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In a 2024 study, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung reports that only 13% of participants believe the Federal Government can address the issue of right-wing extremism in Germany. Compared to 52% who believe in zivil society as the instution that will save our democracy. Given that 2026 is an election year, we're putting the strengths of civil society in focus and featuring voices from the margins, who throug their work, benefit us all.
This one-day conference brings together organizers, activists, policymakers, educators, planners, and community actors to collectively explore how urban futures can be initiated and shaped through the perspectives of marginalized groups.
The conference deliberately goes beyond conventional urban development (institutionally driven planning) and shifts the focus to urban spacemaking as an ongoing social practice — shaped by lived experiences, negotiations of power, solidarity, and collective imagination.
Urban development refers to the planned transformation of the city as a whole system. Urban development plans the city.
Urban spacemaking refers to the everyday, creative, political, and collective shaping of urban spaces. Urban spacemaking makes the city.
Participants will engage with three core thematic areas:
Inclusion – 🗳 Democracy & Belonging
Justice – 🌍 Decolonization & Accountability
Future Orientation – 💻 Digitalization, 🌱 Sustainability, Youth Perspectives
And with various levels of political leverage (District, State, Federal).
The conference places particular emphasis on:
✅ Real practical experience
✅ Connections between global and local perspectives
✅ Power-critical reflection
✅ Collaboration with concrete implementation perspectives
The conference will feature a mix of keynote speeches, project presentations, organizational introductions, project exchanges, workshops, fishbowl discussions, and panel discussions. Below is a detailed overview of the program components.
PROJECT PRESENTATIONS
Real Practical Experience from the Global to the Local – Projects That Reach Beyond Berlin
The project presentations showcase concrete case studies from practitioners who are actively co-shaping urban spaces through participatory and justice-oriented approaches.
The focus is on:
ORGANIZATION SLAM
Urban Imagination Meets Practical Innovation
Inspired by poetry and science slams, the Organization Slam is a high-energy format in which initiatives, collectives, and institutions present their work in rapid 5-minute pitches.
The focus is on:
🔥 Bold visions
🔥 Innovative approaches to solutions
🔥 New perspectives on complex urban challenges
PROJECT MARKETPLACE
From Conversation to Collaboration
The project marketplace creates a vibrant space to move from discussion to concrete action. In informal networking sessions, organizations, collectives, and initiatives present:
Participants can:
✨ Expand their network
✨ Find implementation partners
✨ Develop new ideas together
✨ Join existing initiatives
WORKSHOPS
Deepening Practice: Skills, Tools, and Co-Creation
Workshops offer structured spaces to go beyond inspiration and build concrete competencies for participatory urban transformation.
Workshops are designed as:
✨ Learning spaces for new skills
✨ Collaborative laboratories
✨ Safe spaces for experimentation
✨ Places to translate ideas into concrete steps for implementation
FISHBOWL DISCUSSIONS
Open Dialogues on Power, Practice, and Possibility
The fishbowl discussions create a dynamic space for open, participatory exchange on the most pressing and contested questions of inclusive urban transformation.
Rather than fixed panels, participants can actively enter and exit the discussion circle, bringing in perspectives from practice, politics, research, and lived experience. This rotating structure reflects the central premise of the conference:
Urban futures emerge through continuous negotiation — not through one-sided consultation.
POLITICIANS PANEL
From Vision to Governance: Political Pathways for Inclusive Urban Futures
This high-level panel brings together state politicians from various parties to engage directly with the questions, demands, and ideas that emerge throughout the conference.
In a context shaped by election campaigns, coalition-building, and multiple crises, the panel discusses how participatory and globally just approaches to urban transformation can be translated into political programs, funding structures, and institutional change.
Politicians respond not only to moderation questions, but also to insights from the day — such as results from workshops, project presentations, and impulses from the Organization Slam.
The goal is to go beyond symbolic positioning and make concrete political accountability and implementation perspectives visible.