In t ro d u c t i o n In t ro d u c t i o n o f the Ka o s p i l o t s Ch a p t e r O N E
Int ro d u c t i o n
Dear reader On the pages in Urban Recipes, you will find a variety of perspectives on, and recipes for, how to improve life in cites. They are diverse in both context and in terms of the specific needs they are addressing, but they all have the aim of improving urban living. Similarly, this introduction will present you with the concept and the process beh ind Urban Recipes through three perspectives. First, this book is an experiment on many levels of crowd-sourcing. Second, it is an evolving work that will grow over time. Third, it is only a small representation from our community of committed people sharing knowledge on how to implement great initiatives in cities.
We are happy to invite you into Urban Recipes - a cook book for change makers. 2
The book is an open experiment. Everything in it is the fruit of 3 months of collaboration and co-creation between more than 250 people, some of which knew each other beforehand, some of which did not, all of which have played a role in shaping the outcome you are holding. All content as well as the design has been 足g enerated by people from all over the world in the online community we created to form the foundation of this book. Everything you read on the following pages has started with somebody posting a link or a blog post on our digital platform. Urban Recipes is what you would call a crowd-sourced book. For Urban Recipes, we have been looking especially for urban initiatives that are easy to implement, have high local motivational value and high positive impact. That means that anything you will read in this book is implementable by an individual or a small group of people within a reasonably short time span. What we are seeking with Urban Recipes is to provide easily understood, do it yourself guides for improving life in cities while still mirroring the diversity of both challenges and solutions. Hopefully it will inspire you as much as it has inspired us. 3
This book i s just a snapsh ot What you are holding is merely the first prototype of Urban Recipes. Human creativity is an endless resource and so, great initiatives will keep on being brought into this world; and as we lear n from our actions our initiatives will evolve and improv e. For these reasons, this book is modular. That means that any section can be added, deleted or swapped with another as some initiatives get outdated and new ones appear, or as we get feedback and Âs uggestions from you on how to make it even better. You can also make your own initiatives yourself and add them wherever you want. The book you are reading is only a small fraction of the whole. In it you will find 25 initiatives for improving life in cities together with experts’ perspectives on how to implement and adapt initiatives. You will also find a tips, tricks and tools section that will help you when starting your own initiative. 4
All this content links back to the crowd-sourcing platform on which this book is based, www.urbanrecipes.ning.com. On this site, you will find more than 250 initiatives, 100 of which have elaborate descriptions. All are categorized by type and tagged with categories so it’s easy to find what you are looking for. Here you will find the members of the community who co-created this book for you to engage and interact with. Urban Recipes is both a forum and a medium for sharing great initiatives in the hope and belief that you will be inspired and take action yourself. Either by simply following the recipe or by creating your own variations - what the outcome will be all depends on your perspective. As the editors behind Urban Recipes, we wish you inspired reading, and hope that this resource enables you to engage that much more in improving life for yourself and others. Welcome to Urban Recipes! Share. A ct. Improve life in cities. On b e h a l f o f Te a m 1 5 a n d t h e K a o s P i l o t s 5
Int ro d u c t i o n o f t he Ka o s p i l o t s
The students lear n how to build a viable business according to theirs and their clients visions and Âv alues. They lear n how to be leaders, and how to initiate and execute creative and sustainable projects, as well as design and conduct change processes for different clients. The school year starts in August and ends in June. Most of the time is spent in Aarhus, Denmark, but with stays abroad depending on the semester and client projects. Time wise there are normally approximately 30 hours of lectures, each offered between 0900-1600. On top of that the students are expect ed to work on projects and conduct studies individually and in groups. It is a very demanding program on many levels – physically, mentally and emotionally. The program is not merely an academic exercise but also very much a training arena, where the students will develop the skills, knowledge and attitudes needed to thrive in a world of constant change. It is expected that the student is self-motivated and able to take responsibility for his or her own lear ning situation. The program is project driven so all teachings are reinforced with practical experience and normally all projects have an exter nal client with high expectations for the result delivered by the students. For more information on the program, or to offer projects, partnerships or touch base, please visit www.kaospiiot.dk 6
Ch a p t e r O N E
The curr ent challen ges for citie s For the first time in history more people live in cities than in rural areas. In masses, we are moving into clusters, seeking opportunities to live a better life than the countryside can fulfill. The growth of our cities has exceeded beyond our comprehension and notion of the saying that you are just one in a m illion, gets a whole new meaning. In a metropolis of 20 milli on inhabitants, there are possibly 20 people just like you. The basic human needs, such as how we feed, transport and house ourselves are enormous intertwined and complex systems. As our cities continue to grow these systems are challenged by lack of housing, poverty, health problems, etc. Regulations are created as a control mechanism with the intent to protect people’s general health and safety and to provide us with our basic needs. Our global society, with very few excep tions, is built on the platform of economic growth. If a city can sustain and increase its income, the more basic human needs can be fulfilled. We all know this; but as we have reached a level where basic human needs are being fulfilled for the majority, we base our economy on selling more stuff, which leaves a gap between economic success and our well-being. With the current focus on economy we knowingly create pollution, health issues such as obesity, c ancer and allergies and even more traffic accidents, to mention some challenges. 7
