Anybody can be a change-maker in their community

Active residents become responsible participants in shaping their city through collaboration and participation. When municipalities listen to and begin to make use of tools, knowledge and experiences from civil society, regenerative visions emerge from the public realm. For example, the politics of the right to housing can activate communities, creating a culture for empowerment. Financial practices and instruments, such as participatory budgeting can enable communities to shape their territories, often involving very diverse and disadvantaged groups. Cultural groups and academic groups, especially those taking part in experimentation labs, can assist and support communities to engage in urban development through cultural solutions.

Civil society can build sustainable and just urban communities and cities from the bottom up – but only when diverse groups tap into existing community networks and find common ground, shared objectives and, sometimes, resources to create a comprehensive vision of change. Key challenges here include involving more diverse communities, finding suitable ways of making decisions and working together, while celebrating small steps in the collective journey. To sustain momentum over time, such networks will need to develop resilient and self-sufficient financing arrangements. Bridging different stakeholder groups allows communities to realise their visions, but care is needed to ensure decision-makers commit to a meaningful participation process.

The damages to urban communities caused by speculation, destructive forms of tourism, and gentrification can be countered. This works best when organized civil society actors challenge limited citizen participation in urban planning and wider political decision-making in contemporary cities. Strong for-profit forces demand weak(ened) civil society, so that the benefits they reap from unquestioned neoliberal growth and austerity urbanism remain unchallenged. Civil society groups must counter uneven and exclusionary urban intensification and regeneration. This includes cutting-edge “eco” projects, which heighten material and livelihood inequalities and racialised or ethnically inclusive urbanisation by driving out established communities in order to house new communities of wealthy elites.

• The more participatory a society is, the greater its will to combat inequalities and injustices increases, becoming a more conscious and caring community. (Rafael Calado, FabLab Lisbon)