Course Content
In this chapter we introduce the topic of this module, make a first sketch of the context and explain the contents of the module. Including 3 templates with suggested timelines & assignments for your optimal learning experience.
Transformation areas need structural organisational power underneath them. As a local government you need agreements with the different owners and stakeholders who are developing initiatives, but these stakeholders also need to negotiate ways to collaborate with each other. What are the rules and agreements for all the different building initiatives, but also how do you work together beyond that, first on collective placemaking and marketing and later – after completion of the buildings – also on collective maintenance or smart mobility, energy or waste solutions? This is complex and takes time to grow. You need to design the orgware in a way that it is not too heavy at the start and can evolve, grow, shift or shrink over time, depending on what the area needs and what is going on there.
In this chapter we will dive into the idea of multi-stakeholder urban collectives, their importance and key characteristics. We will deal with different interests, perspectives and the different mutual dependencies among different stakeholders – all influencing the success of your urban development project. Urban transformation is essentially a multi-stakeholder challenge. Where at first glance it may seem that different stakeholder groups have opposing interests, there are many points where the different self-interests overlap or complement. By understanding all these different interests and priorities very well and then cleverly connecting them into a bigger and collective mission, many different resources can be combined to realise projects within this mission. And all will benefit from that.
In this chapter we give you a detailed illustration of how the different interests and mutual dependencies among different public, private and civic stakeholders worked in our Amsterdam field lab. How do you turn a perceived deadlock situation around by making new and unexpected connections? The successful physical transformation of an area is strongly intertwined with growing diverse social networks, local economies, personal agency, private and civic investment power and organisational resilience. It may take quite some years before the physical transformation really becomes manifest, but when it does you will realise how much more you have been building all that time. Including a checklist for mutual dependencies among stakeholders.
How do you build and coordinate actionable coalitions to work on real projects in your urban transformation? This is a very actionable chapter, starting with a detailed illustration from Amsterdam and then showing you step by step how to do this yourself – perhaps even from scratch - going from one-on-one stakeholder conversations to your first workshops and concrete project collaborations. How do you design these workshops and which threats and opportunities do you need to be aware of when you start to bring many different types of stakeholders together to talk about the area and its future? Including a manual to organise effective multi-stakeholder workshops.
Local collaboration takes time to grow. It requires not only shared goals and investments but also a culture of collaboration, transparency and trust. If you want to build this from scratch, you can get stuck in endless meetings before real commitments are made. Stakeholders who were active front runners in the beginning may get demotivated as they don’t see any tangible results and the whole thing plummets before it starts. If on the other hand you start very light and informal, perhaps with a few very inexpensive interventions paid by one-off sponsoring or volunteering, you build tangible results and positive energy immediately. Besides you strengthen relations and trust by testing the collaboration. From there you can finetune the goals and outlines for your next steps and build from there, keeping everybody energised and engaged.
The open and shared character of your urban transformation process goes beyond the shaping of individual (building) plans. The whole process should grow into an ongoing shared thing. Think about your whole process as a platform, structurally engaging and inviting all stakeholders around the table as equal partners. Within this platform everybody can put topics on the agenda, exchange relevant data, insights and opinions, formulate shared goals and discuss concrete solutions and collaborations. We don’t mean a digital platform here, but a platform as an organisational principle. How can you turn your own organisational form for your area into a local platform? What does this mean practically, also for engaging the different internal departments from your own organisation? Including a canvas to become a local platform.
A local reality is fundamentally messy and too dynamic to be captured in one big and complete coalition or a set of clearly distinct and focused smaller ones. In combination with the platform-thinking principle, we add thinking in layers here: layers of formality, topics, scale and financing structures. The basic idea is to keep it light and open where possible and add layers of further formalisation or stricter conditions where necessary. We show you how this was done in Amsterdam, and we give you practical tips on how to build your own layered set of actionable yet well-organised coalitions, independent but also connected with each other. What does this mean for the contribution of different types of big and small stakeholders? And how do you coordinate this over time? Including a canvas for layering coalitions.
Working in layers may sound complex and maybe even a bit chaotic. All these different governance forms and levels of formality also bring with them different levels of control and mandates and require different roles. How do you manage this, how do you guard your (public) responsibilities and how do you manage expectations? We show you how working in layers allows you to structure and distinguish the different governance forms and to clearly define – and communicate - your own role within each layer. We then walk you through different types of collaboration and governance forms that can be interesting for the different layers, varying from one-off projects to structural collective solutions. We also share a lot of do’s and don’ts from our own experience.
The local awareness, engagement and sense of ownership around your urban transformation challenge need to grow and this of course also reflects on the financial support you can ask from stakeholders. How do you build up local business models and financial support over time, possibly starting from scratch? We show you two scenarios, one crisis scenario without large real estate developments and one booming scenario with a lot of them. What does this mean for how you start and how you refine both contributions and meaningful rewards over time and among different stakeholders? And how do you deal with free-riders? Including a checklist for collective financing.
Over time you build an increasingly strong, diverse and actionable collective around the area transformation. By properly safeguarding this collective and stimulating it to self-organise on all different layers, levels and scales, you build a strong and resilient – multi-dimensional – network in your area. This is important to be able to adapt to all kinds of future changes and crises. Everybody has different interests, reasons and timeframes to care for the area and everybody has different skills and resources to offer, but there will always be some layers that are willing and able to carry the area. We show you how this safeguarding can be done, discussing both safeguarding of real collective ownership models in the area ánd safeguarding collective agreements and protocols in your own organisation, both as a public or private organisation.
