 

Project period: 28.02.2022 – 28.02.2024

Project number: 2021-1-IT03-KA210-YOU-000033858

Erasmus+ program: KA210 – Small Scale Partnerships in Youth

Target groups: Youth,

Stakeholders: Environmental associations, municipalities, cultural associations, NGOs, Universities

 

Aim and objectives:

The project aims to train youth in Italy and Lithuania on the principles of Urban Regeneration. Through Walkscaping, they will understand urban transformations in different European contexts, learn to design and realize grassroot practices of urban renewal. To reach this general objective, the project will also aim to the attainment of the following specific objectives:

  • To consolidate a practice of non-formal education on Urban Regeneration (i.e., Walkscaping)

  • To promote transnational cooperation on Urban Regeneration between Parma and Kaunas

  • To spread small scale practices of Urban Renewal

 

Results: 

  • Walkscapes Handbook, which will consist in a manual codifying the methods, objectives and educational outcomes of Walkscaping. The Handbook will serve to the realization of the Walkscapes planned throughout the project’s lifecycle and as a manual for any organization and stakeholder who may wish to implement Walkscaping as an educational activity.

  • 4 Walkscapes (2 in Parma and 2 in Kaunas) will be carried out during the project period to effectively test the methodology devised on the target groups, mostly composed of 20-25 young participants (18-30 years old). During these activities participants will have the opportunity to engage in stimulating activities that will help them reflect and imagine new ways to live their own city.

  • 2 Training of Trainers (TOTs) which will aim to equip the participants of the previous Walkscapes with the proper skills to manage their own Walkscape. In Kaunas (LT), this activity will be carried out during a joint staff training event, while in Parma (IT) it will implement independently by the project coordinator.

  • A Dossier with policy recommendations for municipalities and any relevant public authorities who are dealing with topics and issues related to education, sustainable urbanism, ecology, social issues and any other related topic. The goal of this result will be to present the results of the project, while also providing, through a multi-stakeholder bottom-up approach, relevant suggestions to policy makers.

 

Project partners:

1. Laboratorio Urbano di Prossimità - LUP (Italy)

2. VsI "eMundus" (Lithuania)

 

Project website: walkscapes.emundus.lt

 

1. Careri is an Italian university professor who invented this practice. He wrote a book about it,