The transformation of urban processes is taking place in a world which is becoming increasingly globalized in terms of economic, cultural and social exchanges, which bring with them standard models and references that are often ill-adapted to local social requirements and to the specific needs of a particular context. These far-reaching transformations of the contemporary world have an immediate impact on urban growth and on the various forms of urban and spatial development and planning carried out during the twentieth century, which are no longer suited to the conditions prevailing today.

The vast majority of citizens living in Latin America or Europe can now be said to live in urban areas, and, soon, this will also be the case for Africa and Asia. However, an urban area is much more than a space which needs to be planned; it is also a centre of social life, marked by evolving identities and meanings, new social practices, and tensions and conflicts between different interest groups. It is of major importance not only in economic and political terms, but in social, cultural, educational, health and ecological terms as well.

The consequences of this development and the complexity of the transformation processes under way have had striking effects in several areas.

a) Socio-economic effects

Southern and northern urban agglomerations play a decisive role in the globalisation of economic markets. They are the key centres of production and exchange of goods and services. All cities, particularly metropolises, are nodes of production and trade on a global scale. The economic growth caused by urban phenomena is not, however, synonymous with social equity. On the contrary, the liberalisation of economic rules and excessive competition give rise - in urban environments - to growing inequalities in the distribution of wealth. This in turn accelerates the pauperisation of the poorest sectors of society, extends the "informal" employment sector, increases segregation in the occupation of space and in access to networks, services and technical progress, and contributes to widespread environmental degradation.

b) Political effects

The many failures in public-sector planning and housing policies have resulted in a trend towards the redefinition of the role of the State, political and administrative decentralisation at the different levels of society, and the establishment of new partnerships with local authorities and civil society on the basis of the principles drawn up at the Habitat II Conference held in Istanbul in 1996. These new forms of management have undoubtedly made a very favourable impression on all urban actors; they are nevertheless faced with constraints in terms of spatial management, for which the necessary human and financial resources are lacking. These processes require particular attention in terms of governance.

c) Effects on urban issues

The disintegration of urban forms in general, combined with the demographic and spatial growth of urban agglomerations in Latin America, has given rise to increasingly complex requirements and to many conflicts over the right to "live in the city". At the same time, the questioning of town and city planning in its current form by critical commentary from the social sciences and epistemological studies underlines the need for an approach spanning several disciplines and sectors - one of the most effective means of responding both to the scale of the problems, and to their multi-dimensional and interdependent nature.

d) Effects on professional practices

The organisation and management of urban space require multi-skilled professionals and the introduction of new working structures for which few are really prepared, whether they come from the public sector or work in the private companies which are increasingly being asked to intervene in this area. Global calculations show, for example, that over 60% of urban space is currently produced without professional involvement. This leads to high unemployment figures in certain professions, accompanied - paradoxically - by a surplus of graduates with no job opportunities. This state of affairs is the result of the fragmentation of the practices of city professionals, which are inconsistent with the know-how required for effective urban management and planning.

e) Effects on university training

The disparity between training, qualifications and skills is one of the main problems facing the academic world. Ever higher qualifications lead to narrow specialisation, whereas real life, as we have seen, is becoming more complex and requires future professionals to respond in a flexible and dynamic manner in understanding global processes. We can therefore say that areas of study, programmes and training methods are inconsistent with the present and future challenges of urban life.

These changes are caused by global phenomena related to world economic processes which are radically transforming contemporary societies. Cities are directly confronted with these changes: the professionals responsible for their management and development should be equipped to understand the causes and effects of these changes, as well as their implications, so that they can incorporate them in their areas of work.
 

II. THE PROJECT

Through the development of more suitable technical, theoretical and methodological tools for the renewal of the resources and objectives of activities relating to the management, development and planning of urban property and services, the project will focus on the following issues:

a) The relationship between universities and society

This relationship is the central element of the project. It is concerned with setting up co-operative links between universities and training and research centres that are currently seeking to introduce the necessary changes, and helping them to develop innovative initiatives and adapt to the changing trends and needs of society.

b) The relationship between professional practices and academic practices

Educational resources will develop more fully if they are made more relevant to professional requirements and social needs. If the academic world focuses on the production of knowledge rather than confining itself to transmitting content, it will become more effective through being based on research into social practices related to the needs and expectations of society.

c) The relationship between new ideas and new practices

The testing, systematisation and utilisation of innovations and reforms in the decision-making process widen the field of application and social function of universities and professional practices. They encourage the formulation of urban policies which can make urban management and governance more effective, relevant and democratic.

