In the past few decades rapid urbanisation has radically changed the role of cities in our societies, as well as how they operate. CITEGO wants these changes to be taken seriously. Why? Because they can help us better understand how cities and territories are set to become major actors in a system being remodelled by globalisation. At this local level, essential to the construction of sustainable societies, the integration of economic, social and ecological dimensions can be observed in greater detail. Yet, to do that, we must first overhaul the way we look at and understand territories. It is CITEGO’s ambition to make a real and ongoing contribution to this paradigm change.
At the same time, the association is convinced that exchanging experiences is one way to help organise the transformation. All over the world, cities and territories are becoming aware of their important role, and are inventing new responses—sometimes one-off, sometimes structural, sometimes at the initiative of local authorities, sometimes at the behest of other actors. By exchanging their experiences, cities and local actors can be inspired by others’ successes, and tailor solutions to their own context, or learn lessons from others’ failures. CITEGO hopes to be a key observatory of this transformation in the roles of territories and cities, and an international space for the exchange of ideas and experiences that contributes to a transition to sustainable societies.
CITEGO aims to be a collective intelligence tool serving city actors and citizens. The goal of the resources site is to help people find and analyse others’ experiences and understand the changes currently underway, particularly with regard to their means of approach. It is intended to provide a global vision of all that is changing in urban policies by systematically focusing on the study of concrete cases. Last but not least, CITEGO hopes to contribute to a global understanding of the nature, governance and importance of territories in the 21st century, and thus to the construction of an agenda for change not walled in by geography or restricted by a focus on specific themes.