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Organizers: Dr. Francesca Pilo and Dr. Kei Otsuki, Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ - This webinar is also linked to the CITEUS of the Transforming Cities Hub.

Speakers: , , and  (City Mine(d)), Francis Mawejje (ACTogether),  (Milieucentrum Utrecht) 

Date & Time: March 24, 13:00 – 15:00 (CET time) 

The webinar Sustainable solutions for Open cities brings together bottom-up initiatives that are experimenting new forms of citizens’ organization in dealing with sustainability-related challenges linked to energy (e.g. energy poverty, unequal access to infrastructures, etc.) and climate change. While energy is mainly produced and organized somewhere else, and predominantly by other actors, citizens’ initiatives challenge this top-down organization, providing an alternative/complementary vision of how energy-related challenges should be tackled. Similarly, we see a growing engagement of citizens in mitigating climate change effects in cities, which is often considered a way to empower urban dwellers, and to innovate governance. In this context, cities are not just the setting in which these initiatives take place. Cities shape the type of energy and climate related problems citizens face, and therefore also offer specific solutions and forms of organization, and their political meaning. More broadly, these initiatives have the potential to contribute to progressive (equitable and sustainable, inclusive and open) urban transformations. 

This webinar aims to explore the link between sustainable bottom-up initiatives, their cities, and broad political implications in a conversation with organizations operating in cities around the world 

(Brussels, Kampala, Rio de Janeiro and Utrecht), along with these initial open questions: How have the initiatives come about and been organized? Who participate and how does the initiative relate to the broader urban planning process? How do these initiatives connect with other urban and sustainability problems (inequalities, vulnerabilities displacement, disasters, safety, etc.)? What are the challenges (technical, institutional, urban, socio-economic, etc.) when implementing such initiatives, and for them to be effective? To what extent these initiatives contribute to larger urban transformations and what can be the roles of academics/researchers? 

The following topics will be addressed: 

• Sustainable development of low-income communities (favelas) through solar energy in Rio de Janeiro (by Eduardo Avila, Revolusolar) 

• ‘La Pile’: an integrated approach to emerging energy communities in Brussels. (by Sofie van Bruystegem and Chloé Verlinden, City Mine(d)) 

• Sustainable energy in informal settlements in Kampala (by Francis Mawejje, ACTogether)

• ‘MeasureYourCity’ Utrecht: first steps towards a lively community and 100 sensors (at least!) (by Jenny Senhorst, Milieucentrum Utrecht) 

Through this webinar, the objective is to connect different initiatives and promoting a mutual learning environment of discussion in which we can better understand the potential of bottom-up initiatives and their challenges in contributing to construct a more open city.

Registration for this event is unfortunately closed, in case you have any questions or still want to register last minute, please send an email to opencity@uu.nl.

If you have any questions regarding this event, please feel free to contact us by e-mail through: opencity@uu.nl