III. CONTEXT

This initiative is in keeping with a long tradition in UNESCO, whose main task is to generate and disseminate knowledge in the fields of education, science and culture. For the last thirty years UNESCO’s activities in the training of architects and other urban professionals have been developed in association with the International Union of Architects (UIA). Centred on teaching methods, the results of these activities, carried out in different areas of the world, help to promote:

• the establishment of links between training and professional practices;
• closer ties between academic theory and national policies relating to human settlements and city planning;
• an approach to architectural training (techniques, products, object of study and professional practices) based on flexibility and dynamism in response to social transformations;
• a broader disciplinary basis designed to decompartmentalize architecture, enhanced by contributions from the social sciences;
• the participation of professional associations in the design of study programmes.

UNESCO is counting on international co-operation mechanisms for the exchange of knowledge and experience in higher education which could contribute to the project. UNESCO Chairs have been set up for this purpose (3), as well as the UNITWIN networks for the development of new interactive training opportunities.
 

IV. FOUR GUIDELINES FOR THE PROJECT

1. An approach to urban issues based on "social sustainability" (4)

The built environment adapts to the social fabric, and vice versa, in a dynamic urban process. In the construction of the urban area links between the individual, the community and the symbolic converge and the inhabitants can become the main actors of this construction, through the use, design and re-signification of public space and, from a general point of view, through governance and local management based on joint negotiations.

It is usually taken for granted that the term "sustainability" includes the social dimension; this dimension is often neglected, however. The specific approach of "social sustainability", as used here, is meant as an alternative which stresses - over and above the question of ecological and economic viability - the social and cultural dimensions, with the emphasis on the negotiation processes and symbolic appropriation by society as a whole.

Participation and the negotiation of specific conflicts of interest foster a constructive approach to local democracy and "good governance", and are therefore just as important as the physical component of the built environment and public space, since they encourage a new way of devising urban policy. It is therefore important to focus on the process of reformulating urban policies in the light of professional practices and the work of academic and research centres.

By introducing the principle of "social sustainability" the City Professionals Project advocates a model of urban planning which heeds the views of the inhabitants and takes into account the expectations and needs of all social groups in the city, in an effort to forge social cohesion, thus combating social division and the destructuring of urban space. (5)

2. Interdisciplinary and intersectoral partnership building

In order to train future city professionals differently, an important prerequisite is that the techniques and disciplines involved in the creation of the built environment should be decompartmentalized. Furthermore, the sharing of experience and intersectoral exchanges between the main actors of the urban environment (professionals, decision-makers, economic actors, practitioners and inhabitants) can provide new criteria for a fresh approach to management designed to develop new urban policies which are socially sustainable.

The task of conceptualisation and reflection in action, together with the methods proposed for understanding urban processes, helping to improve the built environment and participating effectively in urban management, encounter many difficulties if the analysis of urbanisation is confined, as too often happens, to physical features. Consideration of all the dimensions involved in the urban environment (social, economic, legal and property-related, political, cultural and ecological) rounds out this approach but makes it complex and more difficult to control. All action therefore requires a rigorous methodological effort where interdisciplinary and intersectoral activities are concerned.

3. Academic training related to experience

The originality of the "new practices" of city professionals is based on their form of action as well as on solid academic foundations. One feature is the linking of higher education to professional practices. As a result, academic training is amplified by in-depth reflection on content arising out of empirical learning and theorising based directly on real life, centring on the essential theoretical aspects (epistemology and methodology) of the urbanisation processes under study.

From an educational point of view, innovative approaches make use of the method of experimentally testing "new professional practices", particularly with regard to the socio-economic mechanics involved in producing the urban environment. These approaches will be based on a theoretical body of knowledge analysed, criticised, transformed and readapted in the course of co-operation between professionals, producers, users and scientists; the method can then become a means of attaining a more universal goal (the replication of experiments).

