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Inclusion and valuing everyone’s lives equally is the aim for many of us in our cities. However, in many cases this is far from the current reality. Gentrification has an infamous reputation as one of the culprits and dynamics behind this.
But have you ever thought of looking at gentrification from another angle?
As ‘Thinking Afresh‘ is one of our key themes for this year’s festival, let us look at an interesting example of reframing: the idea of ‘Gentlefication‘ (with an L!). What if we see the process of more affluent residents and businesses moving into an existing urban area not simply as a driver of displacement and cultural destruction, but rather as an opportunity to improve an entire community’s quality of life?
Such a ‘gentle gentrification‘ is subject to effective and smart public management of gentrification processes and, therefore, a task for Creative Bureaucrats.
What does this mean exactly and how, as a city administration, can you ‘gentlefy’ areas? What are the tools and processes to apply, and projects and people we can learn from?
Find out more in September as our festival will cover interesting aspects on this topic, including sessions from Placemaking Europe by two of our dear friends, Charlot Schans and Ramon Marrades.
Reading tips to learn more about the concept and challenges of 'Gentlefication'
In their publication ‘OUR CITY? Countering Exclusion in Public Space’ our network partners Placemaking Europe and STIPO have put together a great collection of articles from placemaking thinkers and doers on what drives exclusion in cities – and what can be done to counteract it.
In their inclusion toolkit the Danish Design Centre shows ways to design a user-centred living lab from the ground up. It is aimed at street lab or living lab organisers in general and aims to walk users a few steps down the path to becoming more user-centered and inclusive.