My Soft City: From Flaneur to Entrepreneur Erasmus Project

Project Title

My Soft City: From Flaneur to Entrepreneur

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for youth

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy) ; Creativity and culture; Social entrepreneurship / social innovation

Project Summary

My Soft City: From Flaneur to Entrepreneur is a project that aims at bettering cities’ youth dimension. In our quest to preserve cultural heritage by helping youth to become more fond of their patrimony we came to the conclusion that cities which are more youth-friendly have more chances to develop as united and proactive communities. This project offers youth a voice in what concerns their city’s cultural heritage and encourages them to become cultural and social entrepreneurs themselves by exposing them to such an environment that fosters educational, cultural and urban growth. By creating in the project framework, a book about real, successful stories of social and cultural entrepreneurs from the partner countries, we offer youth the motivation and inspiration they need to become change-makers themselves.
As described by Michael Dear, expert in Urban Studies, “the soft city is full of humanity, invention, and fun, totally unlike the “hard” city with its ponderous monuments, commemorative namings, patrolled spaces, and formal geometries ” (6). Starting with this statement, the project wishes to create an illustrated map of the soft city seen by youth aged 16-22. In order to give the younger a voice about the strengths and weaknesses of their city and also to make their communities more youth-friendly and more innovative we will let youth draw their own buildings, places and streets that portray the real city. Youth will work closely to experts who will guide and support them.
The subtitle, From Flaneur to Entrepreneur, reflects the fact that a passer-by can become a change-maker in their community through proactivity and an entrepreneurial spirit. While in the 19th century, the flaneur was a stroller , observing and enjoying the architecture and atmosphere of the streets of Paris, we invite youth to become from observers into active actors of the social and cultural urban sphere. The subtitle also emphasizes the fact the the project aims to combine the old and the classic with the new and the innovative: the digitalization and gamification of cultural heritage by young people which further aims at preserving and promoting the urban patrimony of Europe. The project is cross-sectorial and combines youth work, social work, heritage, art and entrepreneurship in order to deliver interdisciplinary outputs and outcomes that improve and innovate the activity of youth workers and that help youth learn in an alternative way.

The main aim of the project is: Foster employability and social inclusion and cohesion through an educational, participatory, inclusive and intercultural approach to European Cultural Heritage.

The specific objectives of the project are:
1.To create innovative non-formal tools and methods for youth workers in the field of culture and heritage through international cooperation.
2.To digitalize and promote urban heritage through youth engagement.

The project aims at five main results:
1. At least 160 trained youth workers and 400 trained youth, out of which half are youth with fewer opportunities; the creation of an innovative cartography of social and cultural entrepreneurs and their successful stories, as a model of good practices.
2. A methodology of innovative non-formal Tools for Cultural Heritage Education for Social Inclusion:
– “8 Game Ideas for Cultural Ambassadors” Book
– 4 sets of illustrated cards: “Dérive City Cards” which will serve as a non-formal education tool.
3. Digitalized Cultural Heritage through the creation of 4 online illustrated maps (of 4 European cities: Constanta, Funchal, Nimes and Lund), free-for-use and for download, created by and for youth.
4. Visibility and Dissemination of the project outcomes and of European cultural heritage among youth, youth workers, stakeholders and local communities especially.

The partnership is uniting 4 countries and 8 partners for a duration of two years and a half, in which they will implement the Soft City initiative.
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Note: Dear, Michael J. “Creativity and Place.” GeoHumanities: Art, History, Text at the Edge of Place. Ed. Michael Dear. New York: Routledge, 2011. 9-18

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 299198 Eur

Project Coordinator

Maison de l’Europe de Nîmes & Country: FR

Project Partners

• Colegiul National de Arte Regina Maria Constanta
• MOBILIZING EXPERTISE AB
• House of Education and Innovation (HEI)
• HELLO YOUTH
• Art Gallery Caravel
• ARTE M ASSOCIACAO CULTURAL E ARTISTICA NA MADEIRA
• CCIT GARD LYCEE DE NIMES