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The Neighbourhood Laboratories from 2017 gave rise to the need for spaces open to citizens that also featured openness and accessibility and could facilitate interaction. The citizens of Bologna have asked for access to places to experiment with collaboration, even with forms of management accessible for more entities and with institutions guaranteeing the ‘open doors’ principle: open, hybrid, flexible spaces of reference to facilitate social mixing within a neighbourhood or specific area, which are perceived as social bulwarks and as ‘bridges’ between generations, cultures, and needs.

These premises gave rise to a laboratory dedicated to the issue of spaces, with the goal of redesigning policies and tools to confer and manage property belonging to the city or for temporary use, providing the city council with some ideas for new regulation and support.

Objectives of the path:

• highlight possibilities to innovate with administrative procedures, even through interaction with other cities, following the road already paved by the ‘Regulation on collaboration between citizens and the Administration to care for and regenerate common urban goods’, recognizing the different forms of management and self-management of spaces, occasionally also redefining the role of the public administration as guarantor.
• develop possible proposals to update/comply with city regulations related to the management of City property
• promote experimentation of management models on spaces to regenerate, also through the contribution of private parties/service sector; temporary use of spaces to be regenerated; forms of collaboration with private subjects and communities.

Phases of the path:

1. Internal analysis (December 2017 – May 2018)
   Before interacting with the public, work was carried out within the Administration to finalize and construct an internal working group and a complete framework of the existing tools to confer City property.
   
   
2. Discussion and development (June–July 2018)
   Following the public launch, a phase of investigation was held in working groups aimed at participants in order to identify: critical aspects and strengths in the Administration’s current assignment system; good practices in use on the national and international levels; possible innovations regarding the project objectives. In this phase, the participants proposed guarantors in support of the process.
   
   
3. Presentation of the proposal (September–October 2018)
   The listening phase with meetings and context analysis was followed by the more structured collection of proposals for improvement. The result of this phase was a document for a proposal backed by the Foundation that highlighted guidelines useful for the Administration in consideration of the preceding phase of investigation and listening.
   
   
4. Proposals from the Administration (beginning December 2018)
   The results of the preceding phase were subjected to the attention of the Administration working group to integrate it with needs internal to the administration. The guarantors of the process monitored the work.

In addition to participation through candidacy in the public announcement, participation was open to anyone interested. Fifty-one associations in the city participated.

In 2019, the City of Bologna, in continuity with and in the Spaces Lab, published a public announcement to assign five unused public buildings for the purposes of cultural and participatory interest through experimentation with a co-design course.

In response to the needs emerging from Spaces Lab, the City of Bologna also initiated the project ‘Case di Quartiere’ [Neighbourhood Houses] to change former retiree social centres into multipurpose, open, and intergenerational places capable of collecting the different strengths in the territory.

The problem of air quality exists throughout the Po basin and therefore also involves the city of Bologna. Concentration levels of some pollutants revealed by the monitoring network exceed regulatory limits in different ways and according to the chemical characteristics and territorial circumstances. This is a very complex problem of the utmost importance, not only due to the effects that air pollution can have on the health of exposed populations.

Air Lab started in 2018 from a collaboration between the City of Bologna and the University of Bologna, ARPAE Emilia-Romagna, Bologna Health Authority, and the Metropolitan City of Bologna in coordination with the Fondazione per l’Innovazione Urbana. It is an experimental process of interaction and collaboration between different subjects to raise awareness and encourage action regarding the issue of air quality. The objects of Air Lab are to:

• build a network of subjects active on various levels regarding air quality (institutions, associations, committees, formal and informal communities) who are ready to collaborate to increase citizen awareness and engagement regarding this problem
• define strategies and shared tools to network, spread, and expand air-quality monitoring databases, both institutional and bottom-up
• define strategies, content, and shared tools to inform and continuously and effectively communicate the problem of air quality and individual behaviour that may help to contain it.

The first phase of the lab (May–June 2018) entailed:

• four meetings open to representatives from institutions, associations, committees, and citizens to create a network of subjects interested in spreading awareness and developing a communication campaign
• publishing a questionnaire to reveal citizens’ perceptions about air quality in Bologna, information they might have, and the behaviours they would be willing to modify to reduce pollution

The second phase of the Lab (September–November 2018) entailed:

• another four lab encounters dedicated to developing a tool for communication and awareness about air quality and individual and collective behaviours (the app ‘Che Aria è’) and the direct involvement of interest holders on the issue of air quality.

