CITIZEN ACTIVATION TACTICS
Our mission is to combine citizen activation tactics with social intercommunication tools 2.0 in order to identify, construct, validate, and maintain a set of relevant and binding indicators for all ‘emerging communities’. Ciudad Emergente is dedicated to developing, adapting, and implementing instruments and analog and digital services of civic cooperation that help articulate local processes of citizen activism and strengthening communities’ social capital by facilitating the effective communication between decision-makers and the civil society.
what we offer
Ciudad Emergente offers advice based on a methodology that combines tactical urbanism operations with reproducible technologies for citizen-urbanism. Our methodology is designed to identify issues, inform debates, reach consensus, build agendas, promote the execution of projects, support processes of urban co-production, and refine the monitoring of urban quality-of-life indicators.
Along with providing a tactical toolkit that incentivizes and permits citizens to show initiative and take responsibility for their neighborhoods and cities, Ciudad Emergente also offers support services at the institutional, governmental and business level to help manage the information used in the resolution of urban problems.
OUR SCOPE
CEM’s scope lies between citizen organizations and decision-maker. CEM’s purpose is to position itself as a valid articulator to reach consensus in solutions where the citizens are the main protagonists
METHODOLOGY
Ciudad Emergente applies the Lean Start-Up methodology to urbanism. This methodology consists of a three-step cycle: implementation, measurement, and learning. Its goal is to minimize the total execution time of these three steps. Ciudad Emergente’s methodology consists of combining tactical urbanism actions with tools that measure relevant indicators. We call these “LQC Tactics” (light, quick and cheap) and “Tools 2.0” (for the collaborative logic of the web 2.0)
LQC Tactics
These tactics consist of a set of on-site activities (exercises implemented 1 on 1, at a 1 to 1 scale) that involve civil society and decision-makers. Based on the “LQC” concept, these tactics use prototypes designed to quickly achieve results of urban relevance, enabling the beneficiaries to participate directly in their city’s development and sensitizing the public towards the effects of each project and/or initiative.
Tools
In addition to the “LQC Tactics”, our strategy involves the design, development, and implementation of information and perception-gathering instruments for the construction of urban agendas and to inform certain plans or projects. These citizen-participation tools allow us to assess tactical interventions and quickly learn from them, thus influencing our long-term plan.
THEORETICAL APPROACH
Our methodology is based on the combination of two approaches, the Capabilities Approach (CA) and the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The fist approach pertains to a theme elaborated by Amartya Senand Matha Nussbaum and implemented by various United Nations programs. The Capabilities Approach emphasizes development through the accession of people’s own capacity to achieve the kind of life they value and have reason to value. The second approach, TIC, relates to information-distribution tools from computing, the Internet and telecommunications, now widely available in urban societies.
Presently, there is a general consensus on the potential for combining the CA and ICT, although there are few practical examples of the two being used for society’s benefit. With this is mind, Ciudad Emergente has positioned itself as a laboratory of tools for Citizen Urbanism – seeking to engender high-impact social innovation processes that improve the quality-of-life in cities.
We guide our projects by seeking to operationalize the Capability Approach and TIC through the combination of Tactical Urbanism strategies with intercommunication platforms 2.0. Drawing from our toolkit, we use LQC Tactics (Light, Quick and Cheap) and Tools 2.0 (in the form of web applications, online media, social networks, etc.).