International workshop Venice - March 11-12 1999 Concepts and Paradigms of Urban Management in the Context of Developing Countries
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PRESS RELEASE

INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON
"CONCEPTS AND PARADIGMS OF URBAN MANAGEMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES"

VENICE 11-12 MARCH 1999.

EUROPEAN SCIENCE FOUNDATION (ESF)

NETWORK-ASSOCIATION OF EUROPEAN RESEARCHERS ON URBANISATION IN THE SOUTH (N-AERUS)

ISTITUTO UNIVERSITARIO DI ARCHITETTURA DI VENEZIA (IUAV)

The question of urban management is essential in a world in which the majority of people, wealth and poverty is increasingly concentrated in urban areas, especially in developing countries which are confronted with high rates of population growth and poverty.

European researchers working on urban development and management issues in developing countries are concerned with the ways development co-operation is managed. This applies particularly to the terms and conditions of assistance provided by the North and demands of the South concerning this assistance.

These issues were discussed at the international workshop on "Concepts and paradigms of urban management in the context of developing countries", organised by the Network-Association of European Researchers on Urbanisation in the South (N-AERUS) with the support of the European Science Foundation (ESF), The Workshop was held on 11-12 March 1999, in Venice, hosted by the Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia (IUAV). It was attended by 84 participants, from N-AERUS and research partners in Latin America, Africa and Asia, as well as by representatives of NGOs, European bilateral cooperation organisations and various international agencies, including the United Nations and World Bank.

Papers presented and discussed during the workshop reaffirmed the capacity of both the ESF and N-AERUS to facilitate communication and exchanges between researchers, practitioners and officials in the North and the South on urban management issues. It also demonstrated the degree to which the European research community can contribute to improving urban conditions through urban management.

Many of the participants in the workshop considered that too many policy decisions are made without reference to the extensive knowledge available about social and economic processes in the South. They also underlined the impact and limits of the current aid agencies' responses based mainly on neo-liberal economic theories and emphasised the need for alternative approaches to urban management.

Such new approaches might derive more from the experiences, demands and needs from the major stakeholders in cities in the South and less from ideologically based approaches. Participants considered that European experience, practices and thinking had much to offer, though it was recognised that different intellectual traditions have developed across Europe and it will take time to evolve any kind of real European consensus.

In this context, participants in the workshop stressed the importance of nurturing a diversity of approaches and positions within the European community of researchers, in partnership with their counterparts in the South. These approaches should include contributions in the following 8 areas:

1. To develop research into the underlying ideological and political agendas of bilateral and multilateral co-operation institutions which affect towns and cities in the South and question, among others, approaches which give exclusive primacy to market driven approaches, and abandon urban management responsibilities to a small number of operators who avoid any form of political control at local level, as if technical management of the city was divorced from urban governance objectives.
2. To understand better how the nature of economic and social change, particularly processes such as globalisation, market-oriented policies and international capital movements, are impacting on the strategies and behaviour of urban stakeholders,
3. To take into account popular demands and needs regarding the provision of housing, urban services and infrastructure, especially at municipal levels. Participants emphasised the urgency of this task given the pace of urban growth, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and most of Asia, and the rising incidence of urban poverty in all too many countries.
4. To contribute to the debate about the strengths and weaknesses of aid and co-operation programmes, particularly those followed by the European Community and its member states.
5. To develop exchange of experience and research results, by encouraging European governments to listen more carefully to research communities in Europe and the South, as such groups are in a strong position to identify the real needs of local urban populations, and help improve ways in which the results of European research are made available to local actors in the South. Domination of cooperation offer from the North in urban management is such that little scope for negociation is left to partners from the South. Most often, they are required to provide simply a quick yes/no answer. Such a situation obliges European researchers to help decisions makers in the South to consolidate their own negociation capacity
6. To increase the collaboration between researchers in the North and those in the urban South and to emphasise the need for comparative research.
7. To improve researchers' use of existing data sources. The production of knowledge is not only an academic prerogative. Actors at all levels of development practices have a role to play. In order to capitalise existing knowledge and avoid duplication, more attention must be paid to existing literature written in different languages, within academic theses, government and consultancy reports.
8. To redress the current imbalance between micro and macro research approaches, by giving more emphasis to the former, to increase the amount of research on political issues, particularly on the relationship between urban strategies and the interests of important political actors, and to emphasise the need for research on social issues, as well as economic processes.

Following this first international workshop, ESF and N-AERUS will:

• Prepare a synthesis report to be published in June 1999 and disseminated on the N-AERUS web site
• Present the main conclusions and recommendations of the workshop at the occasion of the 17th session of the UN Commission of Human Settlements in Nairobi, in May 1999
• Promote further discussions on urban management issues and policies between European researchers and partners in the South.

The papers presented and discussed at the meeting are available on the N-AERUS web site (http://obelix.polito.it/forum/n-aerus).

The ESF/N-AERUS research network are anxious to encourage those in Europe directly managing aid and assistance in the urban South to communicate more with the community and to consider attending the next annual conference which will be held in May 2000 in Geneva on the topic: "Sustainable development in an urban context: Interaction between technical innovation and social change". Information on that meeting will appear on the web-site as soon as final decisions are taken about timing and location. Other information is available by e-mailing: naerus@naerus.net