The GINNGER project engages residents to co-create more sustainable and smarter cities
Through collaborative interviews, GINNGER is investigating communities' needs and perspectives in six European cities to involve residents in neighbourhood regeneration actions. To raise awareness of the importance of engagement, the European project launches the social media campaign #RegeneratingTogether.
With European elections approaching, rising abstention rates have become once again a significant concern, highlighting the trend of disengagement among European voters in recent years. Enhancing citizen participation is a priority not only for European institutions but also for local authorities seeking ways to involve their communities.
A solution comes from GINNGER, a project aimed to create new, participatory processes to regenerate entire areas of European cities, making them more energy-efficient, sustainable and inclusive. Researchers on the project say a key step is to determine stakeholders' capacities and opportunities for behaviour change and to understand their needs and habits.
To achieve this, GINNGER is conducting semi-structured interviews to gather information about people's lifestyles, opinions, and involvement in neighbourhood regeneration actions. The interviews are taking place in six European cities: Langreo (Spain), Plovdiv (Bulgary), Massagno (Switzerland), Murcia (Spain), Orte (Italy) and Paris (France). These cities have been selected to validate the project's co-creation methodology.
This participatory process enables stakeholders to identify new actions that should be implemented and to increase synergies between existing initiatives in the neighbourhoods. Ultimately, this approach helps understand how all actors can collaborate more effectively in the co-creation of more sustainable and inclusive cities.
"The interviews provide a great opportunity to hear from the residents about the problems they face in domains such as mobility and energy provision, and how well they are equipped to tackle these problems," said Domen Bajde, Professor at the University of Southern Denmark and leader of the task. "This will provide valuable input for designing further steps in co-creating the regenerative actions and developing tools that can help residents participate in them."
To promote these efforts, GINNGER is launching #RegeneratingTogether, a social media campaign aimed at raising awareness of citizen engagement in neighbourhood regeneration. The campaign will also feature participation from REN+HOMES, a sister European project focused on developing sustainable energy solutions for homes and residential districts.
Through this initiative, social media users will be encouraged to share their opinions on their neighbourhoods, sustainable behaviours, mobility habits, and energy consumption, fostering public reflection on these issues and encouraging greater involvement.
Contacts
Sofia Francescutto, Communication Officer | Fondazione ICONS
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