European regions are struggling with how to plan more inclusive cities and face more and more complex urban dynamics, especially considering the recent refugee crisis and the already existing pressures the welfare state has been subject to. Planning cities for hospitality and social-spatial integration requires innovative methods to understand the urban phenomenon and enable transnational knowledge exchange because of the shared nature of the challenge and the beneficial consequences of a transnational response. Indeed, an increase in the capacity to operate at transnational level and share knowledge beyond singular national settings is crucial. In the academic context, this challenge calls Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) involved in teaching Urban Design and Planning into particular account. HEIs are called to assume new awareness, as actors committed in the treatment of urban and social issues, taking on new social responsibilities. Relevant teaching tools and methods need to be refined, novel competences are required, and new narratives and representations need to be developed in order to produce a more in-depth knowledge of urban phenomena, prepare urban practitioners to tackle them and contribute to more incisive urban policies towards more just cities.The University of Sheffield (UK), the KU Leuven (BG), the Politecnico di Milano (IT), Architecture Sans Frontieres International (FR) and Housing Europe (BG) are the proponents of this project. The underlying motivation of this strategic partnership is to produce new pedagogical approaches and tools in urban design and planning, addressing the reception and social inclusion of migrants and refugees, and other marginalised urban dwellers in European cities. New methodologies, contexts and tools capable to offer novel teaching environments to better prepare students as future practitioners, as well as teachers and civil society organisations, to deal with urban challenges towards more just cities.The partnership will cooperate and exchange expertise and experiences in order to:- co-produce innovation in the educational process towards capacity development of current and future urban practitioners, to better understand and face hospitality and social inclusion challenges in European cities.- develop innovative approaches to raise quality in teaching and learning activities within the HEIs- create opportunities for organisations, teachers and learners to innovate and to adapt traditional teaching methods offering a mix of learning possibilities, also through increasing the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) thanks to the MOOC developed within the project.All the project’s partners will contribute in the development of the project tasks and activities, participating together to the achievement of the project’s objectives and results. Project’s partners will be responsible for the development of several activities, in order to produce three Intellectual Outputs:- O1- New learning needs: Challenges and approaches in Urban Design & Planning for inclusion, is addressed to civil society organisations interested in approaching new competences and skills to improve their ways of acting. The aim is to document emerging forms of urban practice for social inclusion, initiated by civil society organisations. The output will be a Handbook that will reflect the learning and experiences developed over the project.- O2- New modes of learning & teaching: Learning inclusion in action is addressed to graduate and postgraduate students, who have the need to improve their specific and transversal competences. The aim is to improve the provided education, by means of live teaching contexts, and refine profiles of future practitioners. Novel pedagogical experiences will be embedded in each HEI partner and will be defined in close collaboration between HEI & non-HEI partners.- O3 - New teaching abilities: Developing pedagogies for inclusion, is addressed to academic staff, who wish to update their skills. It consists in the design and implementation of a MOOC on the applied pedagogical approach. A massive online open course (MOOC) will support European teachers in renewing their approaches, by means of action-learning initiatives developed on the basis of a live engagement with marginal contexts. Concerning impacts and project’s sustainability: the handbook (O1) will be used by civil society partners to articulate and make more explicit emerging approaches to the field of hospitality; the content of the handbook will be included among the training and capacity development resources that HE and ASF-Int make available to their member organisations. The teaching modules (O2) will inform and be made integral to urban design & planning courses within each of the institutions involved, which will ensure their sustainability over time. The MOOC (O3) will be hosted by the existing open knowledge platform of Politecnico di Milano, which will ensure continuity over time
European regions are struggling with how to plan more inclusive cities and face more and more complex urban dynamics, especially considering the recent refugee crisis and the already existing pressures the welfare state has been subject to. Planning and designing cities for hospitality and social-spatial integration requires innovative approaches and methods to understand the urban phenomenon and enable transnational knowledge exchange because of the shared nature of the challenge and the beneficial consequences of a transnational response. Indeed, an increase in the capacity to operate at transnational level and share knowledge beyond singular national settings is crucial. In the academic context, this challenge calls Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) involved in teaching Urban Design and Planning into particular account. HEIs are called to assume new awareness, as actors committed in the treatment of urban and social issues, taking on new social responsibilities. Relevant teaching tools and methods need to be refined, novel competences are required, and new narratives and representations need to be developed in order to produce a more in-depth knowledge of urban phenomena, prepare urban practitioners to tackle them and contribute to more incisive urban policies towards more just cities. The University of Sheffield (UK), KU Leuven (BE), Politecnico di Milano (IT), Architecture Sans Frontières International (FR) and Housing Europe (BE) are the proponents of this project. The underlying motivation of this strategic partnership was to produce new pedagogical approaches and tools in spatial design and planning, addressing questions of displacement and migration in European cities. The partnership cooperated and exchanged expertise and experiences in order to: (1) co-produce innovation in the educational process towards capacity development of current and future urban practitioners, to better understand and face hospitality and social inclusion challenges in European cities; (2) develop innovative approaches to raise quality in teaching and learning activities within the HEIs; (3) create opportunities for organisations, educators and learners to innovate and to adapt traditional teaching methods offering a mix of learning possibilities, also through increasing the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) thanks to the MOOC developed within the project. All project partners participated to the achievement of the project’s objectives and results, which revolved around the production of three three Intellectual Outputs: (O1) New learning needs: Challenges and approaches in spatial design and planning for inclusion. This output addressed civil society organisations interested in approaching new competences and skills to improve their ways of acting. (O2) New modes of learning & teaching: Learning inclusion in action. This output addressed educators as well as graduate and postgraduate students, who have the need to improve their specific and transversal competences. (O3) New teaching abilities: Developing pedagogies for inclusion. The third output addressed educators who wish to update their skills. It consists in the design and implementation of a MOOC on the applied pedagogical approach. In terms of impacts, the handbook (O1) will be used by civil society partners to articulate and make more explicit emerging innovations in hospitality practice. The teaching modules (O2) will inform spatial design and planning courses within each of the institutions involved, which will ensure their sustainability over time. The MOOC (O3) is hosted by the existing open knowledge platform of Politecnico di Milano, which will ensure continuity over time.