Public spaces shape how we meet, talk to each other, and take part in public life. Public spaces can invite participation or quietly exclude it.
Starting in 2025, Culture Goes Europe will be part of the European Placemaking Academy, a new cooperation project that looks at how adult education and non-formal learning can support more participatory ways of shaping public spaces.
Together with partners from Germany, Belgium, Portugal, and Norway, we will spend the next two years learning from each other, testing ideas, and developing practical tools connected to placemaking, civic participation, and inclusion.
The project will focus on adults who are often missing from urban decision-making processes: migrants and refugees, people facing long-term unemployment, NEETs, women, and LGBTQIA+ communities. Instead of speaking about participation, the project will create opportunities to practice it through learning, exchange, and local experimentation.
Over the project period, we will develop participatory placemaking methods and educational tools and organize a series of shared learning moments. These will include Urban Confest in Brussels, international trainings and study visits, and a Boosting Event with study visits and job-shadowing in Norway and Portugal. The work will be complemented by local pilot activities and an open digital space for sharing experiences and materials.
The European Placemaking Academy grows out of long-standing collaborations between CISR, Culture Goes Europe, Urban Foxes, Contextos, and Kirkens Bymisjon. Rather than offering ready-made answers, the project is about asking questions together and learning from what happens on the ground.
We’ll share more as the project starts and the work takes shape.
