Lille oct 1st - 3rd | 2010

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challenging urban questions and participatory approaches in Lille / France

4th meeting of the transnational youth initiative "OPEN UP URBAN SPACES"

 

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Challenging the specific setting of urban regeneration in Lille:  

>>> to "use" the urban environment by inviting people directly to visit construction sides and to start debating there.

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>>> to be present in the neighbourhood by offering consultation hours and to provide continously information. for example  "Le lien": It's a room/space open for public  where Jeremy TREU, "chef de projet politique de la ville" is working  on information and communication with inhabitants concernced by the urban regeneration projects.

>>> It seems, that participation methods in use in this urban development project are mostly aimed at informing the inhabitants and communicating about actions, such as demolition or rennovation, that are decided in the project team.  

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What does it mean “To debate an urban project”?
1- To put together particular interests (the own home) with public interests (the city)
2- Understanding the territorial urban differences before acting
3- To consider the inhabited territory in its social relations and spaces (i.e: house- space around the house- neighbourhood- district- town)
4- Creating conditions for the debate to combine particular interests with public interests: in this phase it is very important to create a common vocabulary and shared definitions.
Participative democracy in Lille:

Lille is promoting elements of direct democracy, such as

  • public reunions (about 90 / year)
  • working groups on specific topics 
  • representative councils of civil society
Even tough Lille's mayor is in favour of such approaches, it is still a lack of knowledge, time and human ressources to really promote and establish direct democracy and participation as one step of decision making processes, so Ms Decreus from the department of participative democracy at the city hall.
Our learnings regarding participation:

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After a meeting with a concertation's specialist, Christophe Rouvres who works in the association CAUE,  active in the consulting on architecture, urbanism and environment and Francois-Xavier, architect from the association PAYSAGES, we came up with some learnings regarding participation:

  • As a matter of fact it is useful to have a constant confrontation and monitoring of the process, to take decisions commonly, and to keep in mind what you want to do and how you are doing it.
  • The importance of a shared vocabulary does not only mean to create a common way of using definitions but also to get in contact with professional words and specific definitions used in professional frames.
  • In this phase there is also a need of clear objectives.
  • Much attention has to be put on the roles.
  • Participation should be focused to agree on values and functions and NOT to discuss form and colour
>>> See further reflection on the participation in urban spaces menue