Transforming Cities seed funding awarded to three projects
The research hub Transforming Cities has awarded seed funding to three projects:
Co-creating alternative `zero-waste’ urban imaginaries
The project addresses the participation of citizens in imagining and shaping sustainable urban futures, focusing on issues and infrastructures of waste. The aim is to develop a transferable transdisciplinary approach that supports the co-creation of alternative, inclusive ‘zero-waste’ imaginaries, by critically and creatively addressing the notion of ‘waste’ in urban contexts. This approach will be developed through coproduction, bringing together different kinds of knowledge, experience and expertise, and including communities beyond academia (e.g., citizens, practitioners, artists). Our ultimate aim is to provide critical and creative tools that enable questioning singular future visions and generating a plurality of potential sustainable urban futures. You can find more information on the project page.
Citizen Engagement for Urban Sustainability (CITEUS): Towards a better understanding and stronger forms of citizen engagement for urban sustainability through inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration and exchange
The project Citizen Engagement for Urban Sustainability (CITEUS) aims to enhance the understanding of the relationship between citizen engagement and urban sustainability. Citizen engagement is necessary for taking urban sustainability measures. However, governmental actors, especially at the local level, are struggling with the question of how to involve citizens and what this might imply for their governance approaches. Citizens struggle as well: Where to start? What to do? What can they expect from the government? The Special Interest Group CITEUS wants to stimulate inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration to enhance the understanding of citizen engagement in urban sustainability and to contribute to stronger forms of citizen engagement. You can find more information on the webpage of CITEUS.
Transforming urban tourism: The faces behind Airbnb's trolley cases
Urban tourism is changing. After decades of expanding tourist numbers, the effect tourism is having on cities is being acknowledged and many cities endeavor on a quest to stimulate a more sustainable form of urban tourism. The rise of the accommodation sharing economy, with Airbnb as a prime example, and its effects on local living conditions has become increasingly part of the debate on how tourism can adversely affect sustainable and accessible cities and on how urban tourism itself has been changing recently. This study aims to get a better insight into the interrelation between motivations, trip behavior and sustainable urban tourism development by comparing users of traditional accommodation providers to users of accommodations in the sharing economy. For more information you can contact Egbert van der Zee.