Athens is the new Athens
Nearly six months ago, we started working as the Urban Waste Team - a team created under the umbrella of the Athens Co-Creation City Branding Project aka Cultural Marketing and Communication in Panteion University [MA Cultural Management]. We virtually traveled through various cities around the world, studying their branding strategies to end up investigating our city’s needs through the lens of design thinking.
Interweaving our personal urban experiences with interviews of the city’s stakeholders, the utilization of the “5 why’s” method, and the results of our research, we decided to promote the glocalization strategy as the new city branding for Athens.
Glocalization is a term used in business and economics to describe the process of tailoring an international product or service to better fit the wants or needs of a local community. The concept merges two different terms, as in “globalization” and “localization,” representing the amalgamation of something local and global.
A key point of our research was structured by analyzing the representation of Athens in the global media since 2018. We observed that the main issues that form negative representations of our city refer to the society and the infrastructure.
Intersecting with the results from the interviews we conducted, the major issues that occur are deficiencies in public transportation, the management of empty buildings, crisis management and, as a result of the above, the distrust of city’s users towards Athens’ Municipality. Athens is represented as a city with lack of social cohesion due to the consecutive crises of the last years- from the refugee crisis to natural disasters.
Responding to those needs, we focus on the concept of community with an emphasis on infrastructure. In a municipality of 7 districts characterized by chaotic urban planning, multiculturalism and vivid life we prioritize the neighborhood, as a communicative unit of Athens’ Municipality.
The Stakeholders of the municipality of Athens, as derived from the analysis of the city, are divided into the public and the private sector, the users of the city and the research institutions and networks. Briefly mentioned, some of the main partners and stakeholders of the municipality of Athens in the public sector are the Office of Resilience and Sustainability, the individual municipal departments, the General Secretariat for Civil Protection and Ministries such as the Ministry of Economic Development, Environment and Energy, the Ministry of Labour, Social Security and Social Solidarity, etc.
The users of the city are represented by civil society organizations, the Deputy Mayor for Children, the Deputy Mayor for Social Solidarity, Welfare and Equality, and other citizen networks. The university and knowledge institutions and networks include Panteion University, Harokopeio University, the Centre for Security Studies, partners of the 100 Resilient Cities Network and the Athens Migration Exchange Network. Finally, the private sector includes OASA, Attiko Metro, Athinaiko Aerio SA, Bloomberg Associates, Aegean Airlines, WWF, UNO and other NGOs.
Strategies involving inclusion at both social and spatial levels to improve life in the city led us to conduct interviews with employees of non-governmental organizations active in migrant integration programs and with a research and technology laboratory.
Our vision is a city accessible to all regardless of age, gender, ethnicity and economic background. As a result, we focus on these Actionable Insights: Housing & Gentrification, Sustainable Development, Public Transportation and enhancing the network of city’s actors by mapping the city’s NGOs.
Housing & Gentrification
“Housing is a RIGHT, not a commodity” (United Nations Special Rapporteur for adequate housing)
During the last decades, Athens is facing an increasing housing issue due to rent increase, caused by gentrification processes. In the meantime, in Athens 1800 empty buildings are reported. Using a co-creation app, described and created by one of our interviewees, the residents could scan the empty buildings in their neighborhoods, and make suggestions of their possible reuse. Cooperation between the public sector, the city’s users and the innovators can facilitate the reuse of the city’s empty buildings with a direction against rent increase and inclusivity, as some of these buildings can be provided to vulnerable groups.
Sustainable development
Athens is a city that generally needs more green, but lacks space. The city’s microclimate is an important coordinate regarding the well-being of its inhabitants, the resilience of the city and its glamour. A necessary step towards the energy upgrade of the city and its resilience is the investment in new materials designed to absorb the heat of the atmosphere and offer insulation against cold temperatures. Another element that emerged from our interviews and research that has both a functional and an aesthetic impact is the concept of vertical planting and the idea of green roofs, initiatives that are also used by other cities that lack green spaces.
For example, the city’s apartment buildings (polikatoikies), as an architectural symbol of Athens and as spaces of multicultural concentration, can form the basis of cooperation and co-configuration at neighborhood level as well as points of green development.
Public Transportation
In the same development context, the creation of bicycle paths is necessary, so as to achieve both internal transportation by bicycle within the neighborhoods, as well as neighborhoods interconnection with the city center. The maintenance and reconstruction of sidewalks is also a major issue for the city of Athens, especially for people with mobility difficulties.
Mapping City’s NGOs
Migrants experience the city of Athens as a difficult environment and as a transit station on their way to Western Europe. In the meantime, Athens is represented in the media as a not very welcoming place for migrants. Having in mind cities like Paris or Calgary that follow inclusive policies in their strategies, we prioritize the reshaping of Athens responding to migrants’ needs.
A first step towards this direction is the creation of an accessible online platform that includes all the city’s NGOs that provide social and public health services. The mapping we propose will allocate each NGO according to the neighborhood they operate in, but also according to their field of engagement. In that way, the actions of the NGOs will be accessible to the city’s residents, promoting the virtues of openness.
Communication Strategy of Athens’ Municipality
Athens is at a crossroad when it comes to trust towards government authorities, both central and local, which constitutes one of the major persistent challenges the city faces. The Athenians are particularly hesitant about the efforts of the municipality due to the lack of information, but also the lack of integrated communication strategies. What we propose is, initially, the short-range information campaigns of the municipality regarding the changes it brings to the city. Ideally, participatory planning could be the trigger for creating new relationships between residents and municipal authorities.
Another point that we must focus on is the online presence of the municipality of Athens, through its website and on social networking platforms and the drawing up of a strategy in terms of information management with the aim of outreach.
The strategy suggested is to combine service delivery with effective communication. Some of the most innovative cities do not treat communication as any different from any other public service they provide.
Currently, the municipality’s online presence is divided into two main websites.
https://www.cityofathens.gr/ & https://www.thisisathens.org/
Our proposal is to merge these two websites into one. Both from our discussions during the workshops and from the investigation of the communication strategies applied by other countries, it seems that the concentration of information on a basic website that refers to all the other sub-categories and other websites offers the highest usability.
The holistic approach towards the projects that the municipality undertakes and executes under the “This is Athens” brand could disconnect the new projects implemented by the municipal authorities from its old identity and help to effectively inform users. At the same time, the more local approach and the emphasis on the neighborhoods with the strong element of diversity between them is a communication strategy that could connect the residents both with each other and with the municipality as everyone will be equally represented.
Another useful approach for the communication dynamics that the municipality could develop is the utilization of valid information regarding the problems in the city but also the good practices for the improvement of the city that are taking place. We believe that something like this will attract users to the municipality’s website and help build trust as well as accountability and responsibility of the municipality.
In conclusion, through the methodology of design thinking, we have adopted the strategy of glocalization, highlighting the neighborhood as the unit of analysis. Thus, in our view, certain issues emerged to make improvements in order to enhance the well-being of the city’s residents and guests. As highlighted above, it would be useful for the city’s communication to improve issues such as housing, green development, public transport and the visibility of NGOs to residents. Finally, we identified the need for a stronger, more systematic and more personal social media presence as well as a more user-friendly City page that is unified for residents and visitors without separating them and giving the individuals involved strict identities.
We would like to kindly thank Professor Betty Tsakarestou for guiding us through this complex and enriching project.