The third phase of the Lab (starting in December 2018) entailed a set of experimental activities that concentrated on some issues that emerged as central in the preceding phases, such as health, data, and sports.

• Interviews
  From December 2018 to February 2019, 8 interviews were conducted with researchers and experts on the issue of communication, health, and sports in relation to air quality.
  
  
• Focus group
  From February to March 2019, 3 focus groups met on health, data, and sports. Participating in the focus groups were representatives from area institutions, associations, and communities, who, for their competencies and experience, could make valuable contributions to the discussion.
• App Che Aria è
  This phase entailed a set of activities to improve, develop, and spread the app. These were defined based on the indications and suggestions collected in the previous phase.
  
  
• Air pollution and health. Ten questions for experts
  An informative guide was drafted and published to provide knowledge about pollution and useful behavioural suggestions to reduce risks for health, particularly for the most exposed subjects such as children, elderly people, and people with respiratory and/or heart problems. The ten questions were selected from among the most frequent and the answers were developed in collaboration with Air Lab’s scientific partners: Bologna Health Agency, ARPAE, and Istituto Ramazzini.

Under Air Lab, other pollution research and monitoring was carried out, with particular attention for indoor and outdoor areas at some schools (RIO project).

The University of Bologna and the Fondazione per l’Innovazione Urbana are promoting the Level-II Master’s in Management and co-production of participatory processes, communities, and proximity networks.

In an increasingly complex and fragmented economic and social context, communities and the logic of proximity are emerging as new social elements on which to begin building models of just transition that are sustainable, inclusive, and aimed at pursuing social well-being.

The Master’s entails a multidisciplinary training course for ‘agents of proximity’, that is, new professional figures capable of initiating innovative processes of community listening and involvement, producing new forms of knowledge about social contexts, identifying effective and innovative solutions for emerging needs, and stimulating the co-production of processes in the public sector, the service sector, and the area of business strategies.

The Master’s is aimed at administrators and technicians in public administrations dealing with strategies of engagement and collaborative approaches, university graduates who intend to develop professional competencies in collaborative practices, and professionals in social businesses, associations, non-profit organizations, and companies that intend to expand innovative organizational practices and understand institutional relationships.

The Master’s is built on different modules whose objective is to frame the global and local context surrounding current socioeconomic processes, offer knowledge about contemporary organizational systems and competencies in complex organization, and focus on innovative practices of involvement and inclusion of thematic and territorial communities within organizational and institutional processes. In parallel with the educational modules, the Master’s offers participants possible internships at entities, companies, and organizations.

Detailed information is available at master.unibo.it/gecop/it

The Fondazione per l’Innovazione Urbana is participating in Political Poetic, a project by the Teatro dell’Argine aimed at secondary school students in Bologna between the ages of 14 and 20.
The goal is to hear their voices on crucial issues such as the environment, work and the economy, inequality, city and community, and peace and justice.

The project is dedicated to discussing the themes of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to refine these objectives for our territory and propose actions and recommendations to local institutions, decision-makers, political and strategic planners, and all citizens and representatives involved.
It is organized into thematic working tables, labs, conferences, and public events on the issues in the 2030 Agenda, but also moments of immersive and experiential performance that give young people a voice. In particular, the Fondazione per l’Innovazione Urbana is dedicated to conducting labs on the challenges of sustainability in local secondary schools.
These have involved about 500 young people in creating a connection with the District Lab activities and administrative policies, revealing proposals for policies and changes in daily personal use.

To work with teenagers in an active, involved way, the Foundation has designed and realized a table game called ‘Il futuro è in gioco’ [The Future is at Stake]. Players are divided into teams and are challenged with questions and answers about the 17 goals in the Agenda and what the City of Bologna is doing to reach them.

Political Poetic falls under the project ‘Così sarà! La città che vogliamo’ [This is how it will be! Our ideal city], realized by the Emilia-Romagna Teatro Fondazione, co-financed by the European Union – European Social Fund under the National Operational Programme on Metropolitan Cities 2014–2020 promoted by the City of Bologna.

Starting in 2017, the City of Bologna, with the coordination of the Fondazione per l’Innovazione Urbana and in close collaboration with the neighbourhoods, has promoted District Labs, spaces for democratic interaction open to everyone.

