Facing inequalities and democratic challenges through co-production in cities

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If the link between inequalities and declining levels of trust in the political institutions of democracy in Europe has already been shown,the various ways in which both citizens and institutions are trying to face these inequalities and (re)build a sustainable common futureremain somewhat under-documented. Indeed, this lacuna becomes even more pronounced when one considers those attempts that gobeyond conventional forms of state-led participation. Responding to this gap, the aim of Fairville is to both document and proposepilot models of urban intervention that engage local academics, -authorities, -community-based organisations, -residents and -users inthe collective improvement of deprived urban neighbourhoods via a deepening of resident and user participation in new and existingdemocratic processes. The idea that urban policies should not be made "for" populations but rather “with" them is a potentially profoundengine ofsocial transformation and empowerment. However, the realisation ofsuch co-production processesis often marked by epistemicinequalities and unequal power relations. Cognisant of this issue, the Fairville pilot cases all place an emphasis on exploring the ways inwhich academic researchers, local communities and local authority representatives can work together to reduce the power and informationasymmetries that exist between them. Clustered around three major themes - environmental inequalities, inequalities related to housingand urban planning and inequalities related to climate risks – and ranging from co-diagnosis to co-planning and intervention, the pilotswill be carried out as action research and include the implementation of observation, capitalisation and co-evaluation mechanisms.The results of these pilot cases will be widely disseminated to the institutions and citizens concerned and we will work collectively toencourage policy transfer and outreach.