About a month ago we got the good news that Matera, seat of LOTE3 and the first-ever unMonastery, had made the shortlist as European City of Culture 2019. The jury panel has now published the motivations for its choice: each of the 21 Italian contenders’s judgement is summarized in a paragraph of text. The one describing Matera mentions Edgeryders-related activities three times in just 12 lines of text:
- when it mentions that the bid "was rooted in creating change through citizenship and participation. The active engagement of citizens in the bid preparation and the plans to sustain this during the ECOC [...]". The active engagement of citizens is mostly a function of the Matera2019 online community, dreamed up and executed by a group directed by myself and to which many Edgeryders participated in the runup to LOTE3.
- when it mentions the unMonastery and the Resilient Cities Challenge as initatives that address the European dimension of Matera's ECOC bid. Both initiatives were conceived and executed in Edgeryders, by edgeryders.
So, it seems that we do have some traction in driving ECOC bids. Should we try to get better at this, and maybe turn it into a “normal” Edgeryders activity (to the extent, of course, that anything about Edgeryders is normal)? Is your city interested in being European City of Culture? What does everyone think?