Survey on the impact of the economic crisis and the responses of URBACT cities

The economic crisis has dramatically altered the context in which the 44 URBACT projects are operating. As a response we have launched a study on the impact of the economic crisis and the responses developed by the URBACT II partner cities to address the recession. The study started in September 2009 and the survey was sent to all 221 cities participating in the first Call for URBACT projects. The report written by Yamina Guidoum and Paul Soto presents the results of the survey.

The survey has two main parts – firstly, the nature of the impact of the crisis on different kinds of cities and secondly, the nature of their response. The aim of the first part of the survey is to produce an overview of the ways in which the crisis is affecting the extremely diverse cities found in Europe today. As cities do not generally have access to comparable sources of data the purpose is not to try to quantify the impact but to try to identify a series of central or common themes among the very complex processes which are being played out at enormous speed across our urban landscape. The second part of the survey provides an early picture of the types of response to the crisis that are being explored by European cities. Both parts of the survey will be used to help select and frame the case studies to be developed in the following phase of the study.

The survey forms part of a broader package of work on cities and the crisis being undertaken by the URBACT programme. URBACT has a dedicated webspace 'Economic Crisis: Cities' Responses and Resources' to bring to light and display resources and tools to support local practitioners. Do not hesitate to visit it regularly!


Read more:

• Download Urbact II CITIES AND THE ECONOMIC CRISIS (1.67 MB) April 2010 – PDF
• Economic Crisis: Cities' Responses and Resources – URBACT website