The Reggio Emilia “Urban Climate Justice Day” on 13th May 2022 is hosted by the Municipality of Reggio Emilia and LabGov LUISS Guido Carli University. The event will take place within the Urban Climate Justice Day and H2020 EUARENAS transnational meeting.
The Reggio Emilia “Urban Climate Justice Day” will involve European policy makers, Academics, Young Scholars and City representatives, organised in various panels during the event.
Also, the event within the H2020 project EUARENAS (H2020 EUARENAS) is part of the innovation process of which LabGov, LUISS Guido Carli University and the Municipality of Reggio Emilia are pioneers.
Over time, LUISS LabGov and Reggio Emilia have developed various innovative European initiatives and projects such as the City Science Initiative. LUISS LabGov has developed Urbact Co4Cities, the Urbact Civic eState project, H2020 Open Heritage. Finally, together with the LUISS Guido Carli University, Reggio Emilia has just launched the City Science Office here with a call to hire three PhD students.
The objective of Climate Justice Day is to enable the cooperation between various actors involved in the production processes of climate transition policies at various levels of governance – European and urban – with scholars and citizens. The discussion will allow to analyze the critical points and expose innovative solutions.
One of the panels will be dedicated to young scholars. The session will be dedicated to the work of Early Career Researchers (MPhil and PhD researchers and recent graduates) in the sector. There will be the possibility for Early Career Researchers (MPhil and PhD researchers and recent graduates) to present abstract in the field of the festival through a Call for Abstract. Selected speakers will present their contributions orally in a series of parallel sessions chaired by academics and senior practitioners. This will be a valuable opportunity for ECRs to share their ideas in a supportive and vigorous environment and to benefit from the committed assessments of academics and senior practitioners.
Reggio Emilia is a pioneer on the issues of climate transition and climate justice, but it is not the only city to carry this process forward. In fact, it believes that in addition to acquiring awareness of the scientific and international relevance of issues relating to Climate Justice, a political commitment is needed to bring European debate closer to local communities and inhabitants. For these reasons, the other actors involved will be the representatives of the cities. Cities are the place where climate justice issues emerge strongly. The panel will allow the officers of the participating cities to expose the critical issues and show the innovative interventions that allow to improve climate justice.
Why Reggio Emilia?
Reggio Emilia is part of the network of European cities joining the City Science Initiative, launched in 2019 by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) programme with the aim of strengthening the ways in which science, technology and research can help address urban challenges and develop territories.
The City also recently applied to a program promoted by the European Commission for Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission Call for Expression of Interest.
The Municipality has been experimenting, since 2015, its own model of collaborative city, through the “QUA_quartiere bene comune” project, based on the implementation of urban innovation actions that generate from the dialogue between the Municipality and the neighborhood communities and which are formalized in agreements public-private-community partnership.
The Municipality approach is based on the most advanced theories of co-governance, in particular on the co-city model developed by LabGov.City that sees cities as commons. This approach sees the collaboration of public, private, knowledge-based, and civic (organized and otherwise) actors as a fundamental requirement for managing urban resources. This approach also focuses on enhancing local know-how and recognising communities as key beneficiaries and managers of urban resources.
The “Chiostri di San Pietro” are a place of cultural production and a hub of social innovation. They were born from the regeneration of a masterpiece of the sixteenth century, an ancient Benedictine Monaster, monumental heritage of the Municipality of Reggio Emilia. The former convent has been restored and partly transformed into an ‘Open Laboratory’ where pubblic administration, citizens, schools, SMEs come together to work on issues relating to social innovation, welfare and digital transformation. This is one of 10 Open Labs co-financed by the Axis 6 Emilia-Romagna ERDF ROP 2014-2020 “Attractive and Participative Cities”. Open labs are the focal point of the Urban Agenda of the region, they boost open and bottom-up innovations, can foster the cohesion of communities, encourage active participation and multi-governance models, enhance the promotion of cultural heritage.
The “Chiostri di San Pietro” Open Lab is the node around which the public policies of the Municipality in the field of participation, citizen empowerment, responsible protagonism revolve. It is the central place to which the network of “decentralized” places refers (the districts and social centers spread throughout the city) and is the pivot around which the main projects in the field of protagonism and widespread social innovation conducted by Municipality in the last years. The reference and coordination framework is the “Neighborhood as Common Good” project within which projects for the co-creation of services and the enhancement of skills and active involvement of citizens take shape.
In the EUARENAS project, Reggio Emilia is collaborating with LUISS Guido Carli University in two work packages: the first (WP3) – in which the city of Reggio Emilia participates with the project “QUA-district common good” – Dedicated to the assessment of alternative forms of participatory governance to better address future challenges to develop scenarios that indicate potential strategies with respect to local participatory protocols. The second (WP4) – in which Reggio Emilia will be a pilot city with the establishment of the District Councils and the councils of the area – aimed at evaluating alternative forms of participatory governance in order to better address the challenges to participatory and deliberative governance in cities.