Co-producing commons-based resilience and sustainable lifestyles in Colombes, Paris and London: the R-Urban approach

To overcome the current crises (climate, resources, economic, demographic), we must, as philosopher Andre Gorz says, ‘produce what we consume and consume what we produce’. This balance between production and consumption through local sustainable sourcing can not occur without changes in the living and working lifestyles of citizens who must be involved in these changes through collaborative practices supporting each other through local networks. Collaborations and networks contribute to a polycentric management approach for dealing with environmental issues. Within the field of environmental governance, the advantage of polycentric governance systems is that they are supposed to help manage cross‐scale environmental issues and address the complex interrelationships within our social and environmental systems.

The R-Urban is a bottom-up strategy that explores the possibilities of enhancing the capacity of urban resilience by introducing a network of resident-run facilities (civic-hubs hosting economic and cultural activities). The hubs are a key element for providing infrastructure, training, and strategically connecting stakeholders. The network functions as a closed local system starting at neighbourhood levels but with the potential to scale up at city level. 

R-Urban is an example of polycentric governance as it brings together public and civic actors as well as private organizations to collaborate on multiple scales, like economy, housing, urban agriculture, and culture. The R-Urban strategy adopts a pluralist approach that provides platforms for various stakeholders (including non-specialists and ordinary citizens) to participate in the decision-making and co-production process. In this way, R-Urban valorizes the valuable social capital existing in neighbourhoods by enabling all citizens who choose to become involved to participate fully in the implementation of the strategy. This includes participating in events and training programmes, to developing their own activities, and supporting and running the hubs. Citizens are thus not only participants but also agents of innovation and change, generating alternative social and economic organizations, collaborative projects and shared spaces, producing new forms of commons. The new types of jobs, skills and specialisms emerging from this process allow a third sector of collaborative green services in the area of environmental management and diverse community economies to emerge.

R-Urban initiates locally closed ecological cycles that will support the emergence of alternative models of living, producing and consuming between the urban and the rural.

R-URBAN is supported by the EU Life + Programme of environmental governance. The project partners are AAA (coordinator) and the City of Colombes (for the three pilot units) and Public Works, London (for a mobile unit). A network of partners is being formed for the dissemination of the R-URBAN strategy on larger scale by including partners from Belgium, Spain, Romania, Germany, etc.