Excerpt – 11 Brief Essays for Resilient and Sustainable Cities | The “neocitizens”

A new generation of elected municipal officials is sharing their thoughts on issues such as transport, the protection of natural environments and the densification of agglomerations.

More and more, our cities are inhabited by citizens who are mobilized, aware and more informed than ever. Despite certain issues related to disinformation, Internet access has enabled those who wish to know more about the subjects that particularly affect them. To this end, citizens can now take a more critical look at the decisions of their elected officials. These new citizens often inhabit their territory with dreams in mind and a desire to contribute to public choices.

Several factors generate migratory movements, which occur at different times in life, for example during studies, at the age of founding a family, when looking for a new professional challenge or at the time of retirement. Some decide to come back to their region of origin while others go on an adventure with different objectives: get closer to nature, live an urban or rural experience, telework, have more leisure time or even more. find themselves in a community on a human scale, where they will feel that they have an impact and a capacity to act.

Thus, these citizens also generally expect more harmonious, greener, more democratic, even avant-garde and innovative development in the ways of planning the territory and the possibilities for developing it.

Project 1606 is an eloquent example.¹ : Pierre-Philippe Côté, seduced by the small municipality of Saint-Adrien, in the Eastern Townships, decided to move in and found a real estate management company “with impact” with a social and cultural awareness. He not only purchased the church of Saint-Adrien with a view to converting it into a place of multidisciplinary co-creation, but his project also aims to help new businesses and creators in the area achieve their ambitions. And examples like his, there are others all over Quebec.

The neo-citizen wants to be proud of his living environment, of his elected officials, of his city. Whether he is looking for abundant nature, markets and restaurants offering local products, a diverse cultural life, better access to property, an environment conducive to active transportation, the dream of an organic farm, an open and inclusive community or stimulating job opportunities, the neo-citizen chooses the place where he lives according to his values, his hobbies and his desires. He wants to live an experience, he wants to be seduced, and sometimes he will become so attached to his host environment that he will then want to be part of its development.

Also, people are more and more connected to the world, with virtual communities that share common values. The Cities in Transition movement, which connects engaged citizens in cities across the globe, is a good example. Born in Europe, it connects sensitized and mobilized people who wish to encourage their elected officials to act in relation to environmental issues. These movements want changes and ask municipalities to take their responsibilities. As the municipal level is close to the people, the relationship with the population is unique. Much more than in the case of other political levels, the latter has the impression of being able to act at the municipal level, and that is also what it is asking for.

Thus, the engaged citizen represents a new power of influence. He can quickly mobilize a community using social networks, to help it on certain issues and also teach it to reverse a decision that does not find social acceptability. If we can make links with innovation trends in marketing, citizens compare themselves to neoconsumers (they want to consume less in order to consume better, create a relationship with the company that they choose for their values, in return influence by their consumption choice).

Just like the private company which responds to these new trends by listening to its customer and creating a relationship with him to improve its product (and its image), the city of tomorrow will benefit from creating a more closer to the citizen.

The shared passion of certain residents for their city, access to knowledge as well as the possibility of comparing the municipal measures put in place with what is done elsewhere in the world is increasingly translated into collective skills. These new capacities reinforce the legitimacy of the requests of these new citizens. We will have to learn to take them into consideration.

These people, more aware, more informed and mobilized for a more democratic development, are now numerous. We have every interest in integrating them into our decision-making processes. If certain municipalities do not adapt or, worse, if they perceive them as pressure groups to be muzzled, then they risk alienating part of the population. All of this risks causing loss of efficiency, financial loss and pointless confrontation. These citizens are working to improve their living environment and are asking for more sensitivity towards them. How can we collaborate with them, in synergy, to develop the city of tomorrow differently and thus better define our vision?

Virginie Proulx, municipal councilor of Bic in Rimouski

¹ Learn about Project 1606

11 brief essays for resilient and sustainable cities – Reflections from the next generation of municipalities

Collective – preface by Jonathan Durand Folco, postscript by Catherine Fournier

Overall, October 2021

192 pages