Jean Monnet CHAIR
The European Urban Agenda into Practice:
Regional Design for Transformative Cities
The Jean Monnet Chair PracticEUA addresses the implementation of the Urban Agenda for the EU (EUA), established by the Pact of Amsterdam in 2016 on the idea that all areas of urban policy must be coordinated in a multi-level and multi-stakeholder approach to an integrated and sustainable urban development.
However, nowadays global challenges such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, resource scarcity, migration movements, demographic change, digital divide, lack of privacy, security issues, market dependencies, pandemics and rapidly changing economies intensify disparities in towns and cities throughout Europe. These increasingly complex challenges in Urban Areas, addressed by the New Leipzig Charter of 2020, lead to safeguarding and enhancing quality of life in all European towns, cities and functional areas and to ensure that no one is left behind. To implement the EUA, Local Authorities are asked to cooperate with local communities, civil society, businesses and knowledge institutions for the pursuit of the common good.
As a knowledge institution, the chair PracticEUA aims to contribute to the implementation of the Urban Agenda by providing regional design methodologies and solutions for the regeneration of urban areas characterised by complex problems. The proposed Chair will:
- promote excellence in teaching on the EUA, fostering transversal courses and innovative teaching methods based on both formal and non-formal situated learning, to develop the necessary design and policy skills to engage in the regeneration of complex neighbourhoods, cities and FUAs, to play an active role in the sustainable spatial development of cities and territories.
- foster the dialogue between academia and civil society by responding to specific societal needs and generating excellence in research, gathering place-based on-site regional design workshops, conferences, exhibitions, aimed to provide participants with theoretical and practical knowledge of key issues of the EUA
