2016

Pakhuis de Zwijger’s project New Europe – Cities in Transition was funded with the support of the European Union under the Programme “Europe for Citizens“, measure 2.2: “Network of Towns”. City Makers Summit © Michiel Landeweerd A total of 5 activities were carried out as part of New Europe – Cities in Transition under the Europe for Citizens programme. The Metropolitan Field Trip Lisbon that took place in Lisbon, Portugal on 12-15 March, 2015 The Metropolitan Field Trip London that took place in London, United Kingdom on 11-14 June, 2015 The Metropolitan Field Trip Berlin that ook place in Berlin, Germany on 8-11 October, 2015 The City Makers Summit that took place in Amsterdam, The Netherlands on 27-30 May, 2016 The Metropolitan Field Trip Bucharest that took place in Bucharest, Romania on 6-9 June, 2016 All the activities that were realised with funding of the Europe for Citizens programme are listed and described […]

Europe for Citizens

The ideals to discuss and to create alternatives towards issues such as urban poverty; the urgency to have more democratic and participative urban planning projects, giving a fair response to the needs of the newcomers and war victims; the privatization or public spaces; and the negative effects of gentrification, were the central issues of this four-day meeting in Amsterdam, at the City Makers Summit, together with so many projects that make the difference everyday, on a local, regional, national and international level.   The citizens-politicians   The idea of city-making is a political movement. A movement that includes anyone willing to claim a city that promotes direct action with a stronger participative power, supporting visible changes on the urban and social programme. Claiming the right to public spaces ( or the heterotopian spaces that Lefebvre used to claim) as a “survival strategie”, we are also confronting all the social and […]

Because the city is for everyone to have it

When three years ago I visited Bucharest, I gained a not very favorable impression about the city. It seemed gray and the streets, the buildings, the people were also gray – as they beared upon themselves the burden of the totalitarian past, 70 years of Soviet dictatorship had not definitely stood back. Maybe that’s why the new visit I made to the city, in the past 9 to 12 June, has caused me much surprise. This was a field trip, within the project New Europe – Cities in Transition, in order to visit locally based projects that promote the city as an area of inclusion, sustainability and participation. We were welcomed by members of Zeppelin and, in addition to the Citizenship Academy, were present organizations from Berlin (Mörchenpaprk), London (Paddington Development Trust) and Amsterdam (Pakhuis of Zwijger). Three days have come to realize how Bucharest had radically changed over the […]

Winds of change in Bucharest

Between the 27th and the 30th of May 2016, the Pakhuis de Zwijger foundation, in the Netherlands, promoted the meeting of more than 600 activists, coming from the four corners of Europe. Because they are normally involved in democratization actions of the cities, as spaces of inclusion, prosperity and resilience, they are called as the “City Makers”. It was during the “City  Makers Summit” that they met, to talk about the main problems of their cities, and the practices that they have been developing, in order to solve them.     City Makers   Visit to the centre of Zaanstad, which was complete renovated in the last 5 years, looking to offer more inclusion, functionality and visual beauty. This Summit had two main goals. The first one was to provide field trips to participants to Dutch local based projects or initiatives, with actions developed in urban context, regarding the improvement of the […]

Let us make an Europe of Democracy

Renovar a Mouraria I 6th April I 21h30 FREE ENTRANCE What is happening to the Historic Centre of Lisbon? The climb in population loss over the last 3 years has led the four chairpersons of the parish councils to take a public position. Under 10 thousand inhabitants, the parishes will lose significant performance power. And we, citizens, what are we willing to do? With the tourism excuse, the city is selled with a cheap price, hotels, hostels and apartments for temporary accommodation arise, it is ensured an income of 4% in the luxury investments, places that give identity to the city are destroyed, rehabilitation is only made according to the tourism, tenants are evicted, there is speculation with prices and it becomes impossible to housing. We, at the Citizenship Academy and at Renovar a Mouraria want to continue reflecting and contributing for citizens to take an attitude. Are you coming too?

Gathering I How to promote sustainable tourism in Lisbon?

