Periodic Reporting for period 1 - UPLIFT (Urban PoLicy Innovation to address inequality with and for Future generaTions)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2020-01-01 al 2021-03-31
The data collection in the 16 urban areas is mostly finished, while the analysis is in progress. It is already apparent that even urban areas in the same country provide very different structural and welfare frameworks for their young urban population. We expect to have an insight into the causes behind this diversity of local conditions which might also provide a new typology of urban locations.
We expect to have the greatest findings and impacts in work packages 3 and 4, where the research team has a direct access to young people either through interviews or co-creation processes. We aim to understand how local welfare policies are perceived by and integrated into the life strategies of young people, to see how they contribute to or to the contrary, mitigate structural problems. By identifying the main points of policy failure, where local policies are not efficient enough or are diverted from their original goals, we will be able to create a feedback mechanism (Reflexive Policy making) that will result in more flexible and tailor-made solutions in the long run.
The current (first) review period covered the first 15 months of the project, in which the European level analysis (WP1) has been completed. It provides the scientific framework for subsequent analyses both with regards to the drivers of inequalities and the way urban young people are affected by inequalities on NUTS1/NUTS2 levels.
The desk research, the interview process with policymakers and policy implementers and the analysis of local data has mostly finished in the 16 functional urban areas of Europe (Amadora, Amsterdam, Barakaldo, Belfast, Borlänge, Bologna, Bratislava, Chemnitz, Corby, Leuven, Lodz, Lom, Mulhouse, Pécs, Sfântu Gheorghe, Tallinn). By the end of 2021, 16 urban reports will be completed assessing these localities from an inequality perspective and evaluating the efficiency of local welfare policies.
Regarding the analysis of local interactions, the interviews with policy implementers have been mostly completed in eight locations out of the 16 (Amadora, Amsterdam, Barakaldo, Chemnitz, Corby, Pécs, Sfântu Gheorghe, Tallinn) locations. Researchers are currently preparing for the interview process involving 20 young people currently experiencing difficulties either in the housing, education or employment fields, and 20 others who were at the same age about a decade ago and experienced similar difficulties at the time of the financial crisis.
The work to develop a local Reflexive Policy Agenda with the involvement of vulnerable young people has already begun in Amsterdam and Sfântu Gheorghe, while being in the preparation phase in Barakaldo and Tallinn.
The website of the project (www.uplift-youth.eu) has been launched alongside other social media channels, and the project has been introduced in local communities. The project will also feature at the European Week of Cities and Regions in October 2021.
The data collection in the 16 urban areas is mostly finished, while the analysis is in progress. It is already apparent that even urban areas in the same country provide very different structural and welfare frameworks for their young urban population. We expect to have an insight into the causes behind this diversity of local conditions which might also provide a new typology of urban locations.
We expect to have the greatest findings and impacts in work packages 3 and 4, where the research team has a direct access to young people either through interviews or co-creation processes. We aim to understand how local welfare policies are perceived by and integrated into the life strategies of young people, to see how they contribute to or to the contrary, mitigate structural problems. By identifying the main points of policy failure, where local policies are not efficient enough or are diverted from their original goals, we will be able to create a feedback mechanism (Reflexive Policy making) that will result in more flexible and tailor-made solutions in the long run.