Join us for our Final Conference
16, 17 November 2026, Paris / 18 November 2026, Brussels
Co-producing Democratic Cities in Unequal Times
How can cities confront growing inequalities, democratic backsliding and environmental breakdown? What role can co-production play in rebuilding trust, supporting collective action and shaping more just urban futures?
The FAIRVILLE final conference will bring together researchers, activists, community organisations, practitioners and public institutions to reflect on the challenges that inequality poses to urban democracy, and on the role co-production can play in addressing them. Drawing on the project as a whole, including its urban labs in Athens, Berlin, Brussels, Cairo, Dakar, London and Marseille, the conference will open a broader conversation with external actors working on democracy, inequality and urban transformation.
The conference will explore how co-production can generate knowledge, relationships, political claims, forms of advocacy and, in some cases, institutional change. It will also address its tensions and limits, including unequal access to time, resources and legitimacy, and the conditions needed for co-production to support more durable forms of democratic practice.
DAY 1 – 16th Nov '26 – Paris (MSH Paris Nord)
Lessons from FAIRVILLE: Why co-production and how can co-production respond to democratic fragmentation and inequality?
Drawing on experiments conducted as part of the FAIRVILLE project, the first day of the conference will focus on the creation of urban inequalities through housing systems, differential exposure to environmental risks and unequal protection against the effects of climate change. It will also examine how these processes shape the democratic capacities of cities. During the morning session, academics and practitioners will discuss several FAIRVILLE case studies, exploring the dynamics of unequal urbanisation and their implications for urban governance, democratic participation and capacity for action.
The afternoon session will address the challenges of coproduction in a context of democratic fragmentation, exploring its potential and limitations. Particular attention will be paid to issues of epistemic justice and the tools and methods of coproduction, such as co-mapping, co-evaluation and counter-manuals, as well as the underlying power relations in the production of knowledge. These reflections will contextualise the methods tested within the FAIRVILLE framework alongside the broader theoretical questions that have shaped the project.
DAY 2 – 17th Nov '26 – Paris (Académie du Climat)
Co-production In Practice : Conditions, Tensions, and Implications
The second day focuses on how coproduction can be made effective and contribute to urban transformation, while engaging with the tensions, conflicts and controversies it generates. The day examines coproduction through various angles of trust building, collective awareness and agency building. It will question the conditions for real horizontality and progressive urban cooperation in situations of growing strain on public resources and real estate extractivism. Yet, we question the conditions under which coproduction can be supported, constrained or reconfigured through municipal or local government engagement, support from independent facilitators and policy frameworks
The morning focuses on building the conditions for a wide array of community-based coproduction through a plenary on the politics of environment and risk-focused coproduction, followed by parallel sessions on institutional coproduction and political tensions, intermediary actors in urban change, and the accommodation of conflict within coproduction processes. The afternoon turns to democratic support for community-based coproduction, examining the right to question, legal and routinised obstacles, enabling factors and long-term policy structures.
DAY 3 – 18th Nov '26 – Brussels (ULB Faculty of Architecture)
After FAIRVILLE: Legacies, alliances and co-production futures
The third and final conference day will focus on the ways in which the coproduction practices, knowledge and alliances developed within FAIRVILLE have circulated and consolidated daily urban and environmental governance beyond the project. The day begins with the opening of the project’s itinerant exhibition. Drawing on experiences from the FAIRVILLE Labs, the exhibition explores urban inequalities and coproduction as a situated practice, highlighting its tensions, possibilities, and the conditions needed for practices and alliances to endure and circulate beyond their local contexts.
Building on FAIRVILLE and related initiatives, the roundtable will bring together actors working across housing justice, public policy, municipal governance, research, advocacy, and civic organising. A particular focus will be placed on the European Affordable Housing Plan as an opportunity to link EU-level agendas with local and civic action. The session will consider how housing alliances, municipalities, foundations, grassroots organisations, and public institutions can work together to develop more democratic, equitable, inclusive and accountable approaches to affordable housing. The conversation will also explore the contribution of the renewed municipalist movement alongside emerging municipal practices, especially where local governments are experimenting with new participatory and co-produced pathways to respond to housing inequalities and strengthen civic capacity.
Tentative Programme
Download the full programme here.
Note: French to English and English to French translation will be available throughout the event.
Interpreters: Agnès Wilkanowski and Elodie Lardeur
DAY 1 – 16/11/2026 – MSH Paris Nord, Aubervilliers
Lessons from FAIRVILLE: Why coproduction and how can co-production respond to democratic fragmentation and inequality?