Through neighbourhood public assemblies and thematic encounters via Internet, the objective is to activate stable processes of listening, dialogue, and collaboration in each neighbourhood to reveal priorities, needs, indications, and proposals to imagine shared solutions.

With constant dialogue and moments of citizen action in all neighbourhoods, about 7,000 citizens participated in the District Labs in 2017 and 2018, leading to 60 projects for participatory budgeting. Neighbourhood by neighbourhood, 30,932 citizens voted and selected 12 projects that are being realized today.

In 2019, the City began a new path to discuss and define the future of the city and its neighbourhoods regarding urban planning, the environment, mobility, education, new economies, home, public spaces, and culture, as well as the third round of participatory budgeting, which ended in 2020.

Thanks to the (number) of votes obtained from citizens, another 6 projects to regenerate the neighbourhoods were selected, along with priorities in which the neighbourhoods will invest new resources.

The Fondazione per l'Innovazione Urbana is also committed to coordinating processes of listening, involvement, and co-design regarding some specific places in the city.

In view of creating the first tramway, the City of Bologna and the Fondazione Innovazione Urbana are promoting an informational path and analysis of critical aspects tied to future interventions, with citizens’ active involvement in the design phase.

The specific objectives are:

• communicating the phases of the tram project up to the technical aspects and economic feasibility
• initiating lines of research on the impacts and communication of some design foci
• initiating actions of proximity to favour informational exchange, data collection, and communication between the administration and citizens
• supporting the administration’s design

The timeline of this process is organized into the following steps in support of the design phases:

• 2019–2021 design phase (technical and economic feasibility plan, detailed design, and working drawings)
• 2021 call for bids to assign the work
• 2022–2025 construction
• 2026 launch of the tramway

Lines of action in this process

The process began during the tram design phase (2019–2020); it entails different integrated lines of action. Following this phase, i.e. from 2021 to 2026, other activities still being defined will be implemented.

This path began in March 2019 and was developed throughout the year via a series of actions for information and communication, research, listening and citizen involvement, and proximity.

In 2019 in particular, the Foundation actively involved more than 3,000 citizens through more than 100 public meetings and moments of interaction, as well as 2 questionnaires open to everyone. The goal was not only to inform citizens as transparently as possible about the motivation for and development of the broader project to realize the new tramway in Bologna, but also to listen to doubts, questions, perceived critical aspects, and proposals from citizens, associations, entities, and interest holders in order to implement and improve the preliminary design proposal. These activities included: spaces for information and listening spread throughout the area, public encounters, participation in neighbourhood parties and visits, neighbourhood commissions, meetings with stakeholders, and questionnaires.

With the goal of analysing the overall impacts of interventions comparable to the ongoing project, the Foundation has also charged the University of Bologna with developing a benchmark study and defining indicators to analyse the impact of the tramway. The goal of this work is to investigate and examine the behavioural, social, environmental, and economic impact of one or more tram lines in different Italian and European situations to provide a comprehensive system of indicators necessary to asses the potential impact in Bologna.

In 2020 the Foundation pursued its commitment to the project through three main lines: proximity activities, information and dissemination activities, and the development of specific paths to support the design of some interventions to regenerate the public space in zones affected by the tram.

For more information, see untramperbologna.it

In February 2020, the Metropolitan City of Bologna, with the approval of the ten strategic objectives for territorial planning, began to draft the Metropolitan Territorial Plan (MTP).

The plan is a new tool that defines the strategic and structural choices in the territory. The Plan is situated among strategic planning, plans for the climate and sustainable energy, the Urban Plan for Sustainable Mobility, and territorial and sector projects in the framework of the Metropolitan Strategic Plan and the Metropolitan Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The main scope of the new Metropolitan Territorial Plan is the environment, intended in a lateral sense: a sustainable, resilient, attractive territory in which territorial protection, the beauty of urban and natural places, occupation, and innovation find a unifying, propulsive synthesis.

Continuing the experiences developed in recent years on the scale of the city, neighbourhoods, and areas, the Fondazione per l’Innovazione Urbana has supported the process of drafting the Plan through a path of listening and consultation. The path entailed the following activities:

• consultation
  Since February 2020, we have interviewed the 55 mayors and councillors in the metropolitan territory. The purpose was to investigate the state of the art of the cities in terms of critical aspects and strengths, social dynamics, and territorial reach regarding sustainability, attractiveness, and social inclusion, and also relationships between the cities and perspectives and challenges delineated by existing or planned urban planning tools, and the Metropolitan Territorial Plan in particular.
  
