Europeans for example E-Book

Luca Boetti

• Herausgeber: Fausto Lupetti Editore
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Europe’s most precious capital is its citizens. Thousands of volunteers all over Europe contribute everyday to create social cohesion and rights of citizenship while improving their skills.Europeans, for example (Euforex) is a European project funded under the Lifelong Learning Program, Grundtvig measure and coordinated by the Municipality of Reggio Emilia (Comune di Reggio Emilia).Europeans, for example was created out of the experience of active citizenship promotion that the Municipality has been carrying on since 2008 within the project ‘I Reggiani, per esempio’.Euforex has been developed between October 2011 and October 2013 and had the goal of winning a double challenge: to encourage participation to volunteering and empower the key competences through training and certification. These two objectives are strictly connected and crucial in stimulating people’s active participation to the community. Euforex was also aimed at developing, in different territories, the partnership between public and private sector so that the governance models may achieve common goals. The book is about this European experience of making thoughts, methods, tools and outcomes available to public and private organisations and decision makers.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Introduction by Ugo Ferrari

The city as a covenant between responsible parties by Graziano Delrio

Methodological note

Social capital and development of territories

1.1. Towards a new model of development for the territory

1.2. Rethinking social capital

Notes

I Reggiani, per esempio: the social capital of Reggio Emilia

2.1. A project to promote the social capital of the community

2.2. The phases of the project

2.3. The model of governance: public/private partnership

2.4. The value of the project

Notes

Europeans, for example: the story continues in Europe

3.1. Objectives of the European project

3.2. The partnership

Notes

Transfer of the model: enhancement of social capital through communication and governance

4.1. Communication as a strategic lever

4.2. Exporting the governance model

Notes

The added value of Euforex: training and Volupass

5.1. The territorial analyses

5.2. The training

5.3 The Volupass

Notes

The project’s cross-sectional activities

6.1. Management and coordination of the partnership

6.2. Quality control

6.3. Exploitation of results

Notes

European planning as a way to strenghten democracy and civic participation

Notes

Acknowledgements

Copyright

Nicoletta Levi

I. C. Grazia Filippi F.

Luca Boetti

Roberta Paltrinieri

Giulia Camurri

Capitale sociale e volontariato: il progetto

Social capital and volunteering: the project

Europeans, example

Introduction

Graziano Delrio

Italian Minister for Regional Affairs

and Local Autonomies

Former Mayor of Reggio Emilia

Ugo Ferrari

Deputy Mayor of Reggio Emilia

Authors

Luca Boetti

Giulia Camurri

Irma Carla Grazia Ferro Filippi

Chiara Guglielmini

Nicoletta Levi

Roberta Paltrinieri

Scientific supervision

Roberta Paltrinieri

Associate Professor Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna

Steering committee

Abdullah Acar

Eyyup Akinci

Luca Boetti

Mihaela Brumar

I. C. Grazia Filippi F.

Jorge Hermida Fuertes

Nicoletta Levi

Georg Müllner

Stefan Vasile

Editing

Francesco Rossi Photographer

Cover design

Graphic office of Comune di Reggio Emilia

Translation

Ligabue Paola & C. SAS Reggio Emilia

Intellectual property

Comune di Reggio Emilia

Publishing

Fausto Lupetti Editore

Via del Pratello, 31 - 40122 Bologna

Tel. [phone]

Viale Abruzzi, 84 - 20131 Milano

Tel. [phone]

www.faustolupettieditore.it

Distribution

Messaggerie Libri

EAN 978-88-97686-70-5

ANVUR - Registered editor

(Agenzia Nazionale di Valutazione

E-book version

Fausto Lupetti Editore

EAN 978-88-97686-71-2

www.europeansforexample.eu

Romanian, Spanish and Turkish ebooks

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible

 for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Introduction by Ugo Ferrari

Cities, neighbourhoods and communities. These are the common public goods which we are called upon to administer, in the conviction that they are relational as well as physical spaces. They are shared spaces that belong to the community. Within this framework, the concept of city which we have in mind is crucial for social cohesion. Planning spaces in a way that fosters sharing means safeguarding social cohesion and not giving in to indifference, fear and seclusion. It means ensuring vital nourishment to enable the renewal of active citizenship from one generation to the next.

