Public spaces in post-communist countries have gone through many changes. Decades of forced limitation or even deprivation of private property ownership have resulted in a very individualistic approach, which is characterized by perceiving public spaces as transitional places between work and leisure. Nobody claims ownership of public spaces, neither municipalities nor inhabitants, and therefore they suffer from long-term neglect. Yet, all of these places have a great potential to become inclusive places where people representing various socio-economic groups like to spend their time and socialize.

This publication aims to demonstrate the above through a series of case studies on activism in public spaces in Albania, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. It brings best practice examples of how any neglected public space could be transformed into an attractive and vibrant place reflecting the needs and preferences of inhabitants and potential visitors. The case studies aim to identify decisive factors, which have led to success of initiatives transforming public spaces and providing others interested in reviving public spaces with valid recommendations helping them to repeat the success. They also demonstrate how to encourage citizens to have an interest in public affairs and volunteer for common good, and how to create meaningful cooperation between civil society organizations and municipalities.

This publication is a part of the project City for citizens, citizens for city supported by the Europe for citizens programme. The project endeavored to encourage civic engagement in general, but also with a particular focus on the formation of public spaces. Through a series of participatory events and discussions it has demonstrated that it is possible to create meaningful relations between citizens, civil society organizations, and municipalities, and together contribute to the improvement of the quality and use of public spaces. Some of the urban interventions in Prague, Prievidza, and Tirana mentioned in this publication represent project outcomes and practical examples proving the power of volunteerism, and potential of public spaces, which if well used could transform our cities to vibrant, but safe and enjoyable places to live.

The conference organized in KC Dunaj Bratislava from March 24 to March 27 discussed volunteerism, cities, online and offline activism that improves them, and meaningful cooperation between municipalities, private and non-profit sector, and public. It posed different important questions such as How are our cities? What do we know about them? Who identifies himself/herself with public space – municipality, public or is it a no man's land? Who should be involved in decision-making concerning public space? What is the role of an individual and what can s/he change? What data do we have about the cities? How do we work with these data? International and Slovak guests tried to respond these and many other questions.

The conference lasted four days and had very diverse program. First day was mainly dedicated to the project and its outputs. All project partners attended the event and presented their project outcomes. Second day was dedicated to the topic of volunteerism. Some Slovak initiatives were presented, and discussion with the municipalities followed. Local and foreign online tools for improving the cities were presented on the third day. The forth day was dedicated to local Slovak initiative that improves public spaces. Besides presentations there were practical workshops led by experienced trainers. The workshops discussed work with volunteers, communication and creating good and solid arguments for your cause, participatory planning and two legal workshops advised on the topics of illegal buildings and parking.

On the 23rd of October 2013 the City District of Prague 2 together with the Prague Mothers organized a meeting of representatives of the Prague public administration and citizens who discussed results and efficiency of the portal Pedestrians United (PU) operated by the Prague Mothers. Each and every citizen or visitor of Prague can address their representatives through the Portal and propose changes for public space to become safer, more accessible, interconnected and attractive for pedestrians.

The meeting was launched by the Mayor of the City District Prague 2 Jana Černochová that has successfully cooperated with Prague Mothers to calm the traffic near schools (as a part of the Safe Routes to School Program) ."That is why the Portal Pedestrians United can be seen as a further contribution to improving the quality of life in our neighborhood and  consequently also of life in Prague 2 ", said Černochová.

The purpose of the meeting in the City Hall of Prague 2 was to present results of one and half year service of the Portal and look for an agreement on improving communication between public administration on one side and website administration and citizens on the other side to make cooperation between them through the Portal as effective as possible. Presentations of the Portal users, public administration representatives and discussion revealed that the biggest problem are unclear competencies and a tangle of relations between City Districts on one side and the City resp. TSK (Technical Administration of Communications) on the other. The City Districts are mostly upset that complaints of citizens are often sent to them according to their localization and not according to the  liability to solve them and finance the improvements. City of Prague is an owner of more than 90% of communications, but all the complaints are sent to City Districts that cannot be either solved or financed by them. They argue that they are just the mailmen and the complaints are largely forwarded to someone else to deal with it, which gives an unjustified impression in public that the City Districts solve nothing. Present citizens argued that the clearest way for them to communicate through the portal is to sent their complaints to City Districts, ie. to one place, respectively to one person who would be responsible at least to inform them about the fate of their own initiative regardless of the real liability. All participants of the meeting seemed to agree that the site makes sense because it provides the City Districts and the City of Prague an overview of the defects in the streets, where  citizens feel that "shoe pinches" them and gives citizens the opportunity to participate in improving of the quality of urban life and to learn about how City Districts deal with their propositions. Prague Mothers together with present public administration representatives have agreed that they would adjust the Portal to suit both parties.

In addition such projects with a similar focus as „Ladíme Prahu“ (We are tuning Prague) of the Insitute for City Development and "Link for the Mayor " of the Slovak Governance Institute in Bratislava, from which Prague Mothers took over an Internet tool for Pedestrians United were  presented to the audience of the meeting.
 
After lunch Prague Mothers made a “sighteseeing tour“ for participants in the streets of the City District of Prague 2 to show a real impact of this Internet tool for citizen´s participation on life in the City of Prague. For instance the City District of Prague 2 installed along the FN building (University Hospital) pillars, which prevent cars to park deep into the pavement and thus ensure wheelchair users and parents with prams sufficient space to move around on the sidewalk. „This measure based on citizen´s complaint submitted through the Portal is an excellent example how Pedestrians United can benefit themselves and the City“, concluded the initiator and project manager Petra Syrová of Prague Mothers.

The presentations form the event are below: