The COVID-19 crisis has brought into sharper focus the fragility of our lives and ways of living, but has also prompted solidarity approaches to support vulnerable groups, while highlighting the importance of pre-existing civic practices for social resilience and individual recovery. Against this backdrop, CoNECT will catalyze existing networks for collective action in six EU countries, aiming to boost community organizing capacity by recognizing, mapping, connecting, and strengthening everyday practices of community resilience toward ecological transition. The project will foster collaboration between citizens, thinkers, doers, planners from the partner countries, who will co-design and conduct parallel synergistic Labs implementing joint tools and methodologies with the following goals: 1) map existing spaces and practices of community resilience across different EU contexts; 2) analyze comparatively and conduct transnational co-produced research on resources, partnership models, and stakeholder networks; 3) co-create experimental frameworks for setting up or enhancing places and initiatives of social resilience through collaborations between professionals, researchers and community; 4) set up a digital platform to connect local networks and enhance transformational agency of civic resilience through knowledge sharing; 5) establish indicators, and a monitoring and evaluation framework for community resilience, scalable beyond the participating countries.

Project results summary (tentative)

Aim and purpose related to the project and to the call

Integrated urban development, an approach that combines social, economic, and environmental dimensions, requires innovative solutions and direct citizen involvement to address contemporary urban challenges. Within our project, we focus on achieving tangible changes that promote community resilience and support the transition toward more sustainable urban practices:
– Increasing the visibility of citizen-led initiatives that contribute to strengthening community resilience.
– Showcasing and promoting their work to ensure it becomes more widely known and accessible to a broader audience, including urban planning authorities and policymakers.
– Connecting neighborhood initiatives with similar agendas beyond their local context, within a European framework, to facilitate the exchange of experiences.
– Sharing knowledge among initiatives to foster collective learning.
– Presenting initiatives to planning authorities and policymakers as key actors in neighborhood-level resilience, from whom authorities can learn.
– Strengthening spaces and practices of community resilience by analyzing how they are funded, understanding what motivates the actors involved, and identifying the support these initiatives need to thrive.
– Providing policy recommendations for planning authorities and decision-makers.
– Instigating and facilitating sustainable continuity in the exchange and collaboration among actors in the local areas where we work.
The key findings of our project in relation to SRIA key dilemmas for urban transitions, creating knowledge and evidence on how to turn such conflicts into synergistic potential:
– enhance capacities in research, innovation, policy and society and create room for experimentation, co-creation, and science-policy-society cooperation to jointly develop and implement transition pathways in an integrative way;
– advance formats and instruments to support such transnational and transdisciplinary cooperation on urban matters to position Europe at the forefront of urban research and innovation.

Methods used and experiences that you would like to highlight

Within the consortium, we aligned ourselves with the concept of transformative learning introduced by Jack Mezirow in 1991 (Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning), which emphasizes the importance of critical reflection and the transformation of reference frames in adult education. We designed a project structure that allowed us to experiment with new roles for built-environment professionals, exploring innovative ways to remain relevant in the face of societal and planetary transformations. We also experimented with new research objects and methods, carefully bridging the “ivory tower” of academia with local initiatives aimed at improving the everyday spaces of urban communities.

We employed diverse methods to build the relationship between academia and civil society in specific contexts, all while testing our capacity to act as mediators between the forces shaping the city, particularly by creating connections between civic initiatives and local governance. Staying true to our belief that radically new approaches are necessary for shaping the city, we support theories heralding the emergence of a “new profession” that takes shape within the spaces of multi-helix collaborations. This “new profession” reflects the recognition of a new competence: the ability to work collaboratively within a knowledge-production system that values intersections, including and connecting all sectors of our society.

Conducting interviews sharpened our listening skills, while living lab activities contributed to at least three premises for “alternative practices” in building the city differently:
– Interdisciplinarity serves as a convergence point for different fields to learn from one another;
– Action research is a continuous process of learning and acquiring skills, values, and attitudes;
– Participatory action research provides a space for mutually beneficial encounters between diverse actors and stakeholders.