Today, globalisation profoundly changes time-space reference frames for those who are in charge of administration, and for citizens too. Local boundaries are progressively moving towards the wider arena, technological innovation facilitates communications and increases opportunities for social encounter, and intercultural encounters are an integral part of our daily life.

At the same time, the demand for sustainable and people-oriented cities and real, concrete relationships is increasing. Therefore, the real challenge for administrators is to match different needs and find a balanced and harmonious compromise between potentially opposing forces. It is necessary to keep up with the times and, in the meanwhile, to maintain our own common and individual identity.

In this process, the contribution that everyone can make to the surrounding context and to one’s neighbour becomes very valuable. If Reggio Emilia is “the city of people” then we owe it to all those who spontaneously carry out acts of social solidarity and responsibility, as this book will remind us, as well as to fidelity to a specific idea of local governance which places the individual at the core.

Indeed, there are 104 social cooperatives, 263 volunteering organisations and 229 social promotion associations with as many as 280,000 members and 26,000 volunteers who each day give their time and skills to the community. This is a precious asset which reveals an immeasurable social capital in which the Municipal administration has always believed, a belief which is reflected primarily in its effort to relate and make visible these countless stories of solidarity in “I Reggiani, per esempio”.

The idea that our experience may also represent an asset for Europe itself, where we feel we are playing a leading role, is a source of pride and satisfaction based on the fact that Reggio Emilia can clearly represent a social model that has the ability to inspire innovative European projects.

Ugo Ferrari

Deputy Mayor of Reggio Emilia

The city as a covenant between responsible parties by Graziano Delrio

Growth, innovation, and the lives of citizens will increasingly be concentrated in cities. It is cities, increasingly, which will drive countries out of recession and economic crisis. The progressive change that is currently taking place in Asia and South America equally concerns the Old Continent, Europe, and Italy.

The legitimate hope for a better quality of life for the millions of people who are urbanising on a massive scale, puts a significant pressure on the most specific and political dimension of urban life: the practice of citizenship.

“The air of the city will set you free” is an ancient adage of Hanseatic cities: the city is born out of a social contract between free and mutually responsible people.

To this day, the social contract continues to make us free and responsible men and women. This pact is built upon the relationship with the others and the Other, as something or someone yet unknown. Within this plural dimension, created by relationships between different parties, we are, apart than citizens, “people”.

If a city, small or large, fails protect this concept, it loses its own essence and social capital, with the latter interpreted asas the ability of all to create relations and reciprocity, trust and social well-being.

This is the reason why experiences such as those conducted within “Europeans, for Example” and the prior project born in Reggio Emilia “I Reggiani, per esempio” are so fundamental and will be herein discussed.

The impact of globalisation on people’s lives, the crisis of traditional political , parties, and the weakening of social cohesion are all factors that have triggered the local administration of Reggio Emilia to reflect upon the need to revive the sense of belonging to a civil community.

Hence, the public authority has adopted a motivating role of governance, highlighting the city as a public good and as the pivotal locus for the ‘right of citizenship’. Through the vital experience of volunteering, which is fortunately deeply rooted in our society and articulated as a civic call, it has been possible to restore and renew the practice of citizenship awareness.

The practice of civic calls by soliciting a personal confrontation with the public goods, leads to the awareness of “having a right to the city”. Whether in the suburbs of a big metropolis or in the local neighbourhood park, the civic call places everybody in the position of questioning themselves about “the public good” and their responsibility towards this ideal.

The public administration, whether it’s the State or the Municipality, shall play the protective role of social supporter while releasing the energy and the authonomies of both individuals and communities. Therefore the hope is that, even in large cities and extensive metropolitan zones, there will be places inhabitated by a network of relationships that are capable of building bridges and crossing borders, lands of individual opportunity and for the common good.

Graziano Delrio

Minister for Regional Affairs and Local Autonomies

Former Mayor of Reggio Emilia