More information available on the conference website: https://www.ua.pt/en/invtur/

Contemporary cities are under immense pressure due to natural disasters, climate and demographic changes, sudden threats, and numerous other disruptions. The lecture focused on achieving urban resilience and sustainability through the lens of integrated governance and active citizen engagement, or the participation of all social groups.

There are numerous factors that hinder effective urban governance, such as institutional inertia or a lack of developmental vision and political will to govern transparently, as well as a lack of capacity within various organizations to take on a more active role in decision-making for the public interest. Through examples of be (hrst practices, possibilities for maintaining urban functionality focused on recovery and further development were showcased.

UNESCO, UNDP and Global Environmental Facility (GEF) are joinly implementing this full-size project known as DIKTAS Phase II, which will be implemented in 4 countries – Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and Croatia.

Through the establishment of the Center for Sustainable Development through Culture (CSDC), structural conditions are being created for continuous scientific work on researching the role of culture in sustainable development, as well as the sustainability of culture. The primary research goal within the Center is to demonstrate the importance of culture for general social development through its instrumental values and its role in addressing social issues, as well as its own sustainability through the intrinsic values of culture. This potentially brings about a more significant valorization of culture in public policies for sustainable development, which implies the development and testing of new concepts for ensuring the sustainability of culture, as well as new development models in culture.

In addition to cooperation within the Department for Resource Economics, Environmental Protection and Regional Development (e.g. green heritage topics, social entrepreneurship, regional development, tourism etc.), the Center acts as an “anchor” that connects (through common topics) the Department for Culture and Communication (e.g., cultural policies, culture and education, participatory governance  and management in culture); the Department for European Integration (e.g., social entrepreneurship and social innovations, preparation and implementation of EU projects/tenders); the Department for International Economic and Political Affairs (e.g., international relations in culture). In addition to the above, the Center cooperates with other IRMO Centers (e.g., topics in culture and migrations, creative industries etc.).