Atzealdea “Building a neighbourhood”. Re-design of the Anti-rumours Strategy based on participation

Purpose: Revitalisation of the city's neighbourhoods with the largest foreign population, as a first step towards the reactivation of Zaragoza's Anti-Rumour Strategy.

Stimulus/Rationale: This action is part of the European project DiverCities (European Cities for Diversity and Participation) promoted by a transnational collaboration of municipalities and civil society organisations that have worked to create the ideal conditions for the formulation of local intercultural policies. The action has directly involved 4 EU countries and 8 cities. Of these cities, three are part of the Intercultural Cities Network (RECI): Castelló de la Plana, Logroño and Zaragoza. In addition, the project is completed by ICEI (Italy), Diversit-ACI (Spain) and RPCI (Portugal).

The project aimed, on the one hand, to strengthen the competences and methodologies in the implementation of effective bottom-up democratic processes, in cooperation with local stakeholders. On the other hand, it aimed to increase citizens’ contribution in the decision-making and awareness raising in the field of interculturalism and diversity promotion. To this end, the cities organised Intercultural Assemblies. In the case of Zaragoza, these Assemblies focused on prejudices and stereotypes among citizens towards migrants and/or people belonging to other cultures. These assemblies were attended by staff from different municipal areas as well as professionals from social entities, third sectors associations, media, volunteers, etc.

Strategically, Zaragoza decided to reactivate the Anti-rumours Strategy, which had been on pause since 2019 and had lost strength and commitment since the pandemic, making use of this methodology and framework offered by the project.

Process: First of all, a core group was created, made up of three municipal workers from the Casa de las Culturas and also employees of the three social organisations in charge of carrying out the moderation in the assemblies. It was decided from the outset to act in the neighbourhoods with the highest percentage of foreign population in the city: Delicias, Las Fuentes and Casco Histórico. In each of these neighbourhoods, the assemblies were energised by the social organisation working in these neighbourhoods, who were familiar with the territory and the social dynamics of each district.

Three assemblies were held in February and another three in March (two per neighbourhood), with different methodologies in each case. The three February assemblies focused on making professionals from public institutions, social entities and community leaders more dynamic in confronting the narratives that hinder coexistence in their own neighbourhoods related to stereotypes, prejudices and rumours. It was attended by people from neighbourhood associations, shopkeepers, social entities, institutes and schools, Government of Aragon, health centres, trade unions, etc.

Agenda:

  1. Presentation of the project ‘Construyendo barrio’ (Zaragoza City Council). An overview was given of the evolution of the Anti-rumours Strategy of the city of Zaragoza and the objective of revitalising it in a participatory way was put forward.
  2. Training workshop on tools for intercultural coexistence, specifically addressing stereotypes, prejudices, rumours and hate crimes.
  3. Intervention of a representative entity of the neighbourhood

The three assemblies in March were oriented towards the general population of the three neighbourhoods worked on, carrying out an emotional mapping of points of conflict and meeting points in the neighbourhood as a first step in the reactivation of the Anti-rumours Strategy. The focus was on a participatory and collaborative approach. In this case, the aim was to have a base from which to reactivate the Anti-rumours Strategy, knowing the reality of each territory. It was the participants of the first assemblies who mobilised individuals who wanted to actively collaborate in the Strategy.

Finally, the final Assembly was convened and held during the ‘Week against Racial Discrimination’ held at the Casa de las Culturas to give feedback to the citizens. In this assembly, the social entities of each neighbourhood presented the final conclusions and what to expect in the future for each of the territories and how it could be connected with the future Strategy, in order to create, for example, a network of anti-rumour agents.

Impact: A high level of participation was achieved, reaching more than 200 people in the seven assemblies held. The mobilisation of the social fabric and community leaders in the neighbourhoods has been stimulated, with a view to building the new Anti-Rumour Strategy over the coming months following these assemblies for reflection and proposals. With the actions carried out, we feel that the commitment at the municipal level has been reinforced given that the success of these meetings has been demonstrated and the results have been very satisfactory and enriching, which serves as a basis for the development of the new strategy, once the target population has been mobilised.

Regarding the transversality of the actions, different municipal departments were invited to the assemblies to get involved and to make intercultural coexistence a strategic factor at city level. Employees from the education department, community social services and specialised social services attended, who were able to take advantage of the training on tools for intercultural coexistence and apply them to their work with citizens.

In addition to what has been achieved in the assemblies themselves with the mobilisation that has taken place at neighbourhood level, a great response is expected at city level after the last feedback assembly as part of the Week against racial discrimination. Work is currently underway to continue the actions in the coming months.

Key reference documents:

 

2023-2024
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