Experiences of working in the interdisciplinary project

The project setup allows us to experiment with new roles of engaged professionals. Our work is showing, once again, that straying away from consecrated ways of practicing the professions of the built environment can prompt new ways of thinking and doing, expanding the collaborative approach far beyond the “experts of the city”, recognising and integrating the agencies of others over the city and its built environment. We are also experimenting with new research objects and methods, carefully connecting the ivory tower of academia with the grassroots initiatives looking to improve the spaces of the everyday life of urban communities. We are using different methods for building the relation between academia and civil society in our respective contexts, but we are all gauging our capacity to act as mediators among the forces shaping the city, especially linking civic initiatives to local governance.

In staying true to our convictions that we need radically new approaches to making the city, we can support the theories of the rise of a “new profession” that is coming to life in the spaces of multiple helix collaborations. This “new profession” would be actually the recognition of a new competence – that of working collaboratively within a knowledge producing system that values the in-betweenness, while including and intertwining all sectors of our society.

Conducting the interviews has sharpened our listening skills, while the labbing activities are adding to at least three premises of “other practices” of making the city differently: (1) that interdisciplinarity is a hub for different fields learning from each other; (2) that action research is a continuous learning and acquirement of skills, values and attitudes; and (3) that participatory action research is a territory of mutually beneficial encounters of the various actors and stakeholders.

Overall tentative results that you would like to share to the public

The project, as a research endeavor promoting knowledge production through innovative collaboration between academia, civil society, the private sector, and public institutions, has yielded significant academic results. These results are primarily reflected in two special issues (in preparation) of prestigious scientific journals, showcasing the project’s academic contributions and addressing critical contemporary societal challenges such as ecological transitions and community resilience through interdisciplinary perspectives:
1) “Spaces and Practices of Everyday Community Resilience” is a special issue of Architecture (EISSN 2673-8945). It delves into the intersection of collective practices and spatial configurations that support community resilience. The issue examines how citizens, researchers, and municipal authorities collaborate to enhance communities’ organizational capacity in response to urban challenges, emphasizing inclusion, justice, and ecological transitions. This special issue invites contributions from a diverse audience—researchers, practitioners, and policymakers—with the goal of bridging theory and practice in the field of community resilience. https://www.mdpi.com/journal/architecture/special_issues/CMQ2G1F3FB
2) “Living Labs: Agents for Change” is a special issue of Buildings and Cities (EISSN 2632-6655). It explores the role of living labs in fostering civic resilience and ecological transitions across scales and contexts. Living labs are experimental environments where stakeholders co-create innovative solutions to complex problems. This issue aims to bring together analyses, case studies, and theoretical explorations to highlight the transformative potential of living labs, as flexible and adaptable agents capable of addressing both local and global challenges. https://www.buildingsandcities.org/calls-for-papers/living-labs-cfp.html
Together, these two special issues reflect the dynamic interplay between theory and practice, offering complementary perspectives on resilience and ecological transitions. While Architecture emphasizes spatial practices and community collaborations, Buildings and Cities delves into the experimental nature and methodological innovation of living labs. Collectively, they contribute to a broader understanding of how collective actions can shape a resilient and sustainable future.
The anticipated academic value of these works is complemented by their practical relevance. They provide a platform for knowledge exchange across disciplines and among stakeholders, thereby promoting actionable perspectives. Additionally, they highlight the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in addressing complex urban and ecological challenges.
By exploring resilience and ecological transitions from diverse perspectives—spatial practices, community networks, and experimental environments—these works not only advance academic discourse but also offer valuable tools for policymakers, practitioners, and communities.

References

Project website: https://www.jpiconect.eu/
CoNECT Webinar series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlEXrYXsMB1tWcyxgySHyphTQ0ZMUbiCf