Day I: A city for the residents

Description of the topic

In the longer term, urban development implies the continuous improvement of the quality of residents’ life. The process is embedded in a creative dialogue between residents and the local self-government, engagement and cooperation of residents who demonstrate different opinions due to their different experiences, education, interests and social status, business and organizations which operate in the city. Experts and scientists should also become actively involved in the dialogue. It is much more adequate to select the optimum solution to a problem situation in case it is examined from many point of views. “The city has won. However, many of us know based on their experiences that it sometimes happen that urban roads go to hell. The city may be successful, but it happens too often that its residents seem to have lost” – this is a motto of the book by Edward Glaeser titled “Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier”. This one sentence is used by the author to express the essence of the cooperation on multiple levels. Without knowing mutual needs, it is possible to achieve nothing but an apparent success: by building roads which damage the urban space; railway stations which irritate passengers; by investing in cultural events which do not build the urban tissue; by supporting investors who do not engage in the lasting development of the city. Therefore, the future of the city should be planned on the basis of a reliable diagnosis, including the needs and expectations of residents.

The ongoing global process of moving towards economy 4.0 is changing the model in which cities operate. Modern technologies are increasingly used in the social context. Best practices in the urban management make it possible to consider urban centres as cities of honest social relations. Flexibility and cooperation at each stage of the development of local communities and the enhanced used of existing resources will determine the dynamic development of the cities of the future. A new elements in the cooperation between business, organizations and residents will entail mutual learning and understanding, the capability to correctly decode mutual notifications and to establish cooperation.

Objectives

  1. Planning the future of the city on the basis of a reliable diagnosis, including all that its residents want and need.
  2. Mutual understanding. Capability to correctly decode notifications of different groups and to establish a cooperation.
  3. Integrating the community of innovators and disseminating best practices in the urban management.

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