For this purpose, exercises involving the preparation of operational projects (reflection in action) in partnership with decision-makers, technicians and communities, would seem to be an essential educational component in the present-day training of "city professionals". This method leads to concrete results which must be fed back into education and the knowledge production process; in this way it can provide a link between study and real life, and also between universities, society and professional practices. In addition, it represents a commitment on the part of both scientists and professionals to the communities taking part in these educational experiments.

4. Replication and extension to other experiments

It is important to draw attention to the final principle - the goal of replicability of the selected experiments under different local conditions. This is only possible if the experimental projects have already been tested and have proved their worth in terms of their educational, methodological and theoretical qualities.

Replicability in a different setting is based on the assumption that what is being studied in the course of the experiment is the processes at work, and not the particular facts of the subject under study. This makes comparison and replication possible in other contexts with different historical and geographical features.

V. AIMS OF THE PROJECT

The aims of the project are to:

1. Help to strengthen links between higher education, the production of knowledge, everyday professional practices and the formulation of spatial planning policies.

2. Encourage the renewal of teaching and research programmes and methods through innovative training courses currently being developed on an experimental basis in several universities throughout the world, starting in Latin America.

3. Contribute to the development of feedback between actions and experiments in order to ensure the transfer, dissemination and application of results for the collective improvement of teaching methods and tools for urban operations.

4. Contribute to systematising the processes of understanding and learning with a view to creating new teaching aids and mounting similar experiments in other regions and institutions in the developing world.

5. Establish with professionals and universities a method for the observation, analysis and testing of significant urban development experiments. (6)

6. Contribute to questioning and redefining the role and field of competence of the different urban actors, particularly working professionals and their associations.

7. Strengthen the partnership between universities, public administrations and civil society organisations (including companies), by supporting practical actions in the field with the participation of these actors in order to enhance their ability to confront urban problems together.

8. Test new methods of urban planning, development and management (including technical, administrative, environmental and economic aspects as well as social and cultural factors) by devising mechanisms for negotiation and consultation between the different urban actors.

9. Establish, by empirical means, links between the social sciences and applied technology and design in connection with the formulation and management of urban policies.

VI. THE TARGET PARTICIPANTS

In view of the complexity of the problem and the many actors and agents involved in the production of urban space, the field of action of this initiative can easily exceed the limits set for it, losing its way in a jumble of poorly structured proposals which do not make sense to the partners directly concerned with its success.

In order to avoid these pitfalls, an attempt will be made, at the outset of the programme, to define the target participants in terms of "city professionals" and institutional links (in direct contact with universities, academic and research centres and professional organisations and less direct contact with decision-makers and inhabitants).

For example, the following groups will be taken into account:

• Technicians and researchers - whether specialists in urban morphology or from other disciplines (architects, city planners, engineers, builders, geographers and sociologists) - and other professionals involved in the creation of the built environment: managers, finance officers, lawyers, administrators, etc.);
• Officials (decision-makers, politicians, trade union representatives, social workers, etc.);
• Representatives of civil society (NGOs, associations, etc.).

The choice of participants reflects social and political demands (authorities and local governments) which are formalised, organised and instituted through universities and training/research centres, as well as professional associations involved in urban management.
 

VII. IMPLEMENTATION

For the implementation of this project UNESCO is working in partnership with specialised institutions, in this case IREC, which has special competence in the matter. IREC’s experience in this area stems from more than twelve years of international scientific and technical co-operation, mainly in the fields of research, training and support for urban actors in many countries of Latin America, Southeast Asia (mainly Viet Nam) and West Africa. Internationally recognised and a presence at the City Summit (Habitat II), IREC’s experience is based on the following principles:

• Content: IREC’s approach to the issues of urban development and planning is not strictly technical, but rather multi-faceted, focusing on the definition of needs and priorities in response to social demand.
• Method: IREC’s concerns imply close links between research, support for urban operators and training; an interdisciplinary approach conducive to a global understanding of urban issues; and the highly effective establishment of horizontal cooperation programmes between institutions of North and South.
• The use of knowledge for the renewal of higher training: the studies carried out by IREC have provided knowledge, know-how and tools for public sector decision-makers and their civil society partners. They have resulted in the organisation of numerous training courses on participatory planning. These courses bring together, within action-oriented teaching modules, professionals with very different backgrounds who are all motivated by the same wish: to make headway in solving urban problems by introducing new urban practices and finding new forms of co-operation between urban actors.

