Specialist on public space Milota Sidorova will explore why today's well-functioning cities and civic communities are more important than ever. She will present ideas and reasons how can people like her (architects, urban planners, community managers, or social innovators) contribute to sustaining democracy
Read MoreIf you follow events in Central Europe and Slovakia, you will realize how important this time is to us. There are many exciting and fundamental things affecting our lives, political arrangements, deciding on our course, the future of democracy. How to grab all this and connect it meaningfully on the city level? I live by interdisciplinarity and one of the greatest experiences in life I consider knowledge. At the same time, I like to get to know patterns of human behavior. Therefore, in this paper, I would like to summarize moments from my practice as a planner, presenter, facilitator and woman who connects. I will talk about cities, self-government and the role of professors in a time of threatened democracy.
Read MoreRestless Cities: Lessons from Central Europe is a publication edited by Milota Sidorová and Zdeňka Lammelová that reflects a year-long training programme of the Prague office of the Heinrich-Böll Foundation focusing on understanding the political aspects of urban planning in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. It consists of four thematic chapters that offer introductions into social housing in Brno, participatory processes in Prague, urban development of Bratislava and influencing strategies in Budapest.
Read MoreIt is very difficult to catch Milota. Just shortly before our conversation in a pleasant interior block of Panenská Street, she returned from Japan. We spent an hour's interview mainly on Bratislava and its upcoming changes. A public space expert perceives very sensitively non-systemic solutions for managing cities and neglecting the needs of weaker groups in city planning. She believes that Bratislava will also benefit from the positive experience with the transformation of the Prague self-government and the streets of Ljubljana.
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