  
• mapping of actors and forms of activism and civic collaboration
  We have created a map of subjects that deal with issues closely connected to policies that intersect the Plan. This mapping has led to a database of communities, representatives, and references that may collaborate in drafting the Plan and disseminating its content. To this end, we have involved 240 administrators from the 55 municipalities through a questionnaire.

The results emerging from this path have served to build an interpretational framework in the vision of municipal administrators in the metropolitan city of the main criticalities and strengths in terms of the environment, society, and attractive capacity of the different territories in the metropolitan city.
The Plan proposal was taken up in July 2020 with the observation phase open from August to October 2020. Definitive approval of the new Plan is expected in March 2021.

The project ‘HousINgBO. Permanent Lab on the housing condition of students in Bologna’ is promoted by the City of Bologna and the University of Bologna and coordinated by the Fondazione per l’Innovazione Urbana with the collaboration of Acer Bologna, ER.GO (Regional Authority for the Right to Higher Education), and contributions from the Fondazione del Monte di Bologna e Ravenna and the Emilia-Romagna Region. The project began in 2019 and entails five main axes of intervention.

The first is a fact-finding investigation about living conditions in collaboration with the student council and student associations. It focuses on the collection of new valuable elements of knowledge in the service of institutional actions.
The second area is measurement aimed at increasing the availability of housing to guarantee the right to study for less-wealthy deserving students through forms of original collaboration with people active in the city’s residential issues.
The third area of intervention is a path to involve interested parties (the most representative local union organizations of tenants and property owners) with the goal of defining a plan to balance the rental market with measures to promote agreed rents for students/young people and public/private investments in the sector of student building.
Within the same framework, another goal of the project is to facilitate the regulation of digital platforms for tourist and short-term rentals.
The last area of intervention regards the promotion of student citizenship through the creation and support of active citizenship projects promoted by the students.

The General Urban Plan of Bologna is a regulatory tool that identifies strategic guidelines to transform the city in the long term.
In 2018, the City of Bologna began reviewing the plan, defining objectives and priorities to improve the quality of the city, and identifying new directions to transform the territory, quarter by quarter, to definitively approve the plan at the end of 2020 through different phases of consultation with citizens and technical groups.

THE PATH OF INFORMATION AND INVOLVEMENT

The Fondazione per l’Innovazione Urbana has supported the path to revise and approve the plan through a process of listening to and involving citizens. The indications collected within the tools and actions set out by the Neighbourhood Laboratories and through other means of city consultation have enriched and complemented the more technical decisions in the Plan proposal.

The path is organized into the following phases and activities:

April and May 2019
Six meetings with territorial representatives, associations, and representatives of social entities in each neighbourhood. Participants discussed the initial objectives of the Plan defined by technicians, addressing the following issues on the neighbourhood level: environment and health, urban economies and jobs, homes and proximity-welfare, public space and mobility, and culture and education.

May to July 2019
Six public assemblies open to all interested citizens to collect needs, indications, and proposals about gathering places and distinctive places to improve the liveability of the various areas.

July to September 2019

• An online questionnaire to collect recommendations, needs, and proposals regarding the various areas of the city.
• Six neighbourhood walks led by citizens and the communities themselves to gain further knowledge about the territory.
• Five thematic meetings with representatives and interest holders in the city to acquire further knowledge, needs, and visions regarding some transverse issues in the city (environment, residential system, attractiveness and services, new economic trends, urban regeneration).

At the end of 2019, the results of this path were sent to the City and over the course of several meetings, the content was expanded upon with city technicians.

In 2020, following the Administration’s presentation of the Plan proposal (18 February), the Foundation was busy disseminating the content of the plan and meeting about the strategies of the Plan on the territorial level, mostly through digital means compatible with the COVID crisis.

In particular, the path was organized into moments for public presentation and expansion on the plan; moments for interaction and meeting to collect further reflections and contributions for the Plan proposal, with respect to both the main issues and local strategies in the different areas of the city (e.g. channels for digital interaction, remote meetings, etc.).

In May 2020, 3 digital thematic laboratories were held with representatives and interest holders in the city to present and expand upon the three strategic objectives that characterize the choices in the plan: liveability and inclusion, resilience and environment, attractiveness and jobs.

