Common trends in stakeholder & citizen participation within MIMOSA cities
Everyone is aware that stakeholders and citizens can play a crucial role in making or breaking measures. But how exactly do these groups influence the implementation processes in the cities? Are there common patterns and mechanisms occurring in all of the MIMOSA cities? And most importantly: is it possible to positively influence these processes as well as avoid negative developments?
As evaluation managers for CIVITAS MIMOSA, the Technical University of Berlin (TUB), devised a ‘Topics & Issues Workshop’ to find answers to these questions and produce exploitable output for the cities to work on. Held on the last day of the 5th MIMOSA Consortium meeting in Utrecht, participating MIMOSA cities - Bologna, Funchal, Gdansk, Tallinn and Utrecht shared an enjoyable, interactive and thought provoking workshop.One of the main outcomes of the workshop pointed to the important role of politicians and media representatives. Good or bad, both have a significant influence on the implementation of measures. With this in mind, consistent communication on progress measures to these groups is paramount to ensure their support and commitment in pushing measures forward.The innovative workshop-design methodology moderated, structured and summarized by TUB ensured the clear identification of exploitable results: barriers and drivers to the measure implementation processes, reactions on them, and evolving recommendations. What is more, feedback from the cities showed increased motivation from participants in their daily work within MIMOSA tasks. Learning from shared experiences is the way forward!
