{"id":72,"date":"2014-06-30T14:38:32","date_gmt":"2014-06-30T13:38:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alisonseabrooke.uk\/?p=72"},"modified":"2014-06-30T14:38:32","modified_gmt":"2014-06-30T13:38:32","slug":"enabling-just-and-fair-inclusion-in-our-cities-june-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alisonseabrooke.uk\/?p=72","title":{"rendered":"Enabling just and fair inclusion in our cities"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am a huge advocate of peer-to-peer learning and networking in communities and between community groups.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the place where people are able to speak frankly about their ideas, as well as any challenges they have faced, with people like them.<\/p>\n

I recently realised how important it is for me to keep up with my own peer networks, so that I can keep learning and exploring in safe environment: I find it enables me to lift my head upwards and look outwards.<\/p>\n

In June I was invited by the\u00a0German Marshall Fund of the United States<\/a>\u00a0to speak at an international event in Bilbao, Spain.<\/p>\n

The congress brought people together from cities across the USA and Europe to talk about their experiences of urban transformation.<\/p>\n

Keen to share the work of CDF, and the grassroots groups we support, with a new audience, I went prepared to talk about the approaches we take in the UK which pass money and decision-making to local people regardless of where they live, seen in programmes like our own Community First and he Local Trust-led Big Local.<\/p>\n

Equity \u2013 just and fair inclusion<\/h3>\n

The central theme of the three-day event was \u2018equity\u2019, which was described as \u2018just and fair inclusion\u2019.<\/p>\n

With an audience comprising architects, planners, academics, officials, non-profits and funders it was satisfying that this is now an accepted principle, rather than a theoretical notion for any place-based regeneration.<\/p>\n

In my session, I set out the UK context, stressing that before we talk about successful method of participation, we must think hard about the means to participate.<\/p>\n

Equity means having financial security and freedom to participate for example, the ability to travel or to work.<\/p>\n

But what I learnt through the discussion that followed extended beyond my ability to talk about our UK approach.<\/p>\n

How cities are benefiting from immigration<\/h3>\n

One of the hot topics discussed was immigration. I gained new insights into how this can extend beyond the debate played out in the British media between overstretched national resources versus enhancing under-resourced skills in businesses.<\/p>\n

It became clear to me that places which do well see a mixed and thriving ethnic community as the natural marketing route for trade.<\/p>\n

The more nations represented in an area, the more likely products and services are designed for and reach international markets.<\/p>\n

It also helps with the \u2018welcome mat\u2019 which needs to be rolled out for trade and visitor markets; the more apparent the diversity of a city and its accessibility via breadth of language, the more likely a productive relationship will develop.<\/p>\n

London was often cited as a great example of this \u2013 perhaps a message to other UK cities to positively promote and encourage diversity as a means to economic growth.<\/p>\n

In one discussion the Toronto effect was described; Toronto is the most ethnically diverse city in the world, with no majority ethnicity.<\/p>\n

It is seen as the place for start-ups; if you want to launch a product you have to go to Toronto.<\/p>\n

Apparently Facebook really went global after it reached the city, capitalising on its multi-ethnic international networks.<\/p>\n

The benefits of cross-city dialogue<\/h3>\n

Cross-city dialogue enables these peer-to-peer exchanges to take place more regularly and candidly than inter-nation political exchanges might.<\/p>\n

And Bilbao\u2019s a fantastic, transformed city in which to do this. Its growing success extends far beyond the\u00a0iconic Guggenheim art gallery<\/a>, looking like a giant-sized crushed metal can, wedged between buildings old and the new.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a city of brave visual statements and with aspiration which extends to all of its citizens.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a city which is able to invest in mixed housing, public spaces, businesses, sport, art and culture in liberal measure due its devolved financial arrangements which enables it to retain 90% of its local taxes.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s a city that is both a place to learn from and a place to aspire to.<\/p>\n

– See more at: http:\/\/www.cdf.org.uk\/bilbao\/#sthash.1ONHDfsL.dpuf<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As an invited speaker at the first Bilbao Urban Innovation and Leadership Dialogues (BUILD) convention, Alison shares what she learnt about how other European and American cities involve their communities. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[14,23,38,44,76,89,90,93,100,104,112,113,118,186,187],"class_list":["post-72","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cdf","tag-architecture","tag-build","tag-cities","tag-communities","tag-design","tag-equity","tag-ethnic","tag-fair-finance","tag-gmfus","tag-guggenheim","tag-immigration","tag-inclusion","tag-international","tag-urban-design","tag-urban-transformation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alisonseabrooke.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alisonseabrooke.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alisonseabrooke.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alisonseabrooke.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alisonseabrooke.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alisonseabrooke.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alisonseabrooke.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alisonseabrooke.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alisonseabrooke.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}