Globally competing city regions are shaping the daily life of an increasing share of the world’s population. At the same time, doubts in representative government have fuelled calls for more radical forms of democratic involvement. Enthusiasts of participatory democracy often refer to Switzerland with its strong local self-rule by means of direct legislation. Concurrently, governments in Canada and elsewhere are experimenting with deliberative citizen assemblies, new forms of community planning and the use of new social media. By bringing together leading scholars and practitioners of democracy and urban planning we set out to envision the democratic potentials of the urban space. We look at Zurich in Switzerland, and Vancouver, B.C., and ask: How well have democratic institutions tapped civic resources and diversity at the urban scale? And what exactly are the merits of democratizing the urban space? Does more democracy actually lead to better governance, eventually even to ‘smarter cities’?

STRONG DEMOCRACIES

SMART CITIES Swiss & Canadian Experiences

?April 30, 2013 The Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue AP Hall, Room 100, 580 West Hastings

2:00 - 2:15 p.m. — Opening Keynote: Prof. Margaret Kohn

2:15 - 3:15 p.m. — PANEL 1: MORE DEMOCRACY, BETTER GOVERNANCE?Both Zurich and Vancouver are successfully competing global cities, and both city regions have faced strong development pressures in the last decades. Even though the institutional context in both cities varies considerably, both cities have found cooperative ways to deal with developers and resistance by citizens. Moreover, both cities entertain cooperative arrangements with their surrounding municipalities. But do these practices and proceedings actually protect and empower all affected population groups equally? Have urban leaders and officials really become more accountable and more effective in promoting quality of life, social justice and sustainable economic development at the municipal and metropolitan scale?SPEAKERS: Katrina Chapelas, Dr. Ann McAfee, Prof. John Friedmann, Dr. Oliver Dlabac, Dr. Walter Schenkel.

3:15 - 3:45 p.m. — Audience discussion - Moderator: Prof. Mark Warren3:45 - 4:00 p.m. — Break

4:00 - 5:00 p.m — PANEL 2: MORE DEMOCRACY, SMARTER CITIES?Vancouver has recently been ranked as the fourth ‘smartest city’ in North America. Similarly to Zurich it disposes of a high quality of life, an engaged environmental policy, and important segments of high-tech and creative industries. While Vancouver lags behind with its public transportation system, both cities struggle with the lack of affordable housing. ‘Smart governance’ further entails the inclusive participation of citizens, yet it is often understood more narrowly in terms of efficient management, open data and e-governance. In fact, the the smart city agenda has also been criticized for being driven by business interests instead of citizen demands. We want to know: are democracy and the ‘smart city’ two mutually supporting concepts, or is there a tension between the two, with smart cities possibly neglecting the need of public involvement and questions of social justice?SPEAKERS: Marie-Gabrielle Ineichen-Fleisch, Andrea Reimer, Elizabeth Schwartz, Nico Lauer, Prof. Penny Gurstein, Dr. Walter Schenkel.

5:00–5:30 p.m — Audience discussion - Moderator: Prof. Max Cameron5:30–5:45 p.m — Break 5:45–6:15 p.m — PRE-RECEPTION DEBATE: Dr. Walter Schenkel and Dr. Ann McAfee6:15–7:00 p.m — Discussion with all contributors and public, moderated by Prof. Max Cameron and Prof. Mark Warren7:00–8:00 p.m — Reception

PROGRAM

Prof. Margaret Kohn teaches political theory at the University of Toronto. She received her PhD from Cornell University in 2000. Her primary research interests are in the areas of colonialism, democratic theory, critical theory, and urbanism. She is author of Radical Space: Building the House of the People (Cornell University Press 2003) and Brave New Neighborhoods: The Privatization of Public Space (Routledge 2004). Her

articles have appeared in such journals as Political Theory, Polity, Dissent, Constellations, and the Journal of Politics. Recent work includes an analysis of the Occupy movement in the context of a privatized public space (“Privatization and Protest”, Perspectives on Politics, forthcoming), and a discussion of gentrification and the transformation of public and social space in Toronto.

Katrina Chapelas is a PhD candidate in political science at the University of British Columbia. Her research interests include the history of political thought, contemporary political and social theory, and urbanism. Her doctoral research focuses on the exploration of subjectivity and identity through the study of urban demographic change and asks how identity is mobilized as a political tool in instances of urban collective action in Vancouver. Katrina holds a BA from the University of British Columbia, and an MA from the University of Victoria, both in political science.

