The Framework

Research on cities' micro missions

The CENTRINNO Framework operationalises the project's vision. Urban regeneration processes are long in nature and often moved by powers and actors that are difficult to reach or negotiate with. In order to explore the potential of alternative, resilient and sustainable approaches, CENTRINNO experiments how to change existing organisational practices through the implementation of a Fab City Hub. These actions and, especially, the changes tested in existing practices, will enable the participation of citizens and local organisations in the urban regeneration, process, reinforcing different aspects that enable a wider urban transition:

• Reconnection of local productive economies with their regional and local biophysical environment, thus, fostering socio-ecological interactions, awareness and interdependencies in which urban communities play an active role.

• A maker culture that fosters an active role of citizens in the production model, thus increasing local capacity to produce goods, changing mindsets towards non-consumerism, and increasing local community's resilience and adaptability to global challenges.

• Data exchanges and open knowledge are accessible to citizens and provide opportunities for up- dating and acquiring new skills, creating new job opportunities in sectors such as education, agriculture, health, banking, etc.

The Framework is organized on three different action areas that guide pilot cities' journeys towards the transformation of their industrial historic areas and the implementation of their Fab City Hub. Each area has associated a series of organisational practices that have been derived from the FCH ten principles in the Impact Assessment Framework. Each city chooses its own path and selects and adapts the most appropriate tools and methods to change those practices. Each city develops a different journey towards the development of its Fab City Hub and the transformation of their historic industrial area.

As we mentioned in the glossary, a micro mission is a commitment to address a specific challenge, set according to a pilot city's local context and CENTRINNO’s general objective and one or more organisational practices. A micro mission may have one or several specific objectives and may include several activities that support achieving them. Using Paris pilot context as an example, a micro mission could be “developing a working group with existing organisations involved in urban food systems”. This micro mission activate interactions and facilitate connections and collaborations among the different actors active in urban environments or would even facilitate community action, while orchestrating a common vision in a later stage. Several activities would compose the micro mission, such as organizing an Emotion Networking workshop to discuss the historic gardening ecosystem of the city and explore a common understanding of urban agriculture in Paris, setting up a Make Works region focused on urban food systems, or applying surveys to specific stakeholders to understand the resources available in the network.

The CENTRINNO Framework proposes three action areas to organize micro missions. Action Areas facilitate knowledge sharing between pilot cities, as well as the connection of organisational practices and resources available in the CENTRINNO Framework and throughout the project to support experimentation activities. The three action areas are:

Crafting the visionBuilding a communityEstablishing the infrastructure

These three action areas are interconnected with the five key concepts, resulting in a two-dimension map of organisational practices, activities, methods and tools. The three action areas are not linear and correlative. Micro missions in different action areas will take place simultaneously during the project. Some cities may already have a clear approach to implement their Fab City Hubs and at the same time, co-develop their own community around it, while other pilot cities may start by mapping their local city ecosystem to spot potential to implement both a Fab City Hub, or shape a community of practice around a new topic unfolded by the mapping process.

CENTRINNO Framework 3 Action Areas

In the following sections, you will be able to navigate through the three action areas and get an idea about which type of tools and methods could support your city to map your local ecosystem, develop a community of practice or implement a Fab City Hub.