URBACT II Capitalisation: Cities of Tomorrow, Action Today - Against divided cities in Europe

This paper was produced by the URBACT workstream Against divided cities in Europe. The aim of the group is to help European cities to rethink existing policies concerning spatial and social segregation in urban areas. The paper intends to provide an overview of the concept of urban segregation and related public policies that have been studied and explored within URBACT. The objective is also to bring forward some of the most interesting practices from URBACT partner cities working on integrated sustainable development, which have implemented innovative policies against segregation. On the basis of these practices, and taking the results of academic research into account, different alternatives for horizontal policies and area-based interventions are explored, and the links between these are discussed at length. The paper ends with recommendations for cities how to deal with segregated and deprived areas. In addition to the choices cities can take by themselves, those aspects are raised which cities cannot determine directly: influencing national and regional policies through lobbying and campaigning for appropriate planning and implementation frameworks. Finally, the novelties of the upcoming Cohesion Policy and Structural Funds regulations are mentioned, showing their potentials for the cities to fight segregation in their urban areas.