Metropolitan Research Institute
Metropolitan Research Institute, Budapest
Iván Tosics has published an article in URBACT website on raising the importance of local solutions for the social and economic affects of the Covid-19 crisis that is hitting the poorest. Tosics explores in this article what URBACT’s role could be on finding local solutions.
The full article is available in English on this link.
UPLIFT project – “Urban PoLicy Innovation to address inequality with and for Future generaTions” (2020-2022) coordinated by MRI – has successfully launched on 28-29 January in a kick-off meeting organized in Budapest.
The UPLIFT project aims to understand the main drivers of urban socio-economic and spatial inequalities focusing mainly on the younger generation (15-29) in the post-crisis area. The analysis will be done on four levels: (1) understanding the relation between socio-economic inequalities and spatial inequalities on European level, (2) understanding how local policies are able to influence urban inequalities in a sample of 16 functional urban areas, (3) analysing by means of interviews with vulnerable young and policy experts how local policies are in interaction with household decisions in 8 cities. As a result of all these analyses, UPLIFT will create – with the active involvement of vulnerable youth – local Reflexive Policy Agendas: new local policies that are more sensitive to the changing needs of the target group. This co-creation process will be carried out in 4 locations: Amsterdam (NL), Barakaldo (ES), Sfântu Gheorghe (RO), and Tallinn (EE).
OpenHeritage project, led by Metropolitan Research Institute, organized its first international event in Warsaw in October 2019, in the framework of the Informed Cities Forum series, in cooperation with ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, and the Actors of Urban Change network.
The 7th Informed Cities forum was a two-day event called “Who profits from heritage? Communities, capital and urban space”. It took place on 15-16 October, and explored the interrelation between urban regeneration and heritage, reflecting on the importance of community involvement and the creation of a heritage community. The latter is a crucial building block of all successful projects. As Katarzyna Sadowy of OpenHeritage partner Warsaw Association of Polish Architects (OW SARP) pointed out in her keynote speech, “heritage doesn’t exist without the heritage community – people who make the buildings, places, stories part of their identity”.
Building on the experience of the OpenHeritage project and the Actors of Urban Change community, the Forum explored new ideas and tools to empower local communities and safeguard urban commons. The realities, challenges and successes of urban regeneration were illustrated through a series of field workshops organised by local partners representing the public, private and community sectors in Warsaw. The workshops explored community-managed spaces; partnerships for creative districts; the future of urban peripheries; mapping values using heritage; and modern placemaking.
The event gathered more than 100 participants, who were a mix of urban activists, social entrepreneurs, local and European policy makers, researchers and investors.
Te closing conference of HomeLab – Integrated Housing and Labour Services in the Social Rental Enterprise model – will take place on 26-27 September 2019, in European Youth Centre Budapest.
HomeLab was launched in 2016, and aimed at providing integrated social, housing and employment services to vulnerable, often multiply excluded target populations in the four “Visegrad” countries (Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia). The closing conference, final event of a three year experimental and research project, assesses the difficultues and achievements of both the pilot projects, and the research stream of HomeLab, looking in particular at the promises and challenges of integrated service provision to excluded socio-economic groups. In the sessions from Thursday morning until Friday early afternoon discussants will look at innovations in housing and employment support, in social accompaniment strengths and deficiencies in the Central and Eastern European context, and on the ways in which integrated support measures may fold out in a mutually supporting manner.
The full programme is available on this link.
A national workshop was organised in Budapest in the framework of HomeLab project, with the participation of a broad range of actors and partners from the two Hungarian pilots; and with numerous public policy officials from across the country. The event titled “Integrated housing and employment services in the Social Rental Enterprise model”, co-organised by Metropolitan Research Institute and Budapest Institute, attracted 58 participants from across the country.