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The lecture about big and complex social research concerning Wrocław’s possible future ended with a fairy tale. Dr Kamila Ka- mińska explained a “magical” methodology to us that she constructed and used in order to talk with children about the city’s future.
And then we started to dream.
Countryside or city?
Urban innovators and activists from around the world gathered in Wrocław for Future Jamboree 2016. During one of the event workshops they were given cards similar to the popular game Dixit and asked to imag- ine what a city could and should look like in 20 or 40 years. Many participants would like to have breeding animals, kitchen gardens and many green areas in cities. The results were quite surprising for me. Developing green areas is quite an obvious idea, but the others? I find this vision interesting, and that it somehow represents what I per- sonally would like to have around me. But then I realised that the image reminded me of my summer house in the Polish country- side. Breeding animals and kitchen gardens are stereotypically associated with places in the country.
Being aware that the exercise was more about imagining than realistic planning of the (near) future of cities, I started to think
about the differences between the country- side and a (future) city. I am sure that they are not only in human density. For me a city is a place of mobility, diversity, movement, crowds, but feeling at home as well. And that feeling is cosiness, peace, safety and my nearest and dearest. Cosiness and safe- ty are physically associated with plants and the colour green. We want more nature in our life, not only because of rational under- standing of the urban influence on citizens and the Earth.
Green has many positive physical and psy- chological effects. In a green area a body be- comes more relaxed. Green makes us calm and invigorates us at the same time. Not being so stressed helps in avoiding many diseases. Additionally, green plays a part in increasing human creativity and stimulating the pituitary gland. The best colour to live with! The participants wanted to replenish it with “living nature”. I wonder if that will be easy.
The urban population by 2020 will have grown to around 65%. In 2050 it will be al- most 85%. Thinking globally about urbani- sation makes us imagine one big global city with very few villages. Actually the world is not changing homogeneously. Take a look at the UNICEF urban map and see how ur- ban your country is and will be. It is easy to
What is a city?
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notice that only some parts of the world will rapidly become more and more urban.
The others will stay more rural. How will the influx of people from the countryside to cities change urban space? I have some doubts over whether it is possible to com- bine our dreams about green (and somehow rural) cities and the undeniable and unstop- pable flow of people. It is not only about more and more people that are going to live in cities. It is also about growing urban den- sity and more people in total in the world.
So is the vision of innovators and activists gathered at Future Jamboree an unrealisable utopia?
On the other hand, that movement to cities is very often dictated by the econo- my. Changing one’s place of living for a big, crowded and grey city is not always peo- ple’s choice. But what they always want is to feel good, in surroundings where they are free. The “right to city” movement is exactly about making cities homes. If kitchen gar- dens are part of that understanding, this will be fulfilled one way or another, even from bottom up by guerrilla gardening. The most visible evidence could be a maple planted by participants nearby an event venue. They did it with a true belief that it is a good thing and will somehow commemorate the common Jamboree idea for city future.
“Let’s hope it will grow strong and big, as a symbol of Future Jamboree as a hope for our Mother Earth,” they wrote. Other par- ticipants launched a group called “Upcy- cle the World”. Now you can find them on Facebook and see how they transform their Jambo energy into action.
Right after the Future Jamboree unconfer-
ence in Wrocław ended, the United Nations Conference Habitat III in Quito, Ecuador began. The UN agreed on the New Urban Development Agenda, which is described simply as “a right to the city”. Maybe our Dixit dreaming was not so utopian? And the participants of the Jambo doing a bot- tom-up job will meet in-between with the governments that agreed on the new Agen- da? Let’s hope it will happen!
European = human or just rich?
Another event during the Future Jamboree 2016 programme was round tables. The par- ticipants proposed a dozen or so subjects that were discussed in several rounds. There were many about culture, art, upcycling, safety, local communities, future housing or similar. The one which I found the most interesting was called “What is the Europe- an city?” The discussion gathered people from Europe, Latin America and Africa. We confronted the image of the European city from various perspectives – inside and out- side Europe, Western and Eastern Europe.
Karsten Michael Drohsel described how many different ways of thinking about Eu- rope he saw mostly in Eastern and Southern Europe during his gamicipation (a combina- tion of (city) games and civic participation) job with his organisation Sankt Urban Ber- lin. The Armenian way of transforming their cities into “European” ones was understood predominantly as erecting buildings from glass and steel using high-quality materials, clean and shiny without any signs of cultur- al heritage. The general outside image was described as an orderly, rich, inclusive and in general ideal place for living. Europeans
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agreed on it being rather a wish, not reality.
We all agreed that values that are more or less important in Europe try to make Euro- pean cities (more) human.
