IN-PERSON: Livable Cities – New York

Abstract

European policies identify cultural heritage and landscape education as crucial for training active, responsible citizens and as part of the right of every citizen to participate freely in cultural life. The “ScAR (Schools Activate Resources)” project (2018-2021) has driven an experimental action set in a context rich in critical issues and on a fragile and scarcely recognized heritage as that of the urban periphery of Milan. More than 750 students from primary to secondary school have been involved in a participatory process to discover, interpret, and communicate the cultural values hidden in the proximity landscape around their schools. The “Edulands for transition” project is now continuing a similar action at the European level involving Italian, Spanish and Austrian schools and focusing on the green deal as an environmental but also a social and cultural issue. The two projects are based on the co-design among teachers, researchers, public and private institutions and associations of innovative, accessible, interdisciplinary and inclusive educational methodologies to increase young citizen’s ability to analyze their life contexts and to foster in them the sense of belonging to the neighborhoods, the sense of active citizenship, the responsibility in the common good’s care. The aim is also to stimulate demand for high-quality public space and to promote participation and awareness towards sustainable development issues. The urban landscape becomes then an “educating city”, a common space for sharing reflections for a more livable, inclusive, and sustainable city.