THE EUROPEAN URBAN EXPERIENCE

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The Humboldt University of Berlin undertook a study presenting, synthesizing and discussing recent and current academic research on the implementation of URBAN in different European countries and cities. The study addresses 3 major issues: > URBAN and governance: impact of URBAN on (national, regional and) local governance structures and dynamics (impact on domestic policy traditions and institutional and administrative local structures; responses of domestic actors at all tiers of government to pressure emanating from URBAN to adjust existing urban policy contents, patterns and instruments to EU requirements; translation of EU norms and requirements into the local context; conflicts and bargaining processes between different actors and interest groups, etc.) > URBAN and local empowerment: URBAN’s potential to empower the subnational level and local actors (URBAN and experimentation with innovative policy approaches, URBAN as a potential opportunity for local residents to become involved in urban development, etc.) > URBAN as a transnational programme: exchange and policy learning offered through the transnational dimension of URBAN (and URBACT); comparative approaches of URBAN experiences in ’Northern’ and ’Southern’ Europe, in countries and cities with longer experience in decentralized and integrated urban policy making and those with centralized, authoritative and top-down policy traditions, in different cities in one country; potential “learning processes” discernable from URBAN I to URBAN II.

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