The City of Mulhouse (France) is organising the 1st International Meeting of the Territories of Co-responsibility, on 25 September 2009. A pioneer in the implementation of this approach, since 2005 the City of Mulhouse, with other areas, began to rethink the organisation of society and economy together with the citizens, according to their real needs, through consultations. Territories of Co-responsibility are particularly reflected in the Congress European Urban Charter II, that calls for approaches linking between citizenship, sustainability, solidarity and consciousness. The Presidents of the Congress Committees on Sustainable Development and on Social Cohesion, Gaye Doganoglu (Turkey, EPP-CD) and Valerio Prignachi (Italy, EPP-CD), will open the debate, which will focus on practical experiences on the field as well as on the new perspectives that these experiences open.
The crisis we are experiencing is so much more than a financial or economic one. Its effects are being felt in every sphere of society, causing problems in the environmental field, with the depletion of natural resources, and in the social realm, with the growth of disparities and the spread of various types of exclusion, and, more generally, creating a major crisis of confidence, prompting us to question the values and development models which govern our choices and decisions.
Since the Second World War progress has been measured in terms of the growth of GDP, but, now more than ever, a new approach is needed, which views progress in terms of the well-being of all with no exceptions, including future generations, and therefore as a matter of reducing disparities, sharing resources and promoting social cohesion and sustainable development. This means moving away from a model in which the responsibility for progress has to be shouldered by the state or the market, to one in which this responsibility is shared by everyone, in other words both public and private bodies, and citizens.
Since 2005, several local and regional entities both inside and outside Europe have started, with the encouragement of the Council of Europe, to implement this new approach, drawing on a definition of well-being arrived at in discussion with citizens themselves to devise new ways of handling the organisation of society and the economy based on real needs identified by means of a consultation process. The processes triggered off by this have been leading to the emergence of a new way of approaching progress from a more general viewpoint based on simple, easily applicable and easily transposable methods.
The territories of co-responsibility were inspired in particular by the Strategy for Social Cohesion and the second European Urban Charter, drawn up by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, which calls for measures that establish the link between citizenship, solidarity and knowledge. Other schemes have been adopted in response to the same concerns such as Transition Towns and local pacts.
By hosting the first meeting of Territories of co-responsibility on 25 September 2009, the Council of Europe and the city of Mulhouse, which has played a pioneering role in the process, are offering all those who share this concern an opportunity to get together and talk, drawing on the practical real-life experiences which they will hear about at the meeting, the lessons that can be learned from these and the new prospects that they open up. Thought will also be given to the best way of establishing a network which will enable the development of complementary approaches, facilitate exchange and turn the results of the pilot projects into more generally applicable political and methodological reference points.
- Programme / Italian version (italiano) / German version (Deutsch)
- Registration form
- Contact for this event: Sebastien.Houssin@ville-mulhouse.fr
- Website SPIRAL (Societal Progress Indicators and Responsibilities for ALL)
- Other links:
Transition towns
Pactes locaux
European Urban Charter II - Manifesto for a new urbanity (Congress of Local and Regional Authorities)
Recommendation 251 (2008)
Resolution 269 (2008)
- Contact for Territories of Co-responsibility: samuel.thirion@coe.int