UrbCulturalPlanning

The project UrbCulturalPlanning addressed social and urban development by involving citizens in the cultural planning.

Cities in the Baltic Sea region are challenged by emerging societal and demographic changes and a growing need for sustainable development of neighbourhoods. Active co-creation among citizens and between citizens and authorities can be a way to overcome the increasing exclusion of socially sensitive groups, such as the elderly and minors, and to advance Baltic Sea region social innovation. Dealing with these societal challenges requires innovative approaches and the involvement of citizens. Therefore, city and community administrators urgently need to learn and deploy new skills of innovative and participatory problem-solving.

Cultural Planning as a proven method of citizen-centred social innovation

The project UrbCulturalPlanning developed a number of hands-on Demonstrator Projects to address the challenges of shrinking cities, social inclusion, gentrification, use of green and blue resources, lack of community life, and stigmatisation and conflicts.

The project used cultural events and gaming methods to engage people in urban social innovation and stimulate interactions among varied groups of citizens. The project also stimulated the cooperation between the municipalities and cultural planners for better use of public spaces.

Culture and creativity were used to make living better in neighbourhoods in cities and rural areas across the Baltic Sea Region. The main objective of the Urban Cultural Planning project was defined as advancing the capacity of public authorities, local NGOs, and associations in the Baltic Sea Region to collaborate on citizen-driven cultural planning.

The project was implemented as a cross-border partnership of 14 Project Partners and 36 Associated Organisations in 9 countries.

Within this project, methods of cultural planning were collected in a toolkit, and mentoring on their use was provided.