TY - JOUR
T1 - Facilitation processes and skills supporting ecocity development
AU - Antuña-Rozado, Carmen
AU - García-Navarro, Justo
AU - Mariño-Drews, Juana
N1 - Funding Information:
The seminar and workshop “Creating a Sustainable Future for Zambia” was a dissemination action within “EcoLusaka. Sustainable education of the construction sector in Lusaka, Zambia” (2013–2015), a capacity building project funded by the Institutional Cooperation Instrument (ICI) under the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland (MFA). During the project the Finnish partner, VTT, strengthened the capacity of the Zambian partner, Thorn Park Construction Training Centre (TPCTC) based in Lusaka, to provide education on sustainable construction and disseminate the results for wider use in the Zambian construction sector [29]. As a dissemination action, the main purpose of this seminar and workshop was to raise awareness among local stakeholders about the content, aims and results of EcoLusaka, as well as on key sustainability related issues. In addition, dissemination actions sought to enable an impact at a national level that might lead to a change in the Zambian construction regulatory framework towards a more sustainable construction process. In this particular case, it was decided to widen the scope beyond the construction sector and focus on sustainable development in order to engage students from different disciplines at the University of Zambia (UNZA). Therefore, it was organized like a two-day event with the ultimate goal of developing a vision for a sustainable Zambia. The event took place at UNZA on 20–21 May 2015 with thirty-one participants and it was facilitated by four VTT experts (one of them the manager of EcoLusaka project and leading author of this article).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 by the authors.
Copyright:
Copyright 2018 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2018/4/1
Y1 - 2018/4/1
N2 - Ecocities can provide solutions for the improvement of human settlements around the world and the living conditions therein, but in the authors' experience, only as long as they are able to address the following questions correctly: How to formulate an ecocity concept that, considering issues of general concern, can be at the same time adapted to different local conditions? What are the instruments supporting the development and implementation of ecocity solutions? VTT's EcoCity concept for sustainable community and neighbourhood regeneration and development has been designed in response to the first question. Likewise, specific methodologies and effective facilitation processes and skills have been developed in response to the second question. Since the methodologies have been discussed in a previous scientific article, the present one focuses on the facilitation processes and skills, and also on other related, fundamental aspects like participation, adaptation, capacity building, etc. Facilitation processes supporting EcoCity development require matching "hard" and "soft" skills in a fluid way. The main findings are discussed with the help of two case studies: One in Medellín (Colombia), and the other one in Zambia.
AB - Ecocities can provide solutions for the improvement of human settlements around the world and the living conditions therein, but in the authors' experience, only as long as they are able to address the following questions correctly: How to formulate an ecocity concept that, considering issues of general concern, can be at the same time adapted to different local conditions? What are the instruments supporting the development and implementation of ecocity solutions? VTT's EcoCity concept for sustainable community and neighbourhood regeneration and development has been designed in response to the first question. Likewise, specific methodologies and effective facilitation processes and skills have been developed in response to the second question. Since the methodologies have been discussed in a previous scientific article, the present one focuses on the facilitation processes and skills, and also on other related, fundamental aspects like participation, adaptation, capacity building, etc. Facilitation processes supporting EcoCity development require matching "hard" and "soft" skills in a fluid way. The main findings are discussed with the help of two case studies: One in Medellín (Colombia), and the other one in Zambia.
KW - Capacity building
KW - EcoCity
KW - EcoCity facilitation
KW - Local adaptation
KW - Medellín
KW - Participation
KW - Sustainable urban development
KW - Zambia
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85045470268&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/en11040777
DO - 10.3390/en11040777
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85045470268
SN - 1996-1073
VL - 11
JO - Energies
JF - Energies
IS - 4
M1 - 777
ER -