Dr. Ann McAfee, FCIP, graduated from UBC in 1975 with an Interdisciplinary Doctorate in Planning and Urban Land Economics. From 1974 to 2006, she worked for the Citty of Vancouver, the last 12 years as Co-Director of Planning. She was responsible for guiding the extensive public process leading to adoption of "CityPlan" – Vancouver’s first venture onto broad participatory democracy.

Ann was responsible for area plans, industry and business improvement programs, and City input to regional planning. She co-managed, with Engineering and Finance, transportation, financing growth, and sustainability plans. All initiatives engaged the public in plan making. Following retirement from Vancouver, Ann established City Choices Consulting a firm specializing in strategic planning and public processes. Since “retiring” Dr. McAfee has advised cities in North America, Australia, China, Philippines, Japan, Sweden, Ukraine, and Ethiopia on planning with people. She is currently assisting Auckland City develop their first Unitary Plan. Ann is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Planners and, in 2007, was co-recipient of the Kevin Lynch award for distinguished planning practice from M.I.T. In mid 2006, Dr. McAfee established City Choices Consulting, a firm specializing in advice on strategic planning and public processes.

Dr. Oliver Dlabac has received his PhD in Political Science at the University of Bern with his thesis on liberal and radical democracy at the subnational level of the Swiss cantons. In his work he assessed liberal and radical qualities of democracy as well as the corresponding levels of political performance and public support. He has published in ZParl and ZfVP. As a visiting Postdoctoral Fellow at

the University of British Columbia he is now engaged in developing a measurement instrument for democratic urban governance in growing cities such as Vancouver and Zurich. His research interests cover democratic theories, subnational democratic transformations, attitudes of citizens and political elites, subnational development policies and matters of social justice in advanced industrial democracies.

Prof. John Friedmann is an Honorary Professor in the School of Community and Regional Planning at UBC, and Professor Emeritus in the School of Public Policy and Social Research at UCLA. He was founding professor of the Program for Urban Planning in the Graduate School of Architecture and Planning at UCLA, and served as its head for a total of 14 years between 1969 and 1996. His 1987 book, “Planning in the Public Domain: From Knowledge to Action” is widely used as a text in planning schools throughout the world. His achievements have been internationally recognized. In 2006, he was the first recipient of the UN-Habitat Lecture Award “for his outstanding and sustained contribution to research, thinking and practice in the field of Human Settlements.” And in 2008, he was appointed Honorary Advisor to the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design.

Dr. Walter Schenkel is a political scientist based in Switzerland, specialized in political processes and structures in different policy fields, and metropolitan and regional politics. Since 2001 he is partner of synergo, a small but nationally and internationally well connected consulting company with a focus on transportation, politics and space, energy, environment, and city and regional development. At present he coaches diverse cantonal and communal planning processes in transportation and spatial planning with regard to public involvement and communication. He is currently involved in an EU research project investigating the political and institutional success factors for social cohesion, social mobility and economic development in socially diverse metropolitan regions. He is also secretary of the Zurich Metropolitan Conference, a new form of multi-level governance in Swiss federalism.

H. Nico Lauer is the Director of Cleantech Markets for North America with the Swiss Trade & Investment Promotion at the Consulate of Switzerland in Cambridge, Mass. His over 25 years of professional experience in international environmental technology markets includes various executive positions with SME. As an entrepreneur Mr. Lauer has dealt with many of the challenges of

the cleantech sector on a first-hand basis. His work experience in cleantech markets includes the Far East, Middle East and North Africa, Europe and North and South America. He has served on various advisory boards. His publications on cleantech markets include a handbook on the successful export of environmental technologies. Mr. Lauer has a Juris Doctor degree and a M.S. in Environmental Management.

SPEAKERS

DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

Conference co-organized and sponsored by the Consulate General of Switzerland in Vancouver and the Institute for

European Studies (IES), the Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions (CSDI) and the Department of Political

Science at the University of British Columbia.

