Urban Echos – A platform for thoughtful practices for common spaces

We are reaching out to you as our long-standing partners who have helped to foster creative economies in our cities and regions over many years. We would now like to shift our focus with you to new fields of action to regional economies that are both creative and inclusive, resilient and more common-grounded. We will show you practices which enable more commoning and for more multi-coded spaces where we see alternative solutions. We will echo with our partners around the globe these connections and the exchange of experiences to help you nurture your city and region.

We will showcase with you an economy that prioritises the expansion of accessible green spaces for all allowing more encounters of publics, and encourage diverse communities in our cities. It´s the need of the people, their purposes, and the collective will that drives our “next communities” against the backdrop of injustice. Amidst the global challenges of climate crisis, resource scarcity, and growing social inequality, we believe that regional and urban development must be inclusive and more than sustainable. Commons play an essential role in this critical development, significantly contributing to the enhancement of well-being, care, solidarity, equity and alternative economies.

Our interest is to  show you  how creative economies can embrace wider common needs and building-up new place-based communities. We connect creative economies with the need of better public infrastructures that are more inclusive, foster collective well-being, and depend on post-fossil resources. European cases will focus on more cradle-to-cradle, circular economies and up-cycling designs that have had hard times in the euphoria of the creative growth of the 2010s. Of course, smart technologies are essential, if it nurtures inclusivity, commons, and well-being. In doing so, collaborative participation will be key to foster more commoning.

Starting in September  2024 with Co-Developer Dr. Steve Harding (Birmingham), Katharina Kipp (Berlin), Dr. Sebastian Schlüter (Marseille) and Dr. Bastian Lange (Berlin) we will offer you practices and principles that shape resilient and equitable spaces. The following articles and contributions showcase practices and initiatives that create and enhance spaces of commoning in both urban and non-urban environments. By sharing case studies, experiences, and expertise, we aim to collaboratively learn and explore what it means to create commons that enhance more inclusivity, decarbonization, and spaces we love to share with others.

In 2024 we will build a range of cases studies and through 2025 we will start to pull together the threads of these experiences and fashion some key points to share with you linking creative economies, culture and well-being. Follow us on LinkedIn.