Following this, the citizen-wide path was followed again. In June 2020, 23 digital public meetings were held. Area by area, the objective was to talk about the strategies on the local level in the General Urban Plan of Bologna, opening the discussion to the participants.

In parallel, a web space was opened — the Quaderno degli attori del Piano Urbanistico Generale [Notebook of players in the General Urban Plan] — where all citizens and interested parties (associations, committees, informal groups) could submit their own contribution between 29 April to 24 July 2020 to enrich the discussion about issues in the Plan.

In the long term, the goal is to develop a structured means of listening through which local strategies described in the Plan can be periodically assessed, enriched, and implemented. In fact, the tool is designed to be updated over time.

The Fondazione per l’Innovazione Urbana, in partnership with the City of Bologna, Next Generation Italy, and the Municipality of San Lazzaro di Savena, is one of the proposers of Goal 2030 – Youths and Cities for the 2030 Agenda.

We presented the project to the regional call to assign contributions to local entities under the European project Shaping Fair Cities coordinated by the Emilia-Romagna Region, for projects to communicate and build awareness about the Sustainable Development Goals in the 2030 Agenda and we won first place.

Starting with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), the project aims to promote the crucial role of public administrations and integrate the 2030 Agenda in local policies. The particular objectives and activities are:

1. Mobilizing citizens to implement the 2030 Agenda on the local level through innovative communication focused particularly on the SDGs.
   To this end, an inclusive communication campaign was run to raise awareness in the city through the involvement of and proposals by young people who have recently mobilized around environmental issues and other high school students in Bologna. From 22 May to 25 June 2020, the call ‘A communication campaign for sustainability. Sustainable Development Goals as told by young people’ was open. Eighteen proposals were submitted for the call and the winners were announced via the Foundation’s communication channels and those of other partners in the project.
   
   
2. Increasing citizens’ awareness and knowledge about the 2030 Agenda, in particular regarding the following SDGs: 5 Gender equality; 11 Sustainable cities and communities; 13 Climate action; 16 Peace, justice, and strong institutions; and 17 Partnership for the goals.
   The Fondazione per l’Innovazione Urbana has held some events under ‘A Shared Courtyard. Cultural festival for the city of the future’ during the summer in Cortile Guido Fanti in Palazzo d’Accursio, including the presentation and awarding of the young winners of the call on 3 September 2020.

The project Goal 2030 – Youths and cities for the 2030 Agenda, coordinated by the City of Bologna, is financed by Shaping Fair Cities, a European project coordinated by the Emilia-Romagna Region.

The City Culture and Promotion Department of the City of Bologna and the Fondazione per l’Innovazione Urbana, in collaboration with Radio Bologna Uno, have promoted the project ‘Il volo del colibrì’ (The Hummingbird flight). Stories of civic imagination, a streaming social TV programme.

Designed to support the city social and health system during the most critical phases of the COVID-19 crisis, this Web and radio broadcast has promoted the collection of funds to support the people of Bologna and the Sant’Orsola, Maggiore and Bellaria hospitals, directly hosting both famous people and common people.

‘Il volo del colibrì’ consisted of 15 episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays and 4 specials from 9 April to 4 June 2020, giving a voice to citizens and the various communities in Bologna, who participated from their homes to tell stories and talk about themselves during the most critical period of the health emergency.
These episodes told common stories about adaptation, work, and solidarity, daily stories that describe how our city has reacted to the crisis. Representatives from the world of culture, sports, and associations, together with doctors, nurses, artisans, students, retirees, and other figures talked together and with listeners to interact, trade advice and useful indications, and entertain with music, readings, and stories about daily life.

The extraordinary stories of solidarity and resilience of these ‘fighters’ for daily hope is the object of dedication of the title of the broadcast, ‘Il volo del colibrì’ (The Story of the Hummingbird), which reworks the beautiful African fable, inviting everyone to do their part and contribute to the common good.

With the gradual improvement of the health emergency and consequent release of restrictive measures, the programme entered a new phase, changing both the format and broadcast time. The second phase of 8 episodes was broadcast between 22 June and 10 August and told about the main characters and places of summer in Bologna.
On air every Monday at 18 for about an hour, live on Radio Bologna Uno, and in streaming on the Foundation’s Facebook page, and even on our dedicated YouTube channel.

The show is conducted by journalists Silvia Santachiara and Manfredi Campione. The episodes are available on our dedicated YouTube channel for anyone wanting to watch again.

How can we guarantee equal access to fundamental rights, and in particular the right of every citizen to an independent life?

