In Israel, regional clusters serve as a mechanism for regional development, achieved through the integration of interests, pooling of resources, knowledge transfer, and the facilitation of ...agglomerations. This study gains insights from two EU regional development programs, LEADER and URBACT, to potentially benefit the regional clusters in Galilee, Israel's northern periphery. The research examined five municipal clusters in Galilee, aiming to identify their distinct characteristics and place them within a wider theoretical and comparative framework. A qualitative research approach was adopted, involving semi‐structured interviews with the clusters' CEOs and an analysis of pertinent policy documents. The findings suggest that Galilee's municipal clusters encounter challenges similar to those faced by the EU's LEADER and URBACT programs. These include establishing regional networks, achieving recognition for their capabilities, and cultivating trust and cooperation gradually. The CEOs shared their experiences in navigating the challenges posed by wary mayors and government ministries. The recognized success of these clusters, as evidenced in policy documents, could signify a shift from Israel's traditional centralist political culture to a more decentralized power structure.
Over the last decades, a growing strand of research has focused on the role that city networks play in local policy innovation and learning in the field of climate and the environment. In this ...regard, global transnational city networks have been at the core of the academic debate, whereas the number of studies investigating the European context and, more specifically, the networking initiatives supported or ‘orchestrated’ by the European Union (EU) has, to date, been limited. This article improves our understanding of how the latter type of network operates, and the extent to which these networks comply with expectations regarding their learning and capacity-building potential. By adopting social network analysis as a framework, we formulate and test a number of research propositions, and thus unpack the relevance and impact of the EU URBACT programme, which, since the year 2000, has promoted the creation of city networks as a tool for use in peer-to-peer learning and capacity-building in the field of sustainable urban development.
For many cities, abandoned or underused spaces pose a major challenge, but temporary use is being manifested as a tool that can offer solutions. So-called “meanwhile spaces” provide opportunities for ...city officials to create the conditions for the cultural economy to be supported while simultaneously meeting urban regeneration goals and supporting city marketing purposes. In European cities, such as Berlin, Ghent, Nantes, and Bremen, there are examples where “temporary urbanism” is being incorporated into mainstream policy and is forming part of the city’s identity and tourism promotion. Temporary use is discussed in the context of current challenges facing European cities (austerity crisis, unemployment, refugee crisis, lack of affordable housing or office space). In this paper, the focus is on the creative sector. More recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has sparked discussion on how temporary use can cover a community’s needs. In this contextual framework, the scope was to explore the conditions under which temporary use becomes an effective policy tool and discuss management issues and difficulties that may arise. A description and analysis of the particularities of initiatives that were implemented in Athens compared to the ones in other European cities are presented. This paper is partly based on the works of the Athens URBACT Refill project, which included an extended consultation process with local stakeholders. Further field research was conducted regarding how temporary use initiatives with a cultural focus have been managed and the way the relations between owners, managers, and users were formed. Feedback from users and stakeholders’ representatives is presented. The key findings refer to the evaluation of the approaches used in temporary use initiatives with a cultural focus, the future perspectives, and the difficulty with drawing early conclusions on the effectiveness of these initiatives and the impact on the reputation of the city. Finally, the discussion is linked with promoting Athens as a city that allows experimentation by citizens’ groups and cultural initiatives in the context of temporary interventions.
“Social mix” is an urban policy concept intended for inclusion of deprived neighbourhoods, which occurred in the 1990s with the HOPE VI policy in the U.S. and has been implemented in various ways, ...eras, and cities. Even today, there are cases where social mix is used as an element of revitalization projects in historic districts and declining areas. URBAN REGENERATION MIX, the subject of this study, is one such example. This paper traces urban policies that planned social mix in the past, considers URM as the current stage of social mix in urban policies, and discusses the changes in policy objectives, targets, and methods from the past policies to the contemporary URM. this papaer will also suggest the limitations of social mix policies based on these changes.
In recent years, discussions on "creative industries," which relate culture and the arts to industry and the economy, have spread, and there are growing expectations that the creative industries can ...become a new industrial sector in which culture and the arts can support urban development. The creative industries are expected to become a new industrial sector that supports urban development. Since the creative industries have diverse elements, cross-sectoral strategies and cooperation are indispensable for policy implementation, and a bottom-up approach that involves stakeholders is used.This study focused on the "Creative Spirits" project, which is one of the URBACT initiatives that focuses on the creative industries, and clarified the characteristics of discussions on stakeholders in the creative industries based on the initiatives among the participating cities.
URBACT, an urban policy program that has been implemented in the EU since 2002, serves as a platform for the formation of policy networks among multiple cities to exchange information and share ...experiences in order to provide knowledge on urban regeneration to as many cities as possible. This study focuses on URBACT, the EU's urban policy network, and examines its activities as well as the formation process and significance of the policy network. As a result of the research, the activities of URBACT can be classified into two categories: "formation of policy networks" and "formulation of LAPs".(2) Regarding the method of policy network formation, URBACT III has turned to a mechanism that actively encourages networking among cities.URBACT III can be considered to be implementing urban regeneration at two different scales: 1) the level of issues common to multiple cities obtained through policy networks, and 2) the formulation of LAPs tailored to the actual conditions of each region.
From the beginning of the birth of urban planning theory, there have been always seeks to plan the better community through physical planning. The trends of those “community planning” changed from ...the idea to “construct a planned-community in suburban area as a new satellite city” to the approach to regenerate the built environment. One of the current community planning practices in European cities have been found in the URBACT program. During the three different terms from 2002 to 2020, the URBACT has diversified central theme from community development. This study examines one of the URBACT projects, so-called RE-Block, which has been carried out the creation of public spaces and new urban facilities, publicity activities and management of local websites. The recent community planning seen in URBACT integrates the physical transformation with social inclusion issues.
PDF
