Walking the Talk: Another City is Possible (Publication)

How can we scale our collective ability to shape better places for us all to live, work and exist in harmony with each other and nature?

In a joint publication with the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt’s RISE Cities program we invited four sets of guest authors involved in this year’s Creative Bureaucracy Festival to share their perspectives on how to advance responsible leadership to make cities more resilient (R), intelligent (I), sustainable (S) and equitable (E), with a particular lens of creative bureaucracy.

Find out more about the guest contributors and download the publication "Walking the Talk: Another City is Possible. Working Together to Build Better Cities and Bureaucracies" below:

1. Making the most of shocks and stresses, together

In this piece focused on resilient cities, Chloé Pahud, Roland Greifeld and Marine Lesaint from Germany/France-based social enterprise Civocracy explore how cities can grow their capacity to effectively deal with shocks and stresses, especially by leveraging the power of cross-sector alliances.

2. AI’s untapped potential for local government

In this piece focused on intelligent cities, two researchers from Estonia’s Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance at Tallinn University of Technology, Colin van Noordt and Eden Sicat, share how AI can be applied within public services to create public value at a local government level.

3. Adapting to climate change in the Global South: The Freetown approach

In this piece focused on sustainable cities, two creative bureaucrats from the City of Freetown in Sierra Leone – senior advisor to the mayor Eric Hubbard and Chief Heat Officer Eugenia Kargbo – share the bold and highly effective steps being taken to advance climate adaptation work and empower vulnerable communities.

4. From nobody to somebody: Four engagement practices for equitable cities

In this piece focused on equitable cities, inaugural Bloomberg Public Innovation Fellow Tommi Laitio shares a reflection on engagement practices that truly shift power dynamics. This draws on his years as an executive director in the City of Helsinki and fieldwork across wider Europe and the Americas.