09:00 - 09:30 // Welcome
09:30 - 10:00 // Introduction
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Agnès Deboulet, Kheira Fekih, Loukia Batsi, Magatte Diouf, Romani Bedir
10:00 - 11:30 // Session 1: Locating Urban and Environmental Inequalities
Learnings from Fairville labs
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Panellists: Ahmed Zaazaa, Daniele Mezzana, Giorgos Velegrakis, Seema Manchanda
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Discussant: Tim Wickson
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Moderator: Alessio Koliulis
11:30 - 11:45 > Coffee Break
11:45 - 12:45 // Session 2: Democracy, governance and unequal cities
How do urban inequality and democratic challenges reshape institutional trust and governance?
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Panellists: Alessio Koliulis, Maresa Berliri, Momar Diongue
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Discussant: Jakub Galuszka
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Moderator: Claire Bénit
12:45 – 13:45 > Lunch
13:45 - 14:30 // Keynote
Dialogue in Coproduction
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Panellists: Beth Perry and Mona Fawaz
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Facilitator: Barbara Lipietz
14:30 - 15:30 // Session 3: Coproduction in Times of Democratic Backsliding
Why co-production? What kind of democratic openings?
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Panellists: Francesca Ferlicca, Hélène Froment, Richard Lee
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Discussant: Laura Saija
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Moderator: Lorenza Manfredi
15:30 - 15:45 > Coffee Break
15:45 - 17:15 // Session 4: Knowledge Coproduction in practice
What are the tools and methods for knowledge coproduction? What epistemological issues do they raise?
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Panellists: Joana Sisternas Tusell, Kawkab Tawfik, Loukia Batsi, Philippe Urvoy, Sylvain Adam
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Discussant: Sabrina Bresson
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Moderator: Anna Steigemann
17:15 - 18:30 // Session 5: Concluding discussion
Conditions for transformative coproduction in times of democratic backsliding
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Panellists: Eva Alvarez, Camila Cociña, Julien Talpin
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Discussant: Agnès Deboulet
18:30 - 20:00 > Apéro, dinner and book presentation
DAY 2 – 17/11/2026 – Académie du Climat, Paris
Co-production In Practice : Conditions, Tensions, and Implications
09:00 - 09:15 // Welcome
Room: Salle des Fêtes
09:10 - 09:30 // Introduction
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Agnès Deboulet & Seema Manchanda
09:30 - 11:00 // Opening Plenary
The politics of environment and risk-focused co-production
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Panellists: Artemis Koumparelou, Elisabetta Bucolo, Luisa Moretto, Nabeel El Hady
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Discussant: Laia Garcia Fernandez
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Moderator: Paloma Anger
11:00 - 11:15 > Coffee break
11:15 - 12:45 // 3 Parallel Sessions: Complexities, Tensions and Infrastructures of Coproduction
Session 2A: Institutional perspectives on coproduction
What engaged public officials think and do about co-producing the city in practice
Room: Salle des Fêtes
Panellists: Antigoni Gkoufa, Claire Bénit, Giuseppe Faldi, Mari-Paz Agundez
Discussant: Mathilde Joudam-Boutin
Session 2B: Intermediation and facilitation for urban change
Who are intermediary actors and facilitators and how do they enable, translate, support or constrain co-production and urban transformation?
Room: Salle des Mariages
Panellists: Ahmed Zaazaa, Eleni Mougiakou, Mariana Tournon, Ismaila Seye / Mokthar Seck
Discussant: Violante Torre
Session 2C: Conflicts and Disagreements for Meaningful Coproduction
Examining disagreement, friction and antagonism within coproduction processes
Room: Salle Tumo
Panellists: Dominique Nalpas, Enrico Schönberg, Paloma Anger, Saif Osmani
Discussant: Stéphane Tonnelat
12:45 - 13:45 > Lunch
13:45 - 15:30 // Session 3
Catalysing democratic deepening: nurturing transformative coproduction
Room: Salle des Fêtes
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Panellists: Astou Mbengue, François Piquemal (tbc), Laura Saija, Marco Cremaschi
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Discussant: Laura Guaita
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Moderator: Joana Sisternas Tusell
15:30 - 15:40 // Closing words
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Giorgos Velegrakis et Hélène Froment
DAY 3 – 18/11/2026 – ULB Faculty of Architecture, Brussels
What should remain? How do urban justice alliances, knowledge networks and coproduction practices endure and transform beyond the FAIRVILLE project?
