Research Project: Cooperation between local authorities and the private sector within the urban development programme "Soziale Stadt" (Socially Integrative City)

Project briefing

• Status Completed
• Project duration February 2016 – November 2017
• Programme Urban development grants

Cross-sectoral collaboration is becoming increasingly important for social neighbourhood development and is helping to overcome spatially concentrated and diverse problems. The leaders of the project put existing programmes and initiatives to the test with the help of municipalities and the stakeholders of social neighbourhood development. They furthermore developed strategies towards locally creating new connections between municipalities, companies and foundations. The focus lay principally on the development areas within the "Soziale Stadt" programme. As part of the accompanying research, the BBSR looked at the basic conditions and factors for success, tested possibilities of transferability, considered the role of the municipality as an "enabler" of such cooperation and drew up recommendations for action.

Project duration: February 2016 – November 2017

Background

Corporate social responsibility is taking on an increasingly important role in debates on the future of civil society. A growing number of companies is actively accepting and voluntarily committing themselves to this role and, as such, contributing to social cohesion. Discussions on the obligations of companies in terms of sustainable development and the corporate social responsibility that comes with it, reinforce this trend. In this context, the activities of foundations are also considered the expression of a vibrant civil society.

Increasingly more companies are specifically integrating social responsibility into their business strategies and are working at solving societal challenges together with non-profit partners. Likewise, more and more foundations are teaming up with public or independent non-profit partners rather than acting as mere funding institutions. Cooperation between companies, public authorities and non-profit organisations is often characterised by coincidence, and is rarely systematically planned and implemented. However, if it is to succeed, cross-sectoral collaboration needs careful preparation and support. With this in mind, in recent years, many intermediaries (often volunteer agencies, community foundations and municipal departments) have been established, placing business enterprises and local authorities or non-profit institutions in contact. They bring their own set of skills in terms of cooperation and provide access to new areas of social commitment. These intermediaries build bridges between different organisational and decision-making structures and operational rationales. Through their intermediary function they contribute to a transparent and cooperative climate of coexistence.

Furthermore, the commitment of enterprises and foundations has also attracted attention in recent years through policies of urban development. Particularly in regard to disadvantaged neighbourhoods with multiple social, economic and urban development problems, stakeholders of urban development are asking what enterprises and foundations can contribute to social neighbourhood development, and how they can win these private actors as partners. The Experimental Housing and Urban Development (ExWoSt) field of research "Enterprises and foundations for the social neighbourhood development" (2012–2015) conducted eight model projects whereby they attempted, for the first time, to involve companies and foundations in tasks of neighbourhood development. The experiences and results of the model projects and the findings of the accompanying research can be found in a comprehensive research report (BBSR-Online-Publikation 13/2015) and in the study guide "Benachteiligte Quartiere gemeinsam unterstützen" ["Supporting disadvantaged neighbourhoods together"] (BMUB, Berlin 2015).

Objective

The research project "Cooperation between local authorities and the private sector within the Soziale Stadt programme" made use of the recommendations of the ExWoSt research field and launched further studies. UPJ was tasked with working together with nine selected municipalities to find out which strategies are best for promoting cooperation between companies and foundations and increasing the involvement of these private actors in social neighbourhood development. The focus was on the development areas of the socially integrative city programme, "Soziale Stadt". Local authorities were requested to develop practical activities and strategies for combining and interlinking public action and private commitment in social neighbourhood development. The objective of this cooperation was not the withdrawal of the public sector, but the joint assumption of responsibility in order to stabilise disadvantaged neighbourhoods. On a long-term basis, these activities are to contribute to an understanding of urban district development as a joint responsibility.

Contractor was UPJ e.V., Berlin.