ThinkTank [EN]: 4. Empowerment & Mission
lundi, mars 5, 2007 at 00:00 Who we are, what we do, what we want ... (4)
This is the fourth part of a series of introductions to the drafting of the Mission Statement (Mission, Methods, People - MMP). The preceding ones are: Homepage [EN]:1. Skills, Homepage [EN]: 2. Tools and Homepage [EN]: 3. Standards.
Empowerment
However, in order to get to these better conditions, we have to standardise our own special and particular skills as well! We cannot expect from our commissioners that they limit their precious political elbow room for the sake of our blue eyes. That is why we need to organise, probably by ourselves,
- a standard European licence for project leaders in urban regeneration, based upon an evaluation by a competent and respected international jury.
Why European? - It is true, that bigger countries like the UK (which has the longest experience in integrally approaching inner city problems and partnerships, and who are at this moment organising a "Skills Academy" that will issue diplomas), as well as France and Germany, could do it on their own. But a better solution for them and for the smaller countries lies with the European Union, who are co-financing on a large scale urban regeneration projects and are looking for criteria and standards to spend their money more efficiently.
In order to maintain the quality standards and to overcome the isolation in which most of us have to work, a system of supervision and intervision has to be put in place, between colleagues from all over Europe.
Ideally, this should be shouldered by an university-level set of courses (for researchers and senior UPs) and an academical one for practitioners in the field. But up to now, the academic world, stuck in its traditional sectors, has proven unable to scientifically master the requirements for such a new "specialisation", although there are lucky exceptions.
This matter is discussed in the paper under "Empowerment of U.P.'s" in the sidebar.
Mission and Strategy
This kind of transformations doesn't come about from launching an idea in the air.
- Discussions with colleagues all over Europe,
- experiences with the city-networks under URBACT and former Europe-inspired networks,
- and my own career in city government,
- with NGO's and as a civil servant charged with managing the first Dutch integral area-based regeneration projects, as well as, lastly,
- an European consultant to local urban projects and
- engagements in research,
all those, underpin the "Mission Statement" under Mission-Methods-People (sidebar).
In that paper, we try to design a road to the above discussed transformations.
