Week picks #10

THE PLACE STATION

The Place Station introduces public and private sector owners of land and buildings across the UK to social and community entrepreneurs with ideas for transforming their local area.
The Community Right to Bid is now in force, introduced in the Localism Act 2011, it places a new duty upon local authorities in England and Wales to “maintain a list of land in its area that is land of community value”, as nominated by the local community. If any land or buildings on this list then comes up for sale, the local community will be given six months to prepare a bid to buy the land. This new Community Right gives local communities more time to help them buy key assets that are for sale on the open market, promoting community empowerment and enabling big society solutions to flourish. A guide to the Community Rights and the Localism Act can be found here.
Local communities usually have strong views about which buildings and services they care about, and the mapping of community assets is likely to be of interest to a wide range of local people and groups. The Place Station website helps to illustrate the nature and scale of local community ambitions, and to prioritise assets of community value for nomination to formally held lists held by Local Authorities. This can also be of value to a range of stakeholders with an interest in take-up of the Right to Bid. The site also aids local authorities in identifying which of their assets may have potential for community asset transfers.

DESIGN TRUST FOR PUBLIC SPACE

The Design Trust for Public Space is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving public space in New York City.
We are urban visionaries, who think systemically about how cities work. From parks, plazas and streets to city buildings, transportation systems and entire neighborhoods, the Design Trust has been at the forefront of shaping New York City's public realm since 1995.
These projects are initiated by community groups, city agencies, and nonprofit organizations who look to the Design Trust's long experience engaging multiple stakeholders —and deep familiarity with how New York City really works— to influence city policy or design practice, improving the built environment.

URBAN FABRIC PROJECTS

Urban Fabric brings together independent analysis with lectures by academic, practice and policy experts from across the country. The project presents case studies from around the world that offer successful strategies for elevating textile cities, and other cities that are looking to fill the void left by failing or relocated industries.
The textile city – its past, present and future – is prototypical of cities shaped by departed industries. In America, and worldwide, textiles profoundly altered physical and social landscapes. Entire cities grew around rivers where mills could draw power, and slave populations swelled to cultivate vast territories of cotton. Like many industries that once underpinned the United States’ economy, textiles gradually faded. And yet the cities and people remain, often disenfranchised and struggling.

INSTITUTE OF NETWORK CULTURES

The Institute of Network Cultures analyses and shapes the terrain of network cultures from the inside. No innocent bystander, it actively contributes to the field through events, publications and online dialogue. The sphere of new media has huge potential for socio-technological change – the mission of the Institute of Network Cultures, the INC, is to explore, document and feed this potential.
Established in 2004 the INC takes as its focus the Internet and other new forms of media. The INC is a framework for the realisation of a diverse array of projects, with a strong emphasis on content. Its goal is to create an open organisational form where ideas from both individuals and organisations can be given an early institutional context.
A key INC focus is the establishment of sustainable research networks. Following from this the INC seeks to identify emerging critical topics and to then initiate and steer dialogue and exchange in order to shape the way these new forms develop. Differentiating the INC from Information Technology research is its emphasis on the interaction between aesthetics and social relations within technological environments. Attention is also paid to the intercultural aspects of the field. The INC views theoretical developments and self-reflection as vital to the creation of the rich autonomous language that this new area of knowledge deserves.



Week picks series features every Friday some initiatives and projects I found or want to highlight on this blog. It will help me to track new findings from community groups, startups or local governments working and delivering solutions relevant to the issues of this blog. I often bookmark them or save them on Tumblr while I wait to use them. Maybe this a good way.