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News, events and blog

From Greater Manchester to Barcelona and back again: lessons on co-production and digital democracy

To exemplify co-productive design principles means challenging the idea of an ‘end-user’ who receives a final report. It means rethinking what impact looks like and how it can be achieved. Our commitment is to engage decision-makers in a collaborative learning journey through informal spaces for exchange and international networking.  Trans-local learning is an important element in opening up spaces for learning and dissemination often reserved for academics to urban decision-makers.  Trans-localism is more than just cities learning from each other across national boundaries. It points to the need for meaningful interactions between networked individuals and groups of similarly thinking people beyond the local. What is at stake is a sense of belonging through shared perspectives and concerns that transcend local boundaries. 

In this third blog for our Trans-local Learning mini-series, Action Research Collective member Alice Toomer McAlpine reflects on her experience at the International Observatory on Participatory Democracy in Barcelona in November 2018.

  • Read more about From Greater Manchester to Barcelona and back again: lessons on co-production and digital democracy
Quotation from the Fawcett Society: women must be partners when policy is designed

GM Decides 2

Tuesday, March 5, 2019 - 09:30 to 11:30

GM Decides' Partnership Group meets to plan for an upcoming design sprint.

  • Read an account of their first session.
  • Learn about the background to GM Decides, and how to contact the organisers.
  • Read more about GM Decides 2
Quotation from the Fawcett Society: women must be partners when policy is designed

GM Decides: making digital democratic innovation work for Greater Manchester’s women

After months of preparation (including a field trip to Barcelona to meet some of those behind the city’s democratic portal), the GM Decides project kicked off last month with the first meeting of its Partnership Group. The Group was formed and brought together by ARC leads Alice Toomer-McAlpine and Katie Finney. The first session introduced the overarching aim, drew on examples from existing work on digital democratic innovation, and identified how the project should proceed. What follows is extracted from a video shared with participants.

  • Read more about GM Decides: making digital democratic innovation work for Greater Manchester’s women

Collaborating for fairer food futures: Sustainable Food Cities conference 2018

Author: Charlie Spring, 19th July 2018

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The Internet of Food

Author Nick Taylor Buck, 23rd March 2018

 

Last night I attended a Legup Social event at the Google Garage in Sheffield, where I was ably mentored by Andy Mayer (@andymayer) of Yoomee in all things digital.

After I explained the project and he held his head in his hands for a while, we came up with a set of steps to help us develop the digital infrastructure.

  • Read more about The Internet of Food

Our Projects

All our projects seek to contribute to realising just cities through developing more participatory processes, valuing citizens knowledges and supporting fairer outcomes for different groups.

Culture Heritage and Citizenship

How can we value everyday understandings of place, culture and heritage? These projects support citizens’ own understandings of the value of formal and informal cultural practices, memories and meanings of place.

Democracy and Engagement

How can decision-making processes be redesigned to include more voices and place citizens at the heart of policy-making? These projects directly seek to support more inclusive and co-productive governance within city-regions.

International Collaborations

This cluster of projects highlights those that specifically involve international partners across the Mistra Urban Futures network and beyond.

Local Management and Organisations

What are the changing roles and relationships between different organisations involved in the governance of city-regions? These projects have a specific focus on the roles of institutions as change agents in realising just cities, including local government, universities, partnership bodies, trade unions and third section organisations.

Neighbourhoods and Communities

How can we empower neighbourhoods and communities to develop their own capacities for social and economic change? These projects all have a strong focus on spatial and social justice through working at the neighbourhood scale.

Planning and Environment

How can citizens be involved in complex topics such as climate change, environment and planning? These projects seek to understand and map how different kinds of expertise can inform spatial planning and environmental strategy development and implementation.

Economy and Entrepreneurship

How can we support alternative economic practices and social entrepreneurship? These projects have a specific focus on spending decisions and new forms of economic organising.

Digital Tools and Techniques

To what extent can digital technologies support citizen participation, or do they create new forms of exclusion? These projects include a consideration of the role and value of digital platforms, tools and techniques in enhancing democratic engagement.

Methods and Practices

What methods and practices are needed to support transformative urban research? These projects have a specific focus on innovative methodologies, methods and mindsets, to test and learn about what works to support coproductive research and governance.

Greater Manchester

These projects are all being undertaken in Greater Manchester, North West of England.

Sheffield

These projects are all being undertaken in the Sheffield city-region, in the Yorkshire and Humber region of England.

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