Abstract
Today, citizens, professionals, civil servants, social enterprises, and others form different types of coalitions to overcome the challenges facing our modern cities. In this paper, the particularities of these types of groups are characterised and categorised into ten different types of city makers. Generally, these types of city makers bring value to cities, but we conclude that this value could be enriched through more participatory approaches that stimulate crossovers and accelerate the transition towards sustainable futures. Therefore, we characterise the different identified types as potential ‘participatory’ city makers. However, these participatory approaches and the networks between them still need to be developed, while improving conditions and dynamics that can enable and enhance innovation in urban environments. Design and systems thinking could contribute valuable methods and perspectives to the development of these participatory and systemic approaches. Finally, the categorisation presented in this paper must enable a better understanding of the transformative capacity of these different types of city makers, necessary for flourishing and sustainable communities.
Highlights
At present, different types of coalitions represent innovative ways of urban insurgent activism that aim at transformation, calling for new answers to citizens’ needs (Linders and Mayer, 2002)
Overall, the data on the 152 initiatives in the city of Rotterdam enabled the identification of ten different types of city makers
We argue from the different types to a landscape of participatory city makers, and how the five lenses and their factors could enable city makers to bring value to systemic change
Summary
Different types of coalitions represent innovative ways of urban insurgent activism that aim at transformation, calling for new answers to citizens’ needs (Linders and Mayer, 2002). The new city makers are active on various topics and challenge the existing social and cultural structures through which urban services, spaces and buildings are managed. They respond to rising urban issues with new approaches, focusing on better quality of life and sustainability. In this sense, the city makers that take responsibility and lead new practices can be seen as front-runners of urban sustainability transitions (Frantzeskaki et al 2016). Scholars in different domains have tried to describe the nature and potential of practices of frontrunners, focusing on different aspects that characterise them: for example, as place making in urban development (Palermo & Ponzini, 2014), as transformative social innovation (Avelino et al, 2017), as self-organising bodies (Rauws, 2016), or as tactical urbanism (Lydon & Garcia, 2015)
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