Local community meeting

In the framework of the participatory governance project workshop for the representatives of alliances of associations Kaopoerativa, Molekula, Youth Home platform and local community representatives form Karlovac, Rijeka and Split was organized in Zagreb 10/3/2018.

After a short introduction from Dea Vidović, Director of the Kultura Nova Foundation in which she emphasized the importance of the participatory governance for sustainable cultural and local community development, Ana Žuvela, Head of the Team of Researchers presented key terms within the concept of participatory governance and its significance of this concept for sustainable development of cultural policy. Participants were introduced to the key theoretical concepts concerning democratization of culture, transformation in the cultural policy logic related to the civil society, urbanization and urban regeneration through culture as well as achieving the sustainable development of the community based on culture. The presentation emphasized that the participatory governance can not be observed as a monolithic, fixed governance model but rather as a process adoptive to the social changes and needs. After the presentation, workshop participants were engaged in the discussion moderated by Teo Petričević, member of Kultura Nova Working group for new models of institutions, staring with the reflection on the presentation which opened questions like ‘What is the relation of Croatian practices and theoretical concepts from the presentation?’ or ‘How to approach this processes in the practice?’. Participants were afterwards engaged in more specific discussion in smaller groups and asked to abstract key elements of participatory governance, describe the models they are familiar with, identify practices in their local communities, name positive and negative aspects of the models and lessons learned as well as key challenges which were than presented to other groups. Some challenges emerged from the discussion such as improvement of communication between all stakeholders, building mutual trust, responsibility of all the stakeholders and sustainability. Those issues are recognized as key spots which have to be addressed in the future.