CLIMATE CHANGE & SUSTAINABILITY
GIVING THE CITY BACK TO ITS INHABITANTS
MICHEL SUDARSKIS Secretary General International Urban Development Association
Sometimes cities are badly run, dirty and dilapidated. Many people however believe that it is still worth living in such city. Why? The City is a place that can take people to higher and more complex human levels, even in the most adverse conditions. A city is a place where people can learn to live with strangers, to share experiences and explore unfamiliar interests. Uniformity stupefies, while diversity stimulates mind and bodies. The city offers the inhabitants the opportunity to develop a richer awareness of themselves. This is the power of diversity: freedom from arbitrary identity which if exacerbated can become“ a murderous identity” Understanding the movements that affect the evolution of our cities refers primarily to those who make them: the inhabitants. How people understand and relate to their city? Mainly through the elements that constitute their daily lives: housing, public space, schools, jobs and workplace. To give the city back to its inhabitants implies to act on these different elements. But what appears is that the people do not feel necessarily engaged in the production of their living environment. Social solidarity is crumbling, living together deteriorates, and trust relationships are weak. It is as if each person was seeing his city not as it is but as it says it is. What we might call the“ media narrative” is creating a distorted reality giving way to a wary loneliness that undermines the traditional approaches. The democratic ideal on which was built our conception of the public debate is cracking. Many attempts were made to recover the initial inspiration through digital tools that are thought to be able to replace dialogue, head to head or face to face relations. We must question this new approach for the technical objects( the smart hype) are not political. They can be tools at the service of a political project provided that the project is previously and explicitly discussed. The political process must take into account changes affecting the lives of the people.
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