People power in cities: Finding ways to strengthen urban movements

Although the importance of citizen participation is often mentioned in the discourse of many city governments, these have not been successful in opening spaces and developing tools to fully integrate city dwellers’ needs and concerns. In most cities, people encounter daily social and environmental issues as a result of a chaotic and accelerated urbanization process. Water quality and access, waste management, air quality and mobility, and growing conflicts related to green areas and public spaces are among the most common challenges. At the same time, in many cities around the world, neighbours, city dwellers, social movements and NGOs have developed a broad spectrum of innovative ideas and initiatives to deal with issues like these, rethinking their lives and relationship with the urban environment, with invaluable cutting edge knowledge on citizen participation, city adaptation strategies and other mechanisms and tools. Our goal with this networking event is to discuss ways to nurture the construction of inclusive, sustainable and livable cities through the enabling of ordinary people and their initiatives, and to have a productive conversation about the enormous potential of a people-powered democratic journey for urban development."