The project’s pilot phase (2000-2001, with a possible extension to 2002), will concentrate on university and professional people (mainly by associating academic institutions and professional associations) who, in some regions such as Latin America, are often practising professionals and administrators (including builders and managers). This institutional linkage will provide an excellent opportunity to broaden the academic sphere to include professionals from different disciplines, fostering a multi-dimensional approach to urban affairs and interdisciplinary methodology; it will also be an opportunity to identify and initiate exchanges with municipal authorities.

The implementation of this initial phase involves the following activities:

• Identify the institutions and groups (universities, professional training centres, NGOs, professional associations) which have carried out significant and innovative experiments linking urban practices (execution of operational urban development projects) with advanced university training, with a view to contributing to spatial management and planning policies in the areas concerned.

• Establish co-operation agreements with university partners, research centres and specialised NGOs for carrying out and evaluating projects.

• Develop inter-agency co-operation mechanisms with organisations of the United Nations system to provide financial support for the initiatives to be carried out in various developing countries (first in Latin America and then - if this is successful - in the Arab region, Africa, Asia and a number of Western countries).

• Set up a steering committee at UNESCO, made up of teachers, researchers and professionals from different disciplines and geographical regions, for the monitoring and ongoing assessment of the project.

In a later phase (2002-2003), the outcome of the initial phase will be used to set up "continuing training" courses, which are more adapted to the needs of actors who are directly involved in professional practice, such as decision-makers, community organisers, associations and inhabitants.

During the 2004-2005 period, these courses could form the basis of an initiative which would replace the university training of future professionals by a process of "training for decision-makers" that is more directly related to spatial management and planning policies.
 

VIII. EXAMPLES OF ANTICIPATED RESULTS

• Creation and consolidation of UNESCO Chairs and university networks in Latin America dealing with urban affairs, in response to the recommendations of IUA working groups calling for the twinning of architecture schools and other forms of South-South and North-South co-operation.

• Organisation of meetings between networks on educational systematisation and assessment.

• Organisation of follow-up seminars and technical assistance missions.

• Carrying out a "state-of-the-art" survey on the relationship between professional practices, university training and urban policies, focusing on specific features, identities, problems and actors.

• Development of teaching aids (teaching notes, textbooks, guides, courses, etc.) for use by universities and specialised centres to renew their programmes.

• Development of tools for the transfer of knowledge and methods on the basis of innovative experiments which are of use to city professionals.

• Establishment or strengthening of co-operation networks in other regions of the developing world.

• Application and dissemination of the results of exchanges between networks, using tools still to be defined (database of experiments, publications, etc.), on different training practices throughout the world.

• Creation of a body of experts to support the efforts of universities and competent authorities seeking to reform their higher education programmes in urban affairs.

Germán Solinís
UNESCO MOST
Tel: (331) 45.68.38.37
Fax: (331) 45.68.57.28
g.solinis@unesco.org

MOST Clearing House Homepage
http://www.unesco.org/most/cityproe.htm

Notes

1. Research institute of the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (Switzerland).

2. The relevance of this initiative was confirmed in November 1999 by the General Conference of UNESCO, which decided to step up UNESCO’s activities in this area in response to numerous requests from Member States. The project has been included in UNESCO’s Draft Programme and Budget for 2000-2001 "Advancement, transfer and sharing of knowledge in the social and human sciences", main line of action 1 - Improving university teaching, research capacities and international cooperation in the social sciences (para. 02121).

3. Particularly the UNESCO-ITESO Chair in Urban management and sustainable urban planning, located in Guadalajara, Mexico.

4. Sustainable urban development should be regarded as a current or future development process conducive to urbanization which maintains a balance between the social, economic, ecological and spatial dimensions.

5. This model differs from technocratic methods based on expertise and specialization alone, the supposedly scientific and objective nature of which often conceals an ideological discourse and even political aberration.

6. Based on dimensions such as: urban management and social partnership; the improvement, construction or rehabilitation of human settlements; urban policies, local democracy and governance.