SelfCity

Collective governance, innovation and creativity in the face of climate change

Call 2013Societal transformation

We are an interdisciplinary research team that has dealt with the following questions as part of the SelfCity research project: What should the world of the future look like? Numerous initiatives are looking for answers to this question, which are creating new forms of life and economic types based on ecological and social solidarity: In our Self City project these are the Transition Town initiatives, an environmental station with its eco-social learning, energy cooperatives and urban neighbourhood groups. They do not rely on laws and regulations “from above”, i.e. from the national or transnational side. In self-organisation, new visions and concrete projects for a change of path to sustainability are sought. They are characterised by the fact that they try out new social practices in a local community. They embody a “Self City” that is supported by self-organisation.

Created tools for self-organisation and stories of success.In this way, the “bottom-up” change towards a more sustainable economic and social model is to be supported and expanded.

About

As part of intensive research, the central questions and challenges facing the pioneers of change in their daily activities were collected and processed. On the website you will find a variety of materials which you can use for more detailed information or as a template. A lot of valuable information is already available on the Internet, but there is often a lack of a purposeful bundling and order to find one’s way through this information jungle. Under the heading Topics (link) you will therefore find a series of questions that you and your initiative may also face, with corresponding answers or references to further sources of information, other scientific documents are available there.

Prof. Dr. Eberhard Rothfuss

LPI of the project

Project consortium

University of Bayreuth
University of Groningen
University of the West of England
KlimaKom

Show all partners

The University of Bayreuth was founded 1975 and is a hub of international and interdisciplinary research and one of few German universities with a cluster of excellence. SELFCITY is strongly linked to the Research Center BayCEER which addresses global change issues. The Department of Geography is dealing with cross-cutting themes as sustainable regional and urban development, human-environment interaction and political ecology. A further focus is spatial qualitative social research and participatory methods. The University of Groningen is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands (founded in 1614) as well as one of its largest. The Department of Spatial Planning and Environment has a research agenda concentrating on the relationships between institutional innovation and spatial transformation. The team is focusing on urban regions in transition, civil initiatives and resources and flows. The University of the West of England (UWE) is one of Britain’s most popular universities and the largest provider of higher education in the Southwest of England. The UWE is committed to using academic knowledge and skills to offer practical solutions. KlimaKom works out strategies and action plans for climate protection and energy transition in German municipalities, counties and regions with participative methods, integrating local citizens, experts, utilities and political/administrative representatives.

Documents

No items found

News & Events

Parent programme

Call 2013

Joint Call for Transnational Collaborative Research Projects

This JPI Climate Joint Call for Transnational Collaborative Research Projects provided support for top-quality research projects on topics that are of high societal relevance in Europe and globally, recognising that such challenges require joint efforts through multinational approaches. JPI Climate is seeking proposals from consortia consisting of partners from the participating European countries as well as others. Consortia brought together different scientific disciplines to address the issues within the scope of the described call topics. The projects displayed clear links to decision-makers and users of climate knowledge as well as potential change agents in society.

12

countries

45

partners

9

projects