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CLEVER Cities: Building Urban Resilience Through Community-Led Decision Making

Like many other cities, London must enhance the quality of life for its residents, preserve its local environment, and build a more resilient community to cope with the impacts of climate change. While the solution is not simple, developing socially cohesive neighbourhoods is a crucial starting point to address many of the challenges we face today and the goal of European-funded CLEVER Cities. Read on to learn more about the project.

This article was written by Dulcie Ruttley-Dornan and Sean Bradley

The concept of governance is closely linked to social cohesion and the sense of ownership that individuals have over their respective parts of the city. Community-led decision-making plays an essential role in this. The intention is for residents and their representatives to manage their communities and foster supportive relationships, which are fundamental qualities for a community dealing with change.

CLEVER Cities is a European-funded urban regeneration project supporting community-led action. The project supports local citizens to co-design the regeneration of urban areas to make them greener and healthier and explores how communities in London, Hamburg, and Milan can build governance structures through co-creation. The process varies across different cities and neighbourhoods, with varying levels of readiness. 

In Thamesmead, southeast London, CLEVER Cities has been leading the co-design and co-create process to shape current and future nature-based solutions and work with schools and community networks to help people better connect with nature. The co-creation involved forming a loose network of community groups and stakeholders, who partnered with a team of experts at Peabody – a not-for-profit housing association and Thamesmead’s main landowner – to lead, organise, and manage the process. By working together, the Thamesmead community and the professional team were able to leverage their respective strengths – local knowledge and administrative expertise. Engaging specialised organisations to guide and assist in the collaborative process in this way can provide valuable learning and success.

Co-governance involves engaging people from various sectors and specialities to promote more holistic decision-making processes. This typically requires capacity-building, especially in key roles and responsibilities, and developing the necessary skills to conduct effective meetings and formal administration. In some cases, such as crowdsourcing or grant applications, multiple community groups collaborating on a project can vote to undertake specific activities or roles. Local residents can learn by doing, with guidance and capacity building from specialised organisations helping to ensure the network’s survival in the future.

An outcome of the CLEVER Cities project has been the formation of a collaborative governance group, Community Design Collective, which has now become an integral part of the local governance system. This has resulted in a more equal and “horizontal” relationship, giving more power to community decision-making. This empowerment has further encouraged community involvement and a sense of ownership of shared spaces. 

This is a natural progression in the process, broadening and diversifying the perspectives of decision-makers and leading to active individuals taking on new roles and multiple responsibilities. A more horizontal approach to working relationships is integral to the development of co-governance.

Perhaps the most significant shift in governance is the move from solely “top-down” or “bottom-up” systems to a middle ground that involves more participation through horizontal systems. This requires stakeholders to collaborate with different urban agents, such as government officials and community groups, which strengthens the process and solidifies the benefits of community participation mentioned above.

To facilitate a collaborative process, it is important to provide various opportunities for engagement and to establish trust between stakeholders. This can be achieved by creating an open space for dialogue between communities and government, allowing for a more inclusive decision-making process. Learning how to make decisions collaboratively and in a connected manner, changing roles and responsibilities for the day-to-day management of community affairs, and increasing collaboration in decision-making are additional changes that can facilitate collaboration. Sharing information to facilitate transparency and better decision-making is also crucial, as it allows for a more informed and diverse range of perspectives to be considered. By building trust and increasing transparency, a culture of collaboration and openness can be fostered, leading to more effective decision-making processes and better outcomes for all involved.

By implementing these changes, communities can become more cooperative and develop more effective strategies to address the challenges they face. Improving their governance networks is a crucial element in creating more socially connected and liveable neighbourhoods. Together with changes in urban design and the development of rich cultural events and programming, governance begins to complete a holistic picture of a truly liveable neighbourhood. 

About the authors:

Dulcie Ruttley-Dornan is a writer and editor with over five years of experience producing strategic communications and campaigns in the not-for-profit sector. Both her personal and professional work is dedicated to creating positive social and environmental impact. Dulcie’s work focuses on volunteering and nature-based solutions as positive ways to connect communities and tackle social and environmental issues. Her portfolio consists of writing and editing articles, social media management, content creation and website development. Dulcie is a lifelong volunteer, having led development projects around the world, including Nepal and the Caribbean, she is a dedicated environmental activist and supporter of intersectional feminism.

Sean Bradley is a Sustainable Urban Designer focused on the development of healthy, socially cohesive neighbourhoods that act as the core of future sustainable cities. He is the CLEVER Cities Programme Manager for Groundwork London leading the community-based approaches for the collaborative design and implementation of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) that bring multiple benefits to communities and ecosystems. He is also a coordinator of Pathway 06 of the UNFCCC programme Resilience Frontiers: Healthy Cities: (Eco)systemic Approaches that focus on innovative and transformative solutions critical to the development of healthy and resilient communities facing the challenges of preparing for and dealing with climate change.

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