Open Call for the Transformative Cities Award 2019

In giving the Transformative cities award, we aim to highlight political practices and solutions that can serve as inspiration for others. We aspire to create a new model of awards, one which is participatory, inspirational, and rooted in exchange and learning. We envisage a process of knowledge co-creation and practice exchange that leads to an atlas of political practices, whose inspiring stories speed up a process of systemic transformation towards a more democratic, equal, peaceful and resilient world.

This award does not seek to judge social movements, civil society organizations, citizens platforms or other groups. It is a platform where those acting to transform the world may systematize their successful practices, exchange with and learn from others, and receive increased exposure and outreach. After the first edition, we are engaged in an ongoing learning process, looking at how to systematize local political practices, so we can identify what is working, to help accelerate the process of transformation.

We do not have definite answers, and we expect to solve these questions collectively. We see cities broadly as the location for place-based struggles for basic rights. “Transformative” recognizes that these struggles have succeeded in articulating an inclusive vision for a social majority to transform their city or defined environment. These practices will have measurable results, since they have been implemented successfully, and they will be practices that can be replicated in other regions and places. The evaluation criteria include: equity and participation, capacity to inspire collective action, sustainability and efficiency, solidarity and public ethos, impact, transferability and replicability, accountability and transparency, fairness of labour conditions and the recognition of the domestic and care work.

Finally, the award will pay special attention to those experiences whose results are particularly hard to reverse. Think about a caterpillar that transforms into a butterfly, this change cannot be changed back, these are the kinds of transformations we aim to collect, and magnify.

This initiative is open to collectives, not individuals. A collective can have the form of a social movement with recognizable structures and goals without a formal legal recognition, a legally existing civil society organization, a citizens’ platform seeking to gain institutional power at municipal and/or city level via a political candidacy, an established city council, or other forms of collective action that centre their practices in a specific location that is not generally recognized as a region, state or similar delimitation.

The second edition of the award (2018-19) will look at the three issues included in first edition: Energy, Water and Housing plus an additional one, Food Systems. We expect to keep adding issues based on our capacity, and aim to organize at least three annual awards.

If you are not sure about your eligibility, please do contact us.

Did you apply last year and not get the Award? We encourage you to apply again, probably your initiative has grown stronger and you have more inspiration to share.

To apply please follow this questionnaire.

We look forward to receiving your inspiring stories of transformation. Another world is not only possible, it is already happening, and we hope to work with you to make it as strong and visible as possible.

For more information go to the Frequently Asked Questions page.