Green Capitals "in the Hearts and Minds of the People"
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GreenCapitalsintheHeartsandMindsofthePeople
Data discussion
The experiences with the EGCA that emerged from this research are as various as the full range of applicants to the award itself. In this competition, renown national capitals like Oslo directly compete with provincial towns like Cagliari or Nijmegen on an equal level. One could expect considerable differences in the way these cities coped with the competition, and indeed no experience was like the others. However, at the same time, there are some challenges, issues and struggles that are common to many if not all cities, highlighting a high number of similarities and even more similar ways of understanding the EGCA. Starting from the similarities, the applicants to this award all around Europe reported similar ways of managing the award, similar issues stemming from that and some issues that the award pointed out. Geography in this case does not seem to matter so much, as Northern, Western, Eastern and Southern European cities alike managed the award by putting the environmental office in charge and requiring it to gather the data from other offices. Such management was met with mixed reactions in places as far away as Nijmegen, Lahti, Turin or Tallinn. It was found to be challenging for the traditional way of working based on one specialized office that seems to be familiar to municipalities throughout Europe. Similarly, when the officials started to fill the forms, data were found to be missing in Oslo as well as Cagliari, Ghent and Turin, because municipalities reportedly do not gather and hold all by themselves such extensive databases. The presence of promoters inside or outside the administration was equally vital at all latitudes to have the application, the presentation or the Green Capital Year done. Thus, the EGCA was reported in all cases to be an unusual 50 experience that obliged for once to change the approach of officials throughout the administration. First, the application offers a clear set of criteria that have to be filled. Second, the presentation requires officials to prepare a narrative and communicate it effectively. Finally, the Green Capital Year requires to engage local, national and international actors to attract funds and organize the events in the agenda. Just a few cities, that being the winners, underwent all these phases, but benefits were reported no matter which phase was reached. In this context, ranking does matter in the application phase, but the later steps inevitably go beyond sticking to the EGCA criteria. This award does not require cities just to perform better than other cities, but also to be able to lead other administrations towards the top level. Cities are required to act as a model, not just to be one. The Commission has been criticised in the past for its search for “exportable” models based on best practices (Bulkeley & Betsill, 2005) , but apparently excellent performances must be accompanied by communication and networking skills to win the EGCA. This goes much beyond the quantifiable performances that have them selected as finalists, and it can possibly explain the discrepancies between best performing cities and EGCA winners that the literature has highlighted (Ratas et al., 2013; Ruiz del Portal, 2016). The cases of this research also showed several remarkable differences. Most importantly, administrations showed to have different reasons and expected benefits for applying to the EGCA spanning networking, policymaking, branding and economic gains. Participating in the EGCA was regarded in all cases as part of a more significant policy process. However, the foci of each city’s process spanned a variety of fields such as environmental policy, green economy, touristic promotion or rebuilding the image of the city. Thus, the EGCA appears to be a tool which is regarded in a different light according to the context each administration is experiencing when it decides to apply. Despite the needs that push towards applying differ considerably, the EGCA has not disappointed officials as to their relative expectations. In some cases, it has gone beyond them. The more times a city applied and the further phases of the award it reached, the more benefits were reported, yet all officials had something positive to remark. Those cities that never reached the finals were said to be happy with the feedback on their policy that they received from EGCA experts. The cities that reached the finals but were never awarded are said to be happy with the opportunity to participate in the EGC Network together with winners. Lastly, winners are pleased about the whole process and the way the Green Capital Year united different local actors to show the best improvements in their city. Now, these are all ex-post considerations, which might be trying to get the best out of that experience 51 because officials might not want to belittle a project they worked on. Nevertheless, as the EGCA is a voluntary competition that does not appear to be so politically sensitive, there would not be so many issues in criticizing it if it had disappointed the officials. It appears then that even with such substantial contextual differences, the benefits that each EGCA phase entails are enough to make participation worth the effort. Receiving feedback, networking and hosting a big event are the aspects that emerge as the most attractive for officials. These are exactly the same aspects the Commission points out the most when promoting the EGCA (EGCA, 2020a), which might show that there is not a gap between the way the award is considered at the municipal and at the European level. In this context, ranking matters as part of the application process and of the feedback, but it is regarded as a technical aspect that is not relevant in all subsequent phases of the award. During the finals, for instance, the ranking scores are already less important than the capacity to present the city as a model in front of the jury, as it has been discussed earlier in this section. Ranking plays an even more marginal role when organizing the Green Capital Year, which is centred on putting into action the skills that were displayed at the finals. The results of ranking were not mentioned to play a role in shaping the Year’s agenda. Finally, when top-ranked cities keep collaborating through the EGC Network, their relationship is horizontal, and the position on the respective ranks is not said to create a gap between winners and finalists. Whether other gaps between members of the network or between members and non-members do exist is a matter for further enquiry, although the literature on TMNs suggests that some disparities are likely to be found ( Bansard et al., 2017; Heikkinen et al., 2020) . In conclusion, officials interpret the EGCA in many different ways involving a wide range of expectations. The criteria of the application form are said to influence the way the application itself is managed, and having to mobilize several offices within the municipality to fill them is a challenge that is said to have brought a new experience to everyday work. The presentation phase, the Green Capital Year and participation in the EGC Network are all phases that have also been deemed extremely relevant and influential for the way the administrations that experienced them manage sustainability policy. Thus, the ranking aspect of the EGCA the literature has been focusing on so far seems to be just a part of the story related to this award, overshadowing the importance of the Green Capital Year and of the EGC Network. Ranking is undoubtedly a crucial element of the phase all applicants experience, i.e. the application phase. Even so, it is hard to defend it may be the only relevant or influential dimension of the entire EGCA experience, especially 52 considering the fact that the influence on urban policy of big events and TMNs has been clearly assessed in the literature (Falk & Hangsten, 2017; Heikkinen et al., 2020). Download 0.67 Mb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
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