The Municipality of Bologna’s candidacy to the European Access City Award 2021 reflects the European Disability Strategy 2010-2020 and the City’s own vision for accessibility. It is the fruit of a complex campaign of co-planning and co-responsibility between the City and a multiplicity of subjects that have contributed to its realisation.

This campaign- as described in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities- aims “to promote actively an environment in which persons with disabilities can effectively and fully participate in the conduct of public affairs, without discrimination and on an equal basis with others, and encourage their participation in public affairs”.

Following these guidelines, the Municipality of Bologna and the Foundation for Urban Innovation have implemented a shared, co-planned candidacy, involving civil society organisations in the Bologna area that have addressed disability issues for many years.  

The participatory candidacy was launched on 15 December 2019 with an open public event. More than 500 people participated. It then developed in seven stages that structured the co-design process. The first part was dedicated to data gathering, organising information and delving deeper into specific experiences. The second stage looked to the future, focusing mainly on discussion and collaboration between participants in order to identify project trajectories.

STAGE 1. January - February 2020 | Mapping and internal analysis

• Mapping of strategies, planning instruments, projects and services the Municipality of Bologna has planned or already created to address this topic.
• Mapping of other Authorities or Institutions’ projects and services.

STAGE 2. February - March 2020 | Activation of local forces

• Open call to support the candidacy that received a response from 69 subjects (65 organisations and 4 individual citizens), who proposed a total of 108 projects.

 STAGE 3. March - May 2020 | Analysis, interviews and communication

• Analysis and detailed study of the mapping of services, activities and projects in support of the candidacy
• Interviews conducted digitally
• Creation of accessible communication projects regarding coronavirus emergency health measures
• Completion of an accessible communication guide 

STAGE 4. June 2020 | Digital workshops to co-plan the candidacy

• Live stream meetings to share the results of the previous stage and open debate with several key players
• Online form to collect project ideas to present and discuss during workshops
• Setup of digital workshops to discover the new needs of individuals with disabilities tied to the Covid-19 healthcare emergency, and to collect new ideas and proposals to make Bologna more accessible

STAGE 5. July 2020 | Development and writing of candidacy materials

STAGE 6. September 2020 | Submission of the candidacy

STAGE 7. Next months | Implementation of the selected projects and consolidation of the process results by Municipality of Bologna

The emergency circumstances caused by the spread of the coronavirus has highlighted new needs on behalf of citizens who are faced with much more limited means of using the city and its services. The long period of stoppage and restricted movement they have had to deal with has brought out the increasingly widespread need to receive services and goods at our homes, both to avoid spreading infection and to simplify life within our domestic environments.
That being said, access to this requirement among the primary needs of citizens has, however, highlighted the structural limits of the existing home-delivery system in the city. On the one hand, there are large platforms that make use of riders, only some of whom have signed the Charter of Fundamental Rights for Digital Work in the urban area of Bologna. On the other hand, there are merchants of studios, restaurants, shops, and consumer goods that, to resist the crisis imposed by the closure, have had to implement new home-delivery services, finding themselves forced to refer to a single active system: large platforms that, in addition to lacking on the plane of workers’ rights, are also very costly. To remedy this, many companies have had to organize deliveries themselves. ‘Cantiere Consegne etiche’  - a construction site for ethical deliveries - grew out of this premise within the project ‘Re-Inventing the City’. It is dedicated to interaction between all those companies that, starting from this situation, have had to self-organized to implement innovative solutions in response to these new requirements, with the goal of assessing how to overcome the model of platform capitalism and develop prototypes for collective, supportive devices to respond to the new needs for protection and services.

In May 2020, the Fondazione per l’Innovazione Urbana began a public process to co-design a proposal that is shared with the city.

Objectives:

• identify and consolidate the network of companies operating in the territory to create alternatives to models of platform capitalism
• create a manifesto of ethics to gather the principles shared by participants in the network
• define the means of communication and network enhancement
• define guidelines for a shared, collaborative home-delivery service
• experiment with the service

Phases

• Initiation phase: public assembly to begin the process.
• Analysis and investigation phase to involve interested companies. Through interviews, we have expanded on the actions implemented, characteristics, criticalities, and possible visions.
• Alignment phase together with all companies involved to note the ethical differences in models alternative to existing private platforms, also with the construction of a shared document (manifesto of values)
• Network and governance co-design phase. Starting with current models, we have identified possible models of collaborative governance to test a shared project for home delivery.
• Service co-design phase. Assessment of the model, identifying possible, even technological, solutions to make the service easily usable, evaluating times, means, costs, protections, and federation of networks.
• September 2020 – Start of experimentation of the ‘Consegne etiche’ service, the first cooperative home-delivery platform composed of local merchants, delivery people, citizens, in the area. Experimentation is done thanks to two cooperatives, Dynamo and Idee in Movimento, with the support of the university training centre and promotion by the cooperative company AlmaVicoo, which are affiliated with the project.