“What does human mean?” we asked. A participant from Uganda reminded us of the final speech from the Charlie Chaplin film The Dictator. It is really worth seeing again.
The main character, Adolf Hitler as played by Chaplin (note that the film is a comedy), said, “You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then, in the name of democracy, let us use that power, let us all unite.” It was a nice summary of the round table, but how can we make a real ac- tion and change based on that message?
Not even the European city was easy to define. My other thoughts about specifying the city as a term did not bring me any clos- er. Even though I am aware of being some- how Eurocentric, I probably cannot think in another way entirely. My travels are still not so far away, and the most distant ones have not been long enough. Reading, watching, or even talking to people from very distant countries would not help me to understand this non-European perception. The Jambo helped me to discover (but still not fully understand) some other perspectives on liv- ing in and creating a city. Then it is my turn to experience them, at least a little. Maybe that potential openness for accepting the existence of different lifestyles (depending, for example, on culture, natural conditions, economics and politics) and other living conditions is a first step.
And even though it all may sound naive and boring, because it has been said a hun-
dred million times before, it is not easy to achieve. It is not obvious to ask myself all the time, “and what if it is not like that?”,
“is it convenient for others?”, “what impact will what I do here have worldwide?” This is part of my Eurocentric or even Polish way of individualistic thinking. It is hard to change this point of view from myself to society.
At the same time, “the Jambo”, or any oth- er (un)conference, is not a meeting of walls sitting in front of each other, but commu- nicating people. As I probably do not fully understand other perspectives, just getting to know them develops my way of thinking.
I did not know about the “European” way of transforming Armenian cities, but I realised how Europe influences some regions and that we need more such meetings to change such harmful stereotypes.
Difficulties in defining common urban needs (the North-South divide)
Even if the Jambo was a real opportunity for bringing the South together with the North, there were visible differences be- tween ways of thinking. These were mostly about various challenges that the South and the North face, as I mentioned before. For that reason, even when we dream about a similar future in cities, we probably see different steps in between. Each region and continent has its own difficulties connect- ed with the economy, politics, culture, and – which we sometimes forget – the natural environment.
Eko “Dodok” Kuswanto from Indonesia collaborates with the local NGO The Ur- ban Poor Consortium, which helps poor marginalised inhabitants exact their rights.
In 2014, he protested against an exclusive hotel that used almost all the water stock in his neighbourhood. In front of that building he pretended to have a shower, but instead of water he used soil. This attracted the attention of public opinion and the media.
Communities with a similar problem start- ed to voice it as well. Other NGOs, such as those connected with anticorruption proj- ects, started to think about the additional consequences of such shady businesses.
A Uganda-based participant, Stella Na- kawuki Lukwago, focuses in her job at the Social Innovation Academy on upcycling.
She took part in a project about collecting plastic bottles from gutters in order to pre- vent a flood in the city of Kampala. This kind of natural disaster happens from time to time in Uganda’s capital, and the bottles clog water outlets. During the activists’ ac- tions, inhabitants join them. They learn how to use recyclable materials again and why it is important for the region to do it. Lukwago specialises in making houses from plastic bottles and teaching others.
What Kuswanto or Lukwago face is dif- ferent from the challenges of Mexico City, for example. Francisco Pailliè Pérez, a Co- lombian based in Mexico, co-founder of dérive LAB, told us a story about making bikes popular in Mexico City. In a city of al- most 9 million people – and 19 million in the metropolitan area – transport is one of the main topics. Gridlocks, air pollution, pub- lic transportation costs, and time spent in traffic made the city hall think about bikes as a partial solution for some of these problems. About 15 years ago they started to build a cycle infrastructure. They knew
it could not be everything. Cycling in the city was not popular among some social strata. Bikes were associated with poverty.
The common way of appreciated transport was using (expensive) cars. The unofficial way for city hall to change this was to place city bikes for rent in posh districts with the aim of interesting youngsters not in buying cars, but in using bikes. As a result, cycling came into fashion. Nowadays the city bike system is comprehensive. It includes a good infrastructure and big cycling events (e.g. “la Gran Rodada” (“Critical Mass”) and a ciclovía every Sunday) organised in order to support cyclists and encourage others to make that
“cultural change”.
Known for its bike culture, the Nether- lands faces other challenges. BenchesCol- lective try to answer them. Set up by Cathelijn de Reede, the organisation refers to a tradition of having benches in front of houses. The more cities grow, the less such pieces of furniture can be found. Amster- dam, where de Reede works, has for many years become more and more of an inter- national city. Many people from around the world move in, others move out. Such changes do not help with feeling at home.
So the idea is quite simple. Everyone can register their bench on the BenchesCol- lective website. Write when, where and what they want to do. Is it an open cafe?
