Het Nieuwe Tussen 2019

The Co-Cities Report 29 Conclusions The conclusions of this report are intended to extract from the analysis of the case studies guidelines for further research, teaching and policy experimentation. The Lighthouse Co-Cities The first phase of the research (January 2016 – January 2017) allowed us to identify a large variety of case studies, from both the Global North and Global South, of urban commons. The first phase of the research was carried out through an analysis of secondary data (scientific literature and specialized magazines) and the requested information sought from qualified interlocutors and experts. At the same time, 50 selected case studies were studied in depth through semi-structured interviews (conducted live or via e- mail) with representatives from the case study. The first phase aimed to improve the design of the research question, run a pre-test on the research methodology and tools such as the questionnaire, identify the variables, and select the leading variables in the urban commons transition process. After collecting much of this data and extracting design principles, we organized a focus group as a test of the Co-City methodology. The Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Conference Program hosted the focus group as a retreat, “Accelerating Citywide Civic Entrepreneurship: An Exercise in the Co-City Approach,” from December 11-15, 2017. The retreat goal was in large part to provide a first methodological trans-geographical test of the Co-City algorithm, a new mode of civic entrepreneurship that empowers the public, private, and social sectors to govern urban commons collaboratively for the public good and better meet the needs of city residents through an experimentalist approach. The retreat brought together leaders in urban innovation and civic entrepreneurship, with representatives from: • the City of Amsterdam (the Netherlands; urban innovation officer) • the City of Barcelona (Regidoria de Participaciò i territorio) • the City of Boulder (Colorado, Chief Resilience Officer (CRO) • the City of Turin (Italy, the Co-City project funded by the EU Urban Innovative Action program as part of the Regional Development Fund) • the city of Madison (Wisconsin, which dedicated capital funds to support a worker cooperative development initiative aimed at supporting people of color and others with barriers to formal employment to create worker cooperative businesses) • the City of New York (NY, NYCx Co-labs program of the Mayor’s office of New York City, participating via Skype) • Habitat International Coalition • the National Association of Italian Cities (ANCI) as National Contact Point of the EU Urbact program • Cooperation Jackson (network of cooperatives and worker-owned enterprises • Archiafrika (NGO based in Accra, Ghana, that promotes both the built and cultural spaces on the African continent and aims at contributing to the understanding and development of design within the continent and encourage the investigation and education of African architectural history) • the German Marshall Fund of the United States (the Urban and Regional Policy Unit) • the Brookings Institution ( the Project on 21st Century City Governance) • the Laboratory for the City, Laboratorio para la Ciudad (experimental arm and creative think tank of the Mexico City government) • SPUR (an NGO operating in the San Francisco Bay area) The retreat was facilitated and co-chaired by Alicia Bonner Ness, Sheila Foster and Christian Iaione. During the five days in Bellagio, the participants were introduced to the last research output of LabGov, the Co-City process/cycle and the five design principles developed by Sheila Foster and Christian Iaione for the design and implementation of a co-city. The participants were involved in a simulation of the Co- City process and engaged in an exchange of experiences and mutual learning exercises. As recalled by Simone D’Antonio 1 in a recent article on the Rockefeller LabGov Bellagio retreat, the fruitful exchange of experiences showed the variety and richness of approached embraced by cities in different parts of the world to develop an innovative way of implementing urban governance; from the case of Turin, which through the Co-City project funded by the EU program UIA is experimenting with urban commons as a platform to tackle the issue of urban poverty, to the case of Mexico City where representatives of different urban stakeholders such as representatives of creative economy and urban planners are coming together to contribute to the re- design or the city or the city of Wisconsin, which which dedicated capital funds to support a worker