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Cittàslow or “Slow City”

Dernière mise à jour le 6 septembre 2019

Definition

The rallying cry is slowness, at a time when this idea is not particularly popular, drowned out by words like ‘efficiency,’ ‘profitability,’ and ‘growth.’ This movement offers a new approach to city life: rather than facilitating speed and purely utilitarian (and often commercial) exchanges, it gives inhabitants the chance to take the time to enjoy where they live, to create new spaces that are conducive to human relations, reflection, and all kind of thoughts and activities that cannot be achieved quickly, urgently, and under stressful conditions.

History

The precursor of the idea of the “slow city” is said to be Ivan Illich, who, in 1973, wrote in his book Energy and Equity:

“People on their feet are more or less equal. People solely dependent on their feet move on the spur of the moment, at three to four miles per hour, in any direction and to any place from which they are not legally or physically barred. (…) From the moment its machines could put more than a certain horsepower behind any one passenger, this industry has reduced equality among men, restricted their mobility to a system of industrially defined routes, and created time scarcity of unprecedented severity. As the speed of their vehicles crosses a threshold, citizens become transportation consumers on the daily loop that brings them back to their home…” See Energy and Equity.

Years later, in 1999, the term “slow city” entered ordinary language in Italian as “cittàslow.” The term was coined by Carlo Petrini, in the wake of the “slow food” movement launched in 1986 following the opening of a new MacDonald’s restaurant in Rome’s Piazza di Spagna. French video on Carlo Petrini.

The Concept

“The rallying cry is slowness, at a time when this idea is not particularly popular, drowned out by words like ‘efficiency,’ ‘profitability,’ and ‘growth.’ This movement offers a new approach to city life: rather than facilitating speed and purely utilitarian (and often commercial) exchanges, it gives inhabitants the chance to take the time to enjoy where they live, to create new spaces that are conducive to human relations, reflection, and all kind of thoughts and activities that cannot be achieved quickly, urgently, and under stressful conditions. The ‘slow’ movement, which was first interested in food, has expanded to city life, as well as travel, education, culture, and even sex!”

What is a “slow city”?

The Cittàslow manifesto consists of seventy recommendations and requirements. Here are the most important:

  • Emphasize a city’s historic heritage by preventing new construction
  • Reduce energy consumption
  • Promote environmental technologies
  • Increase green and leisure spaces
  • Urban cleanliness
  • Give priority to public transit and other non-polluting forms of transportation
  • Reduce was and develop recycling programs
  • Increase the number of pedestrian zones
  • Develop local business
  • Develop collective infrastructures and infrastructure that is adapted to the disable and to people of different age groups
  • Promote genuine participatory democracy
  • Preserve and foster local customs and regional products
  • Ban GMOs.

The author of the DPH document also analyzes the concept of slow city from the perspective of the right to the city and the concept of “degrowth” as applied to the urban setting. She concludes that these successful experiments are the result of the practical application of the right to the city.

Source: DPH document by Charlotte Mathivet of the HIC network.

A Global Slow City Network

Since its creation in 1999, the concept has progressed in many cities, which now adhere to the “slow city” movement. To become members, they must meet a number of criteria and commit themselves to adhering to the Cittàslow’s statutes and charter. The designation “slow city” is an indicator of quality for small towns. This is why only cities of less than 50,000 inhabitants can join the network and commit themselves to improving the quality of life of their residents. In 2012, a hundred cities in ten different countries sought this “label” of quality.

The network: WebsiteContact them.

Statutes and charter: Download here.

File translated by Michael C. Behrent – Assistant Professor – Department of History – Appalachian State University – Boone, NC  28608