Anna Marson Facoltà e Dipartimento di Pianificazione Università IUAV Venezia iuav.it

1. Conseil de l’Europe, Paris24 & 25 Juillet 2008Groupe de travail: “Construire des indicateurs de progrès/bien-etre avec les citoyens/communautés Anna Marson Facoltà e Dipartimento di Pianificazione Università IUAV Venezia www.iuav.it Associazione Rete Nuovo Municipio www.nuovomunicipio.org

2. Associazione Rete Nuovo Municipio (Italy) Municipalities, Civil society associations, and Academic groups or individuals WSF Porto Alegre as the opportunity to focus on their possible mutual relations TOWARDS, IF NOT A DIFFERENT WORLD, at least better public policies 2001: Charter of the New Municipium 2003: the Association was set up officially in Empoli ARNM 2003-2008 what kind of outcomes? - Many efforts, but “running against the wind” (Berlusconi, Prodi, Berlusconi governments; few innovations, many financial cuts; culturally poor political elites; municipal institutions growincly expropriated by many decisions transferred to ‘private right institutions’) - Regione Toscana, Legge sulla partecipazione (2008) A.Marson, Conseil de l'Europe, Paris 24&25 Juillet 2008

3. How to go about devising indicators of well-being with the citizens? Billions euros response! Hopefully the working-group will produce some shared sense about what can and should be done…. Some reflexions, shared with Alberto Magnaghi, ARNM promoter and President, based both on ARNM experience, action-research and academic job…. (A.Magnaghi e A.Marson, “Democrazia locale e politiche ambientali”, in F.Giovannelli, I.Di Bella e R.Coizet, Ambiente condiviso, Edizioni Ambiente, Milano 2005) A.Marson, Conseil de l'Europe, Paris 24&25 Juillet 2008

4. How to go about devising indicators of well-being with the citizens? • “Technocratic and scientist” approach limits: • -no guarantee of rational and indipendent choices, no room for local peculiarities • - top-down construction both of issues and policies meant to treat them (problems and solutions • local institutions are not immune by the top-down attitude; received views of well-being are transferred by EU or/and national State through financements and their evaluation rules • Riformulating the issue: • Effective participation as a key component of well-being A.Marson, Conseil de l'Europe, Paris 24&25 Juillet 2008

5. How to go about devising indicators of well-being with the citizens? Taken for granted the possibility and the effective practice of a fair (!?) participation, a number of more specific key aspects emerges: Common vs scientific knowledge (who controls the indicators? Who can really discuss them?) Which is the most appropriate mix of territorial scales? (larger the scale, the more abstract the territory (the physical and social context where the well-being is embodied) Larger scale + idea of “progress” = the current development model is not put under discussion, self-sustainability is not considered as a positive element (an example from environmental indicators: dirty waters’ depuration capacity is considered as a function of treating plants availability for potential polluting charges: the result is the building of more large and large treating plants, the best available solution for large settlements, not for small and sprawled ones) Quantitative and qualitative (data about soil consumption for urbanization give just a pale image of damages brought about by a dispersed forms of settlements) A.Marson, Conseil de l'Europe, Paris 24&25 Juillet 2008

6. How to go about devising indicators of well-being with the citizens? The search for “context-sensible” indicators Some ideas on the basis of the Charter of the New Municipium 1.The degree and form of local participation to collective decisions (problem: local institutions, i.e. municipalities, have less and less power to decide about some key elements of well-being, for instance the availability, quality, price etc. of water) 2. Economic development indicators should be integrated with indicators of environmental, urban, territorial quality, able to take into account diversity of cultures and contexts 3.The degree and the ways through which each specific (local) “territorial heritage” is taken as the basis for producing lasting wealth 4. Ecological footprint and its relation to the possibilities of a local closure of main environmental cycles (water, energy, food, wastes etc.) 5. Social relation and mutual exchange networks in and between local societies A.Marson, Conseil de l'Europe, Paris 24&25 Juillet 2008

7. How to go about devising indicators of well-being with the citizens? The evidence of environmental well-being indexes applied to Italian cities and towns show another issue whic should be tackled: Generally speaking, what emerges is a larger importance (and therefore positive evaluation) given to the treatment of existing problems rather than to the prevention for those problems to arise (for example: in Ecosistema Urbano index by Legambiente, in 2004 the town of Prato was 12, Siena 55 on 103 total positions, where the lower score meant the best actions) To prevent, we should perhaps first of all promote a different knowledge and representation of the local heritage (parish maps, heritage atlases etc.) (legacy of the place? Potter, OECD) What is missing is any reflection about material collective goods like public spaces etc. (exception: form-based codes?) A.Marson, Conseil de l'Europe, Paris 24&25 Juillet 2008