Visit consegnetiche.it.

The health crisis provoked by the spread of coronavirus has now taken on a clearly global dimension. It is, however, in urban contexts that its economic, social, political, and, naturally, medical/health effects are seen most dramatically. Cities must therefore work to address a scenario on many original fronts. The same is also true of Bologna. The city has always been considered in Italy and abroad as a model of democratic, supportive government that has continued to be attractive over time for many categories of people (students, workers, professionals, entrepreneurs, and, in recent years, even tourists). Still today it is viewed as a welcoming city and unique in many senses. This has been possible because the city has known how to progressively develop a democratic, supportive model over time that is also attractive and inclusive, preserving its original spirit.

Once again, this model requires innovation in light of the profound transformations that have characterized the city in recent years and, as the current pandemic teaches us, the new global challenges it is called to address. For this reason, on behalf of the City and the University and in close connection with the actions of the metropolitan city, the Fondazione per l’Innovazione Urbana has proposed a metropolitan project — ‘Re-Inventing the City’ — to analyse and develop proposals to respond to the socioeconomic effects of the crisis, relying on the competencies and widespread energy of the city. Re-Inventing the City is presented as a space for research, interaction, and original creation, which unites and fosters synergy between the scientific community (University and research centres), administration (City and metropolitan city), economic organizations (businesses, service sector), and citizens (communities).
The goal is to identify measures to respond to the crisis that are rooted in and promoted by the territory and based on processes to enhance the competencies and unique energy that characterize the city. In three years of listening to and interacting with the city, the Fondazione per l’Innovazione Urbana has collected data and experimented with methods and practices together with citizens, communities, and stakeholders in Bologna. Starting with this body of knowledge, we would like to contribute to reopening the city and its future through the different tools and actions of the Coronavirus Emergency Observatory, which are connected and organized into three main axes of intervention:

1. DOCUMENTATION: digital archives, public dialogues, and round-tables for public debate.

The urgency of immediately investigating the emergency to imagine the future after the pandemic led to start of the series ‘Re-Inventing the City – Coronavirus Emergency Observatory’. The purpose was to question various people to touch on the various points of view of the scenarios that this health crisis has unfolded on the local and global levels.

Through the creation of public dialogues, round tables, and a digital archive, the goal was to enable a space for documentation and public debate aimed at constructing an overall framework of analysis to provide to technicians and citizens to enrich and orient the dimensions of analysis and production of indications.

The Observatory is therefore a space for interaction and documentation organized into two facets:

• Public conversations with scholars, experts, policy makers, and city makers transmitted in direct streaming on our Facebook page during the most critical phases of the emergency.
  Talk program
  
  
• Construction and publication of a digital archive of sources and documents useful for building a continuously updated overall frame of reference.
  Archive

2. INVESTIGATION: multidisciplinary and multi-sector analysis of the impact of the pandemic in the city, with surveys, focus groups, interviews, data analysis, and tools of participatory research.

Starting with the approaches and methods of civic imagination, combining scientific research, technical administrative knowledge and listening to the city, investigating the territory in crisis to understand the immediate impact of the pandemic and how the city has changed.

3. CONSTRUCTION: courses of support and/or experimentation

Introduction of paths and working groups to identify solutions and actions to respond to the crisis which are also aimed more in the long term at favouring prototyping and the creation of intervention on the local and metropolitan scales.

During the summer, the Fondazione per l’Innovazione Urbana promote a multidisciplinary cultural review in the Cortile Guido Fantiof Palazzo d’Accursio: readings, talks, interaction, but also music and performances.

The Shared Courtyard review sees the direct involvement of the City of Bologna (in particular through the participation of Patto per la Lettura, UNESCO Bologna city of music, OfficinAdolescenti and Informagiovani), the Salaborsa Library, Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna, and Istituzione Bologna Musei.