Produced by Catarina Leal in her Master’s degree developed in Anthropology, Cidade Guiada documents one of the biggest problems currently encountered in the historic centre of Lisbon: gentrification by tourism. Phenomenon long observed in cities such as Barcelona, Berlin or London, gentrification is an urban symptom which mainly affects the most vulnerable populations inhabiting cities. Tourism is one of the key features adopted to boost the economy in neighbourhoods such as Graça, Alfama and Mouraria. With an increasingly industry sustained on foreign population, Portuguese neighbourhoods are revaluated and rehabilitated every day. Already with a few former residents, from the buildings only facades are left.   Cidade Guiada still poses an increasingly relevant question: how to redevelop a neighbourhood or a city that serves the people and not the tourists?   The film projection will be followed by a debate with the presence of director Catarina Leal, Joana Jacinto, promoter of […]

FREE CINEMA: “Cidade Guiada” (“Guided City”) I Cine Café Touristification

[article written by Leonor Duarte, within the Cine Café Turistificação: Alto Bairro (Turistification: High Neighbourhood)]   Yesterday, at Lisboa Vadia, the lisboners could assist to the film “Alto Bairro” and to discuss the gentrification and turistification of Bairro Alto. We noticed, with some annoyance, how this neighbourhood has been losing the life that distinguishes it, mostly its daytime life, whether because of local shops, shops from other fields, as fashion, bookstores, among others, that close, or because former residents who leave. These are the factors that show how Bairro Alto is being a victim of a phenomenon that is being talked about around, which is gentrification. And the debate was so zippy, that it was difficult to finish.   There are some people that think that the Bairro has become an amusement park, a big open air bar and that people who go there to have fun, they forget or […]

Bairro Alto: a city is much more than an amusement park

Sorry, this entry is only available in Português. For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in the alternative language. You may click the link to switch the active language. Turistificação, mas que grande palavrão! Lisboa Vadia I 16 Fevereiro I 21h30   Com estreia no ano passado no cinema e rodado em pouco mais de um mês, “Alto Bairro” dá voz às pessoas que sempre lá viveram e aquelas que tiveram que sair. Do realizador Rui Simões, este documentário retrata um bairro em constante mudança, dos anos 50 até aos dias de hoje. Lugar de prostituição e boémia, “Alto Bairro” apresenta-nos, primeiro, uma Lisboa típica dos cafés e das mercearias de rua, das antigas pensões e das roupas estendidas à janela, testemunhada, entre a calma das tardes e a azáfama das noites, pelos mesmos moradores que têm visto o despejo de muito comércio local, a degradação […]

(Português) CINEMA GRÁTIS: “Alto Bairro” | Cine-Café Turistificação

In 2014, Pakhuis de Zwijger (cultural organization in the city of Amsterdam) came up with the idea of Metropolitan Field Trips. Cities are constantly in change, new initiatives arise and try to answer to several question on how to become city-owners and how to participate in their evolution. During the Field Trips, on the biggest european cities, the participants learn about diverse approaches on base initiative and about the relation between bottom-up city makers, planning agents, local government and other institutions. Field Trips have, therefore, as a goal a better understanding of the whole process of transition and they are an opportunity to exchange knowledge between partners in Europe. The program started at 4 p.m on the 8th, with the meeting point for the welcoming at Holzmarkt. Holzmarkt is located in an old abandoned area at the Spree waterfront. It was destined to be sold as part of the project […]

The Citizenship Academy in a transitional Berlin

In a context of economic crisis and social emergency present in more and more regions of the European Union, it is important to think about solutions that, more than helping people in trouble to overcome their financial problems, solutions that help to create innovative forms of social organization , alternatives to the ones that capitalist system provide us. At the Congress of Solidarity Economics, the SOLIKON 2015, which took place in Berlin from 10 to 13 september, it was intended to share and discuss different approaches, visions and pratics about new ways of economic activity, based on solidarity and sustainability. The Citizenship Academy was there! Click here to read the rest of the article.

SOLIKON, creating alternatives from Lisbon to Berlin