News

October 29, 2020

Urban Values: Rethinking Cities with a Culture of Openness & Collaboration for Public Participation

Sharee Hochman

Urban Economy Forum’s Secretary General Anantha Krishnan opened this year’s virtual discussion Urban Values: An Untapped Urban Resource on World Cities Day 2020, recognizing cities key role in the creation of values. This year, leaders worldwide virtually gathered to discuss solutions on the themes of how urban values can be developed within cities, and how do we create interaction between society and urban values to promote public participation. Krishnan notes that it is vital more than ever for cities to rethink their values with the rise of pollution, migration, and climate change. Specifically, cities need to collaborate and reinstall values as they are principals of behaviour and create directions on feelings and actions for the public. Krishnan understands the following leader’s initiatives could generate different approaches on environmental policies. 

“As someone who’s life revolves around how we build, create, and share cities, its always a good day to talk about urban affairs” says Adam Vaughan, Member of Canadian Parliament and Parliamentary Secretary of the Minister of Families, Children, and Social Development. Vaughan underlines a unique approach on creating interaction between city values and people, by learning from individuals who live off minimal resources. Vaughan sees this initiative can restore some natural order from above. Since COVID-19, encampments have dramatically increased within Toronto Canada’s parks, creating clusters or “mini cities” within the city. Vaughan understands it is an instinct to cluster and create settlements and economies yet, it too is a natural impulse for humans to compete, hoard, and prey upon others. Both instincts are demonstrated within Toronto’s encampments as economic stress forced many into poverty and cluster. These clusters are seen to be affected like many other communities in poverty, where the poorer they are the farther away they are from necessities like clean water.

Although these encampments are not a desirable or sustainable means of living, they provide a critical insight for city values. Vaughan understands Toronto could learn from social structures set within these clusters. Additionally, to examine how the clusters operate together with minimal resources. Then, to move and build with them for a safer, healthier, and prosperous environment. This is technically what city planning is, where the instinct for people to collect, share, and take care of one another is built with livable and sustainable resources. Vaughan stresses that cities need to learn from these clusters to build and thrive together in a sustainable way. COVID-19 has given us the opportunity to look deeper into the culture of our cities to remodel and serve a civic purpose. We need to lean in and organize our cities and societies to blossom which begins with the natural inclination for people to collect. Vaughan stresses that cities are a place to share and lean on one another, similarly to what these clusters do.

Cities are the most complex place to present a foundation, yet they are what builds us, says Chair of UEF, Reza Pourvaziry. When discussing urban values, city leaders need to rethink how to create an interpersonal and comprehensible dialog to increase and motivate public participation. Pourvaziry understands that there is a large communication gap between people and city leaders mainly due to jargon, special expressions that are used by a particular profession which is difficult for others to understand. Pourvaziry sees there are many values and resources within cities, yet most of them have been made for private benefit and profit. City leaders need to rethink and elevate city values through clear dialog to increase public participation. When there is a clear understanding between leaders and the public, Pourvaziry believes people will become more involved and have an increase in motivation to build and work within the city for its future benefit.  

Co-Chair of Urban Economy Forum and Former British Member of European Parliament Julie Ward understands that urban values should reflect all lives who live within the city, including commuters, traders, and even tourists. Ward understands that our tangible and even subtle urban lives are reflected within streets and buildings which demonstrates the urban values we inhabit, yet they become so familiar they lose our notice. For example, football teams brought fans together and created communities which exhibited fans values. Now, football teams are being bought and renamed after large corporations for profit. Ward shares this as one of many examples where those with economic and political power have prevailed within our urban environments. These inequalities create slums, gated communities, distancing, and distinguishing groups of people by different socio-economic status. Though, Ward believes if all sections of society worked together to blur the lines between communities and their interactions by creating a diverse opening, it will be the most economically successful. We see this demonstrated with the Quaker family for example. The Quaker’s business-built towns for their workers to live in with factories, schools, parks, and facilities for workers and family to use. The Quaker’s demonstrated that it is in fact possible to be an entrepreneur and create and inclusive, diverse community.

Ward spoke on a resolution for public participation within urban values with the idea of creating greenhouses for entrepreneurship. She recognizes there is a large intensity and focus within the minds of youth, artists, and those with a lower socio-economic status and urban values should embody these ideas. Though, many of these minds are lacking the space and resources to create opportunities to help urban values thrive. To create space for these minds, Ward states there needs to be a new culture of openness, collaboration, and space. Many of which, do not require large budgets or resources. These minds could use spaces that are abandoned such as docks where boats no longer land on, empty factories and buildings. Not only could these empty spaces create opportunities for imaginative ideas to grow, but they could also be a place of value exchange where individuals can trade ideas, values, food, and goods similarly like markets in urban centers.

The Urban Values: An Untapped Urban Resource is an ongoing dialogue of Urban Economy Forum 2021 that will be held virtually on October 4^th and 5^th, 2021. The Urban Values discussion is aimed to collaborate and focus on developing urban values within cities, and how to create interaction and promote public participation. With the rise of pollution, migration, and climate change it is vital more than ever to rethink cities values to generate directions and behaviours for a sustainable future. Leaders used their knowledge from different areas of the world to discuss a few basic concepts on how to rethink and approach urban values. If a new culture of openness and collaboration were to be instilled like Ward had mentioned, imagine what other concepts towards rethinking urban values could be emphasized and circulated with the intention of public participation.