WELTSTADT

© Angelika Fitz
by Angelika Fitz and Rose Epple

Landscape architects suggest a scheme for a park that encourages users to be co-maintainers. Garden plot owners open their grounds to unemployed youths to test their small-scale business ideas. Self-organized community stores are finding niches where demand purportedly did not exist, communities are becoming patrons where they were once supplicants. Citizens across Europe are currently taking the initiative to re-appropriate urban space. They could be called “We-Traders” in the sense that they redefine the relation between value, profit and public good and are able to motivate fellow citizens to follow suit. We-Traders respond to crisis in several arenas of urban life, be it economic, social or ecologic. Their We-Trades diffuse the boundaries between buyers and sellers: consumers become co-producers.

What is the project all about?

We-Traders will connect initiatives from distinct urban contexts across five European countries. In Lisbon, Madrid, Turin, Toulouse and Berlin the crisis manifests different facets from empty coffers and social polarization to a lack of civic sense as a result of excessive growth. The project will focus on initiatives by artists, designers, urban developers and activists who are experimenting with new forms of exchange. The project will create a knowledge and production platform for current and future We-Traders. It will also intensify the exchange between municipalities and We-Traders. The gradually evolving project places great emphasis on participation and will aim to draw in a broad public. Over a period of 20 months, interactive forums, low-threshold exhibition formats and an open space in the web will create attractive set-ups for consumers to become co-producers.

In all those “We-Trades”, the boundaries between buyers and sellers become blurred: consumers become co-producers. From an urban and cultural development perspective, “We-Trade” is particularly interesting because co-determination becomes co-authoring, collaboration. “We-Trade” increases ecological, economic and social sustainability, because any citizen who is actively involved in development, production and exchange will also assume responsibility for the outcome. Municipalities and policymakers are urged to create the space for such initiatives, by cutting red tape as well as by providing dedicated funding. Hence municipalities will be actively involved in the “We-Traders” platform right from the beginning.

Background

The current financial crisis confronts many European cities with major problems which cannot be solved using conventional planning tools. Real-estate speculation simultaneously creates vacancies as well as housing shortage and forces low-income groups to the periphery which in turn increases traffic congestion. Due to the lack of public resources social polarisation is on the rise. While the financial crisis may not be the only reason, it certainly is at least a co-determinant to exclude entire neighbourhoods or social groups such as young people from viable development for the future. The “We-Trades” project connects five cities with very different structures: they range from cities with a population of a million and more to regional hubs, from crisis-proven cities to those that have been hit by a crisis for the first time. The cities also differ with respect to their distinctive civic traditions. This in turn opens up a broad canvas for mutual inspiration and exchange of ideas.

Aims

The “We-Traders” project is essentially about comparing different local solutions to transnational problems. Which initiatives/ elements worked well in one context? What were the likely causes of success? Can such elements and initiatives be replicated elsewhere? If yes, under what conditions and with what resources? How does the relation between private initiative and public bodies work out in different contexts? By not only focusing the projects (“We-Trades”) but also the people behind them, namely the “We-Traders”, the direct exchange of experiences and the formation of lasting transnational co-operations is greatly facilitated. Three main principles will guide the communication activities: Putting We-Trade on the public agenda, encouraging people to become an active contributor, comparing different local solutions to transnational problems.