Various cultural companies in the city also collaborate in the review.

This is a means of reflecting on and experiencing Cortile Guido Fanti: a ‘city square’ and physical, public space for meeting different communities in the city, political and cultural discussion, sharing, and co-constructing visions: a physical space that embodies the modern era.

A Shared Courtyard is one of the activities promoted by the City of Bologna and coordinated by the Fondazione per l’Innovazione Urbana towards the construction of the Quadrilatero della Cultura, the new centre for culture and participation under the Open Laboratory project (programme financed by Axis 6 ‘Attractive and participatory cities’ under the Regional Operational Programme of the European Regional Development Fund 2014–2020).

The Shared Courtyard review is part of Bologna Estate, the series of activities promoted and coordinated by the City of Bologna and the Metropolitan City of Bologna – Tourist Destination.

Alla luce del forte attivismo che si è mobilitato in questi mesi di emergenza, a Bologna nasce a fine 2020 Scuola di azioni COLLETTIVE: formazione e risorse per progetti ad impatto sociale e civico, un percorso di formazione e sviluppo di progetti ad impatto sociale, economico, ambientale e culturale dedicato al Terzo Settore, alle comunità, alle reti e ai cittadini attivi del territorio promosso dalla Fondazione per l’Innovazione Urbana, in collaborazione con il Comune di Bologna.

Durante l’emergenza Covid-19, l’attivismo civico bolognese si è confermato capace di concorrere ai processi di cambiamento urbani: Scuola di azioni COLLETTIVE, in linea con la storia cittadina e con le sperimentazioni di immaginazione civica degli ultimi anni, intende sostenere e sviluppare la collaborazione in città.
In questo momento risulta centrale sostenere la capacità del Terzo Settore, di comunità e reti civiche e attivisti cittadini di favorire il rafforzamento di valori solidali e inclusivi e di catalizzare nuove alleanze sociali tra pubblico istituzionale e pubblico comunitario, confermando il tratto distintivo del modello di sviluppo urbano bolognese come leva su cui fondare processi di transizione giusta in città e azioni di risposta ai bisogni socio-economici e alle disuguaglianze inasprite dalla crisi.

La prima fase della Scuola ha selezionato, attraverso un avviso pubblico che è stato aperto al 20 ottobre al 16 novembre 2020, 32 progetti innovativi legati a cinque aree tematiche considerate centrali per il futuro della città: 

• sostenibilità ambientale, per esempio economia circolare, mobilità sostenibile, agricoltura urbana, consumi sostenibili, sicurezza alimentare e tracciabilità, nuove filiere alimentari;
• competenze digitali, per esempio alfabetizzazione ai dati, progetti di citizen science, sviluppo del pensiero critico nell’analisi delle fonti e delle informazioni, privacy e autodifesa digitale, sensoristica e robotica, uso dei dati a fini mutualistici;
• servizi collaborativi, come attività di produzione, distribuzione e consumo collaborativo; nuove pratiche di welfare mutualistico; sviluppo di relazioni di comunità, anche in ottica intergenerazionale e cross-culturale;
• creatività urbana, per esempio percorsi di formazione innovativa e/o diversificazione dei pubblici; progettazione e realizzazione di prodotti e servizi propri del design, della moda, dell’editoria, del settore musicale, dei new media, del gaming che prevedano il coinvolgimento attivo dei beneficiari;
• benessere di comunità, per esempio promozione della salute pubblica; attività sportive inclusive per differenti età, corpi e generi; supporto comunitario alla fragilità fisiche, psicologiche e relazionali; servizi di sostegno alle nuove genitorialità; educazione sessuale e affettiva

La Scuola di azioni COLLETTIVE ha poi avviato le attività per supportare le idee progettuali selezionate per tutto il 2021 con un processo che favorisce il potenziamento delle reti civiche, rafforzando istanze, strategie e capacità istituzionali.

La Scuole di azioni COLLETTIVE, in particolare, affianca i progetti selezionati con moduli di formazione e, attraverso ulteriori bandi, li sostiene con finanziamenti fino a 30 mila euro per progetti strategicie fino a 5 mila euro per progetti sperimentali.

L'iniziativa è finanziata dai fondi PON METRO Bologna, Programma Operativo Nazionale “Città Metropolitane 2014 – 2020” Asse 3 Progetto BO3.3.1j, nel quadro del progetto delle Scuole di Quartiere di Bologna.

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