Mark Warren teaches political theory at the University of British Columbia, where he holds the Harold and Dorrie Merilees Chair for the Study of Democracy. He is especially interested in democratic innovations, civil society and democratic governance, and political corruption. Warren is author of Democracy and Association (Princeton

University Press, 2001), which won the Elaine and David Spitz Book Prize awarded by the Conference for the Study of Political Thought, as well as the 2003 Outstanding Book Award from the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action. He is editor of Democracy and Trust (Cambridge University Press 1999), and co-editor of Designing Deliberative Democracy: The British Columbia Citizens’ Assembly (Cambridge University Press 2008). Warren’s work has appeared in journals such as the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, and Political Theory. He is currently working with an international team on a project entitled Participedia (www.participedia.net), which uses a web-based platform to collect data about democratic innovation and participatory governance around the world. Participedia will enable data-driven comparative research into this rapidly developing area of governance, as well as serve as a resource for governments, democracy practitioners and advocates.

Marie-Gabrielle Ineichen-Fleischis the Director of the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs and head of the Foreign Economic Affairs Directorate. From 2007 to 2011 she was Ambassador and Delegate of the Federal Council for Trade Agreements, Switzerland’s chief negotiator at the World Trade Organization (WTO) as well as member of the SECO Board of Directors. In addition,

as head of the World Trade Division she was responsible for OECD matters and free trade agreements. Previous assignments include head of the WTO section (1999-2007) and head of the WTO section of the Federal Office of Foreign Economic Affairs FOFEA (1995-1999). From 1992-1993 she worked at the World Bank (Washington D.C., USA) as assistant to Switzerland’s Executive Director. Mrs. Ineichen-Fleisch is an attorney and holds an MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France.

Elizabeth Schwartz is a PhD candidate in the Political Science Department at UBC. Her dissertation investigates the factors that influence the adoption of climate change mitigation and adaptation policy at the local level in Canada. Elizabeth holds a Bachelor of Public Affairs and Policy Management from Carleton University and a Masters of Arts in Political Science from the University of Toronto. Her research interests include environmental policy, local government, and federalism.

Maxwell A. Cameron is a Professor in the Department of Political Science, and Director of the Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions (CSDI) at UBC. He specializes in comparative politics (Latin America) and international political economy. He recently completed a Ford Foundation supported project on participation and representation in Latin America. At the CSDI, Cameron is working on democratic reform and citizen engagement. In 2011 he convened a public conversation at UBC on “Why don’t (more) good people enter politics?” As a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies (2011-12) he organized a colloquium series Aristotle’s idea of “practical wisdom” and its relevance in politics today. He is the author or editor of ten books including, most recently, Strong Constitutions: Social-Cognitive Origins of the Separation of Powers (forthcoming with Oxford University Press in June 2013).

Andrea Reimer was elected to Vancouver City Council in 2008 with Mayor Gregor Robertson’s Vision Vancouver majority. She has a number of civic appointments including serving as the Chair of the Standing Committee on Planning, Transportation and Environment and leading the Mayor’s Greenest City initiative, which has undertaken over 90 new green projects ranging from new curbside compost to separated bike lanes, a new transit funding formula, and the greenest building standards in the country. The cornerstone of this work is engaging over 35,000 residents – including over 100 partners in business, academia and the community – to develop a comprehensive 10-year action plan in 10 environmental policy areas. Ms. Reimer also works with the Mayor’s office on Open Government, Citizen Engagement, Children and Youth and Women’s Issues and serves as a Director of Metro Vancouver, the regional governance body, where she sits on the Regional Planning, Aboriginal Relations and Zero Waste committees.Reimer was elected in 2002 as a School Board member with the Green Party and for City Council in 2008. She was appointed as the Chair of the City’s Planning and Environment Committee and Council lead on the award-winning Greenest City Action Plan, overseeing Vancouver’s efforts to become a global leader in environmental action. Andrea brought in a world-leading Open Data program to the City of Vancouver. This work also extends to establishing new advisory committees for women, urban aboriginal peoples and LGBTQ community, four new community planning processes and better use of social media & technology for engagement.

Prof. Penny Gurstein focuses on the sociocultural aspects of community planning. In particular, her research seeks to understand how to create equitable and resilient communities. Her areas of specialization include: Social Develop-ment and Health with a particular emphasis on Affordable Housing, Community-Based Research and Participatory Processes, Planning for Equity

and Community Resilience, Technology, Work and Society, and Multimedia tools and processes for Planning. She has been the Director of the School of Community and Regional Planning and Centre for Human Settlements at UBC since 2007 and a full Professor since 2006.