09:00 - 10:30 // Itinerant breakfast with exhibition
Urban Inequality and Coproduction
Exhibition presentation and guided walking exploration
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Catalina Dobre, Giuseppe Faldi, Luisa Moretto
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Along with citizen participants from several FAIRVILLE Labs presenting their main ambitions and objectives. Brussels (Myriam Stoffen), London (Richard Lee & Agnieszka Rolkiewicz), Marseille Belle de Mai (Alima El Bajnouni & Patrick Lacoste), Dakar (Ismaila Seye et Astou Mbenge), Giza (Heba Yaseen & Paloma Anger), West Attica (Artemis Koumparelou)
10:30 - 12:30 // Session
After FAIRVILLE: Legacy, Alliances and Coproduction Futures
Roundtable discussion on Manifesto and other alliance-based co-production initiatives
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Panellists: Alima El Bajnouni, Goran Jeras, Guillaume Baron, Laia Segura Cueto, Léa Galloy, Matthew Baldwin
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Facilitator: Barbara Lipietz
12:30 - 13:00 // Closing words
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Agnès Deboulet & Judith Le Maire
13:00 - 14:30 > Lunch
Pre-Registration
By filling out this form, you are pre-registering for the final FAIRVILLE conference. Registered participants will receive a confirmation email at a later date.
Note: The conference will be held in English and French. Live translation will be provided.
Please register by 1st October 2026
Practical Info
Reaching the venue
Monday 16th November 2026
MSH Paris Nord - Universités Paris 8 & Sorbonne Paris Nord
20 Av. George Sand, 93210 Saint-Denis
https://maps.app.goo.gl/7oVV6BnV9z3AP7v77
By metro : Line 12 Station Front Populaire
Tuesday 17th November 2026
L'Académie du Climat
2 Pl. Baudoyer, 75004 Paris, France
maps.app.goo.gl/7aqgVYyCBkugyHdw8
By metro: Station - Hôtel de Ville (1 & 11) – Saint-Paul (1) – Pont Marie (7)
By bus: Station - Académie du Climat – Lines 96 – 76 – 69 & N° 11 – N° 16
Wednesday 18th November 2026
ULB Museum, Faculté d’architecture de l’ULB : La Cambre Horta
Pl. Eugène Flagey 19, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
maps.app.goo.gl/5HqKfaLBE5N6uZRt6
By bus: N° 71 - Station Flagey
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Hotel suggestions for your stay in Paris:
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Break & Home - Campus Condorcet - La Maison des Chercheurs
8h to 20h, 3 cour des humanités / 20h to 8h, 4 Rue des Fillettes, 93300 Aubervilliers
Hotel suggestions for your stay in Brussels:
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Hotel Louise Bruxelles
Av. Louise 212, 1050 Bruxelles, Belgique
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B&B Hotel Brussels Centre Louise
Rue Paul Spaak 15, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgique
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Hotel Ibis Styles Brussels Centre Stephanie
Chau. de Charleroi 66, 1060 Bruxelles, Belgique
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Appart'City Confort Bruxelles Centre gare du midi
Rue Rossini 38, 1070 Anderlecht, Belgique
Travelling Exhibition
A Living Journey Through Coproduction
Against the social, environmental and democratic inequalities that shape our cities, countless citizen-led initiatives are already taking action every day. Often overlooked, they develop practical solutions to improve living conditions, strengthen solidarity and build fairer communities. This exhibition invites visitors to discover the experiences emerging from the FAIRVILLE Labs in Brussels, Berlin, London, Marseille, West Attica, Dakar and Giza. Conceived as a living journey through co-production, it highlights how residents, community organisations, researchers, practitioners and institutions work together to understand contemporary urban challenges and respond to them collectively.
Through stories, maps, collaborative tools and collective outputs, the exhibition reveals often unseen practices that contribute to transforming places and communities. It sheds light on the processes of dialogue, experimentation and collective learning, as well as the negotiations and challenges, which emerge when different forms of knowledge, experience and action come together.
More than a presentation of results, the exhibition creates a space for reflection on what becomes possible when co-production is placed at the heart of urban transformation. How can different forms of knowledge and experience contribute to urban change? What are the possibilities and challenges of collective action? It is an invitation to make the invisible visible, to explore the learning generated through collective action, and to imagine cities that are fairer, more democratic and more inclusive.
Following its launch in Brussels, the exhibition will continue its journey in Berlin and Marseille in early 2027, fostering the exchange of experiences and collective learning across Fairville cities.
The exhibition is coordinated by the Louise Centre of the Université libre de Bruxelles, with the support of the CNRS and the Fairville project partners.
BRUSSELS
18 November to 11 December 2026
Monday to Friday, 10.00 am to 4.00 pm
Museum of the Faculty of Architecture La Cambre Horta Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Place Flagey 19 1050 Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium
Guided are tours available on request on Monday and Friday mornings at: fairville.exhibition2026@gmail.com
BERLIN
7 to 18 January 2027
Events and guided tours on 15, 16, 17 January 2026
Link to the programme (tbc)
Kiezraum, Mehringdamm 10963 Berlin, Germany
