Urban areas are strategic spaces for the promotion of sustainable development
and socio-spatial cohesion in Europe. Around 75 per cent of
the European population lives in urban areas, generating about 80 per
cent of the European GDP. However, urban areas also face the challenges
of poverty and social exclusion in some neighbourhoods, as well
as socio-spatial segregation processes or environmental problems. Due to
this relevance and these challenges, since the 1990s, the European Union
has been shaping a policy area through different initiatives to promote
development and social cohesion in cities.
Nowadays, EU urban initiatives-also termed the urban dimension of
the Cohesion Policy-include different initiatives supporting local plans
to promote sustainable urban development, initiatives seeking innovative
solutions to urban problems, or the sharing and increasing of capabilities
among national and local policymakers and practitioners through different
collaborative networks across Europe. However, since the URBAN Initiative
in the 1990s, the most traditional and relevant initiatives have been
the 'urban integrated strategies'. These are plans designed and implemented
at the local scale, and applying the integrated strategy in public
policies aimed to fulfil the goals proposed by the EU through its cohesion
policy at the local scale across Europe. Analyses of the legal framework
and documentation for these initiatives at the EU and member state
level, as well as in-depth case studies, have provided analytical ideas and information about this growing dimension of the European cohesion
policy.
The New Urban Agenda (United Nations) and the Urban Agenda for
the European Union indicate new urban policies based on the integrated
strategy require evidence-policy analyses to ensure better policy design,
implementation and the accomplishment of objectives. The current book
aims to offer some policy evidence, analytical ideas and research strategies
aligned with this goal. We do so by analysing the actual nature of
integrated urban strategies promoted by the EU and their added value
in terms of improvements in their policy design, implementation and
effects at the local level. Have these strategies applied the integrated
strategy proposed by the EU? Are there changes pointing to the existence
of improvements and learning effects about the integrated strategy
across time? Have these strategies improved the living conditions among
residents in targeted urban territories.
