Political leadership on the agenda
NCN SEMINAR: In the first week of April planners and politicians from the Nordic City Network gathered in Norrköping, Sweden to discuss political leadership and the challenges facing our modern cities as they move from an industrial based economy to one driven by knowledge and innovation.
The seminar was an inspiring meeting between planning professionals and the local politicians who play an important role in shaping our cities today. The seminar highlighted the possible role of urban development as a strategic tool for city leaders to emphasize the city’s competitive advantage, as well as provided an important first step in order to establish a platform for increased collaboration between city planning professionals and political leaders. Politicians from Uppsala, Malmö, Umeå, Lillestrøm, Fredericia, Tromsø and Norrköping participated in the seminar. Politicians attending the seminar represented both controlling and oppositional parties from each city, thus emphasizing the role of good urbanism in promoting the agenda of all parties and the need for building coalitions across party lines to ensure long term common visions for quality of life in cities.
The politicians showed great interest in the issues of urban development and how to develop new forms of knowledge exchange among colleagues as well as between different partners. The idea of a political forum within the Nordic City Network was launched, and the first meeting is scheduled for the beginning of this summer. The focus on political leadership is part and parcel of a long term strategy within the Nordic City Network of getting issues of modern urban development on the political agenda. This will, in the coming years, result in Nordic Region focussed conference in Odense in 2012 and an international urban conference in Malmo in 2013.
As host for the seminar, Norrköping served as an inspiring example of how to transform itself from an industrial city to an attractive and inspiring knowledge city. The transformation is also basis for a NCN pilot project, who will evaluate the function of the knowledge city in Norrköpings development the last ten years.