Or maybe dance class? “When you use a pavement as a shared living room you get to know your neighbours” – you can hear in their promo video. In a multinational, lively and fast-changing city knowing and stay- ing in contact with neighbours is not easy.
The Bench can be a pretext to get to know
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someone in a neutral space. And when you know the people you live with in a building or on the same street, you feel better, safer and included. Easy, right?
The huge refugee wave mostly from Syr- ia is confronting European citizens with a responsibility they did not expect to have.
Some Europeans have set up “Refugees Welcome” groups in order to find new homes for newcomers. Unfortunately, many people too are afraid of refugees and show how unwelcome they are in Europe.
Jarmiła Rybicka combined “business with pleasure”. Her Kuchnia Konfliktu (Conflict Kitchen) is a food truck where people from conflicted regions work. Kuchnia Konflik- tu serves food typical of the cultures of its employees. Rybicka thought of this kind of refugee project independently of the first Conflict Kitchen in Pittsburgh. When she found out about it, she contacted its or- ganisers to ask if she could use the Polish version of their name. They agreed. Thanks to the use of social media the project has gained many supporters, and been financed by crowdfunding. Rybicka then took ad- vantage of the fashion in Warsaw for food trucks and spending time by the river. This is a tricky way to get used to other cultures, and to start to like and respect them. Clients can meet refugees in person, and find out that they are not dangerous, but rather are similar to them. Rybicka and her team are planning to open a full-time bar. This time they want to gather money from an art auc- tion with the works of dozens of Polish art- ists. Providing a place to work for refugees has started to be trendy in Warsaw. There is a saying in Polish: “the way to the heart
is through the stomach”. This has really worked out!
There is no doubt that the challenges of fighting for drinking water and trying to get people in the neighbourhood to know each other vary. They are like coming from two different worlds. And even though the Jambo was a great experience, there is a gap, a division we cannot ignore. All the partici- pants work hard to make their cities better.
Some of them could even be called heroes if we think about how many fewer resourc- es and opportunities they have. Some have to face much more challenges to achieve similar effects than others. How much? It is difficult to compare, we just do not know.
If we would like to get to know them better, it is not easy; we don’t have enough oppor- tunities. The Jambo lasted only three days, and even for the participants it was almost impossible to get to know all the others.
Additionally English should be, but was not a common and easy language for all (but congratulations to the participant from Indonesia, who started studying English two weeks before the event!). Some of the projects are well described. We can catch up with them at any moment on Facebook or YouTube. With others we cannot, because they use different or no means of PR, or just write in another language. It would be great to promote these projects better, but for their organisers it could be more important to change something locally than speaking about it globally.
One of the aims of the Jambo was to bring the North together with the South. Let’s not forget those people and projects that do not have a nice design and a description in
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English. Hopefully it is us all who will make the future city and avoid the next steps of postcolonialism. The Jambo was a nice con- tribution to meeting those worlds. If not everything and everyone, we got to know more than we would be able to by only sitting in front of our computers. That is a great start to thinking more globally about what we do locally.
Is it enough to vote with your feet?
Even though we come from very different backgrounds and parts of the world, we have some common power. Discovering Wrocław with the local NGO Akcja Miasto (City Action) started with a short story about a zebra crossing next to our first event venue. In Poland, cars are usually more important than pedestrians, and Wrocław is no exception. This was the reason for building an underpass. After many years of debate, the city hall added a zebra crossing there. The underpass was still meant to be used. But inhabitants voted with their feet, and now the underpass is almost forgotten.
Step by step, this street is changing by trans- forming the road from a “motorway”. City engagement is sometimes very unexpected – you don’t need any resources – but no less useful.
From voting with our feet, we could go to painting school yards, like Insaf Ben Othmane Hamrouni in Egypt in the project
“SCHOOLYARDFORALL”, organised with UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agen- cy. The founder of Ecumene studio carried out a participatory process which resulted in new backyards. Many unused, ruined and dirty places were designated for renewal.
The idea gathered a large and engaged community, which took part in designing and building new children’s areas. Children were involved in shaping their environment during workshops and choosing the yard’s colours. All of them felt ownership of this project. That was the organisers’ success.
Then it is only one step from expressing the right to the city very visibly, as hap- pened in 2016 in Belgrade. The inhabitants showed their dissatisfaction with the new city development plan during massive protests in the streets. They repeated the question “Čiji grad?” (“Whose city?”). This was the beginning of Andrija Stojanović’s engagement in the “Ne da(vi)mo Beograd”
(“Don’t Let Belgrade D(r)own”) project.
It turns out that all examples of the Jam- bo’s participants have a real influence on their neighbourhoods or region, which was in fact not so obvious for me at the be- ginning of the event. Thanks to the careful organisers I changed my mind.
