In Ireland, together with educators and partners from various European cities (Palermo, Naples, Barcelona, and Dublin), we asked ourselves: how are our cities doing? To answer this question, we started from methodologies focused on urban regeneration, and in particular the “Pocket City” methodology, during a training session hosted by the Core Youth Center in Dublin, as part of the Urra Kids project. “Pocket City” is a role-playing game designed for young people, to increase their engagement with their local area by encouraging them to build an imaginary city that reflects their needs and desires—complete with (or without) shared rules. The “Pocket City” is created by the young participants over several days, focusing on three main areas: the management of the commons (currency, ID cards, street names, safety, governance), public services (education, health), and production (productive activities, private services, local economy). The goal of this role-play is to give space to young people, so that their awareness of the crucial role they can play in shaping the city they want grows—imagining it together and building it from the bottom up.
“During the training, we saw concrete examples of good practices in urban regeneration, understood as the reclaiming of public spaces and common goods, co-designed from the bottom up with the community. Clearly, the support of local institutions is essential, though this often doesn’t come easily,” says Alberta Buffa, Project Manager at Per Esempio, who coordinates the European project Urra Kids. “We learned a methodology that renews, for us, the meaning of being active members of the community and how to share this mindset on to the youngest among us, ensuring that beyond civic engagement, these activities support young people’s growth, the development of critical thinking, and their empowerment,” Alberta continues.
Through the Urra Kids project, Per Esempio and the involved partners have launched a bottom-up action aimed at imagining a city designed for the people who inhabit it—regardless of age, profession, or role—while taking everyone’s needs into account and involving them in the process. We will do this by proposing the Pocket City game to young people in Palermo, Barcelona, Naples, and Dublin, and by continuing to promote our activities in direct connection with the local territory