As municipalities recognize these challenges - that the current state affairs will not sustain it self, there is a need to strategi cally and thoughtfully fix our problems and design the future. To build truly sustainable, resilient cities - economically, socially, environmentally - that can offer this better life which we are seeking. St rategies must work with the bigger picture in mind. Short term and long term planning are key elements to this – but always with the bigger picture in mind. Thinking bi g Cities and municipal gover nments are app roaching the bigger picture in many ways. Shanghai’s focus on being an entrepreneurial and economic world centre or Masdar‘s vision for being a melting pot for innovative green architecture and technology shapes the cities infrastructure and knowledge, it attracts certain organizations and people with inte rest. Even coalitions between cities facilitated by gover nments and large organizations such as C40, and even the European Union envisions the future c ommon cities and strategically plans on an e normous scale for city-cooperation. But as these big pictures are painted to shape the cities on a large scale, these developments become more vulnerable towards change. T he flexibility to change is weakened as the cases of Dubai’s and Detroit’s economic c ollapses shows. Many large-scale development projects, initiated by munici palities and other gover nments, are stopped because they can’t meet the needs of being economically, socially or environmentally sustainable. 8
Thinking big and small The way these challenges have been met is on much smaller scale such as the initiatives the Urban Recipes describes. There is a need for innovation and acting on a community level and initiatives s uch as transition towns and one planet living communities takes the approach of prototyping on what can be implemented and what cannot. Good examples of this poly centric approach, where cities have cultural and social melting pots, can be seen in for example Portla nd, San Francisco, Curitiba, Bogota, London and Copenhagen. Here the municipalities support creativity and social innovation by having an open mind to change from the ground and up. The city is shaped inter nally by the people for the people with the support of visionary leadership from politicians. The social innovation scene in United Kingdom is promotingby-doing community development programs that are not large scale municipality driven. The assumption is that people on the ground have the best ideas to develop a locality so municipalities provide entrepreneurial training to help people take services into their own hands. As people start to re-build a local economy by being in business together, social capital strengthens along with innovation and green movements. The development towards localism, whi ch is happening economically, socially and environmentally in some cities, can be found by looking at the involvement of the public. The municipalities invite dialogue and forum discussions and listens to the voices of the city. They meet the public with open doors and shows genuine interest in people’s i nitiatives. And this is where the voices of the public need to speak up by taking initiative and acting on opportunities. 9
How to en gage the public The key to a productive outcome, when inviting the public for co-creation, can be found in a change of perspective. Often town and/or community meetings can end up in endless debates and political disagreements that drag a process out. The approach is not for the communities to look for only one solution but to understand every stake-holder’s desired outcome. It is to build on what exists and be appreciative of potential innovation. Practically this can be hosting dialogue forums where the voices of all stakeholders are shared to understand what they see as a desired outcome and share what future they see in the city. Urban Recipes gives many good examples of outcomes in the shape of public initiatives – some supported by gover nment and some not. Below is a selection of a few concrete tools on how to host a community meeting. It is meant to give an understanding of how to lear n about the needs of a community and use appreciative inquiry to hopefully spark the citizens and other stakeholders to take initiative. Urban recipe on how to host a community meeting: - Provide a space for everyone to feel welcome and provide the basic needs such as beverages and snacks - Find a neutral person to host the meeting. ÂP referably some one who is neither a citizen in the community nor a politician 10
- Look for creating dialogue and not debate. 足 A rule of the meeting is to build on each other and use appreciative inquiry. - Have people sit in a circle instead of facing a scene. That way everybody is equal and dialogue can happen easier. - Le t everyone speak and ask people who are quite. They usually have the best insights. - Ask clarifying questions instead of assuming. Tools such as deep democracy, deep questioning and nonviolent communication are good to get familiar with. - Make clear that the meeting is not about the past but about the future. You are there to scenario plan of how you all see the future of the community. - In a large plenum good ideas are sometimes lost and not everybody is heard. Use part of the meeting to divide people into smaller groups to talk about different subjects or come up with new ideas. Make sure that you share outcomes 足a fterwards. - Have a person committed to documenting the meeting so nothing is lost and the outcome can be harvested afterwards. Consider graphic recording in the form of drawing, photos or video to inspire creativity and is more interesting than a normal meeting memo. - In the beginning have a check in where people share their expectations for the meeting. When ending the meeting then close down with a check out to hear if those expectations were met. - And remember to have fun. 11
From working with community development around the world important lessons have been lear ned such as being openminded and invite different perspectives in. Every human being has a need to be treated with respect and be listened to. We, as human beings, have the basic needs to have fun, smile and create good relations with others. If you can achieve that then you are already very far ahead. Philosopher Margaret Weatley very beautifully writes about new leadership and how change happens. I will let her finish this introduction. “In natu r e c h a n g e n e v e r h a p p e n s b e c a u s e o f t op-down, pr e-conceived strategi c p l a n s o r f r o m t h e m a n d a t e o f a n y s i n gle individual or boss. Change h a p p e n s a s l o c a l a c t i o n s p r i n g u p s i m ultaneously in many differ ent a r e a s . I f t h e s e c h a n g e s r e m a i n d i s c o n n e cted, nothing happens beyond e a c h l o c a l e . H o w e v e r, w h e n t h e y b e c o me connected, local actions c a n e m e r g e a s a p o w e r f u l s y s t e m w i t h influence at a mor e larger-s c a l e o r c o m p r e h e n s i v e l e v e l . “
- M. Wheatley 12