THE EUROPEAN URBAN EXPERIENCE
The Humboldt University of Berlin undertook a study
presenting, synthesizing and discussing recent and current
academic research on the implementation of URBAN
in different European countries and cities.
The study addresses 3 major issues:
> URBAN and governance: impact of URBAN on (national,
regional and) local governance structures and dynamics
(impact on domestic policy traditions and institutional and
administrative local structures; responses of domestic actors
at all tiers of government to pressure emanating from URBAN
to adjust existing urban policy contents, patterns and
instruments to EU requirements; translation of EU norms and
requirements into the local context; conflicts and bargaining
processes between different actors and interest groups, etc.)
> URBAN and local empowerment: URBAN’s potential
to empower the subnational level and local actors (URBAN
and experimentation with innovative policy approaches,
URBAN as a potential opportunity for local residents
to become involved in urban development, etc.)
> URBAN as a transnational programme: exchange and
policy learning offered through the transnational dimension
of URBAN (and URBACT); comparative approaches of URBAN
experiences in ’Northern’ and ’Southern’ Europe, in countries
and cities with longer experience in decentralized and
integrated urban policy making and those with centralized,
authoritative and top-down policy traditions, in different cities
in one country; potential “learning processes” discernable
from URBAN I to URBAN II.