Spaces & Flows: Ninth International Conference on Urban and ExtraUrban Studies

Abstract

This paper elaborates a framework for co-creation and co-design activities generated in the context of the MUV project, a EU Horizon research that points to the transformation of mobility urban values in six pilot cities in Europe. A participatory method aimed at informal levels of thick participation (involving groups of citizens) and thin participation (involving citizens as individuals) aims to build capacity in neighborhoods; where citizens, local business owners, and public authorities will become an active part of the change towards more sustainable urban values in their city. The MUV participative method mobilizes pedagogies for a systemic change of urban ecosystems; it engages individuals and communities to co-create imaginaries and co-design services that can respond to systemic change in micro and macro scales through individuals, neighborhood communities, urban and societal flows and contexts. Co-creation is understood as long-term process-oriented, whereas co-design is solution-oriented. Co-creation in practice means to build and engage a community towards long-term imaginaries, while co-design will lead to outcomes that will construct a service. The three co-creation iterations take different shapes and forms in the six pilot neighborhoods. This paper shows how this initial framework of participative activities has been interpreted, performed and transformed through the diverse cycles of co-creation in diverse pilot cities.