The brief description of the above proj- ects shows that it is not about the huge work that stands behind it. It is more about the passion that drives urban activists to ac- tion. This is why they are so powerful and can change, for example, a capitalist-driv- en agreement made “under very suspicious circumstances with a private investor” – as Stojanović wrote about what happened in Belgrade. Passion has even more power than we expect. Who knows how far it will take us to the real right to the city?
Let’s meet
The passion that drives activists to do what they do is not endless or is just too rare. Like
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a fire, it must be kindled. There are many ways to do this, and some of them are very personal. At the same time I think there are other general things we could do to make activist more active still. The Jambo, as a meeting, is a very important one. Meeting people like you, people that care, gives a huge fillip. It helps you to confront your achievements, and shows how your job matters in the context of global changes.
Such events are generally also kind of an acknowledgment: “You are doing great job.
We can see that and appreciate it”. In a way it is a freeze-frame as well. Stopping for a while helps one to distance oneself from everyday work. To see if a chosen direction is the one that leads to achieving a goal.
Caring for others should complement caring for oneself. Taking part in an event focusing on people, not a result, is a nice element of that. Being treated as an expert, not “a grumbler wanting something again in city hall”, as I often hear of activists being seen by officials, is nice as well. Making a presentation during a spotlight session in front of all participants is not only knowl- edge transfer. It is presenting yourself as an author or co-author of social change. It is empowering. I guess maintaining being an activist is similar to using an oxygen mask in a plane when you have children. At first you have to do it for yourself, then for the children. This way all of you will succeed.
Knowledge transfer remains no less im- portant. It brings inspiration and – when you are lucky – simply solutions for similar challenges. In that context, the North-South divide is a good point. Diversity in activism, no matter how radical, brings more fresh air,
as we saw with the Dixit cards. The more ab- stract surroundings, the better ideas for real action. “An unconference is great because it looks like a long coffee break”
With these words, Jan Strycharz, one of the organisers from Warsztat Innowacji Społecznych (Social Innovation Work- shop), paraphrased Harrison Owen and pointed out that the most important ele- ment of holding the event was pleasure. An unconstructed event supports confronting the matters that were introduced by each participant. Then it may go in two different directions. The most extreme subjects and/
or the most common ones are chosen for discussion.
Participants as urban activists are active every day. Being partly responsible for what could happen during the event was a great idea. Everyone was free to propose topics and hold a presentation in front of all the others. Everyone felt responsible for their use of time and participation in sharing and creating new urban innovations.
An unconference is in my opinion not only nicer for participants than regular confer- ences. It could somehow be more efficient as well. Making innovations is, of course, not easy. It takes time and many failures.
Events focusing on an effect usually end with some projects, because there is such pressure. Then they are not implemented, because no one feels responsible for them or owns them. The participants come back home to their everyday jobs, with a feeling of a big useless engagement, a waste of time.
They concentrated on finding a solution for some problem, without really opening up their minds to thoughts and ideas that are
maybe at first sight useless, or maybe even fascinating, but developing them would take up too much precious time, when thinking about a summary and a substantial “prod- uct”.
The effects of the Jambo will probably not be easy to “measure” on any scale. We experienced a flow of ideas in many di- rections. For me, the Jambo was a meeting with potential future project partners, full of inspirations, new perspectives, but also an event helping me to place what I do in a broader context. I hope that I gave back to some participants what I received from others.
And the urban future was coming into being somewhere in between. During the coffee break and discussions about kitchen gardens and breeding animals. It was here that you could find an answer to the ques- tion “what is a city?”
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Ewa Majdecka – researcher, sociologist, cultural manager. Has been involved in many studies on digital culture, new social trends and culture institutions. Her PhD at the Institute of Applied Social Sciences of the University of Warsaw will be about the social consequences of rebuilding the Old Town in Warsaw as real estate after the Second World War.
Collaborates with the Copernicus Science Centre and Ari Ari Foundation. In her job at Centrum Cyfrowe she works with heritage institutions in their quest for digital openness and coordinates projects connected with the crowdsourcing portal Otwarte Zabytki (Open Monuments), which is meant to facilitate access to knowledge about Polish historical sites and help in their preservation.
illustrations
Dominika Strzałka – fourth-year student of architecture and urban studies at Cracow University of Technology, and recipient of a scholarship from the Technical University of Madrid. Has interned in design bureaus in Poland and Spain and participated in painting and architectural workshops;
particularly interested in conveying contents through graphics.
“In my works I attempted to portray metaphorically what seemed fundamental in the discussions of the conference participants: the role of green spaces, urban transport, a contemporary perspective in urban studies and above all raising the consciousness of society – by changing the state of mind of many residents, we can influence the city which we all create.”
