One of the main tasks of Social Polis is to act as a bridge between scientists, policymakers, practitioners and the general public on the issue of social cohesion in cities.

Our aim is to establish an open conversation between people, groups and organisations who are concerned with research, policymaking and practice about cities and social cohesion. We particularly invite contributions from people and groups who feel they are not normally consulted on such issues.

There are several ways in which to become involved with Social Polis:

1. Contribute to a Discussion Forum

2. Post an item on the Social Polis website socialpolis.eu

3. Apply for a ‘small’ grant (maximum 3,000€) to produce a short paper or input in a specific Field or Theme

4. Apply for a group project/workshop grant (budget per proposal between 5,000€ and 10,000€)

1. Contribute to a Discussion Forum

There are two types of Discussion Forum:

• The Social Polis General Discussion Forum – accessed from the Home Page
  This is for threads of general discussion with regard to Social Polis and social cohesion issues as a whole.
• Existential Field Discussion Boards – accessed from the Fields and Themes pages.
  This is for threads making comments and inputs to a specific Existential Field, such as housing, diversity etc.

2. Post an item on the Social Polis website socialpolis.eu.

This could be:

• Some research relating to an aspect of social cohesion as a whole or a Field of Social Polis which you or another group has undertaken;
• Good references which you recommend to others to read or see. They can be from academic journals, books, newspaper articles or websites;
• An example of a policy which you feel is particularly relevant;
• An example of practice – perhaps an innovative organisation or a case study – which you feel would be useful to others;
• Suggestions for future research or policy.

There are two ways to post an item:

1. upload word documents, pdf files, images (jpeg, tif or gif files), videos or powerpoint presentations. These should be compressed as small as possible using a program such as WIN ZIP
2. upload a url providing a link to a website or part of a website.

Social Polis administrators will monitor material and file it in appropriate boxes. Items uploaded must not breach copyright regulations or be deemed offensive. All posted items should include a disclaimer that the Social Polis co-ordination team, Newcastle University and the European Commission are not responsible for the specific content which you have posted (see disclaimer: hotlink).

3. Apply for a ‘small’ grant (maximum 3,000€) to produce a short paper or input in a specific Field or Theme.

SOCIAL POLIS (7^th Framework Programme) is now announcing the CALL for STAKEHOLDER CONTRIBUTIONS. All non-academic groups and organisations from NGO, community, private and, policy sectors are invited to apply for a small grant (up to 3,000 €) to produce a contribution to the research, policymaking, or urban practice in the areas relevant to ‘Cities and Social Cohesion’. Successful applicants will be invited to present their contributions at the large scale SOCIAL POLIS Stakeholder Conference in Vienna (11-12 May 2009).

 Proposals might include:

-  research papers and reports;

-  multimedia formats (presentations, films, installations);

4. Apply for a group project/workshop grant
(budget per proposal between 5,000€ and 10,000€).

SECOND CALL FOR WORKSHOPS TO BE ORGANISED BY STAKEHOLDERS - CLOSED (September 30)

Social Polis (7^th Framework Programme) is announcing now the second call for stakeholder workshops. The purpose of the workshops is to broaden the network of stakeholders in our Social Polis platform, to enhance cooperation between academic and non-academic participants, and to contribute to the production of a focused research agenda for the future.

We would like to invite all non-academic groups and organisations to submit proposals for workshops.

The main objective of these workshops is to give a feedback to the two Social Polis focused research agendas, which share the following themes:

1) Producing urban social cohesion in the face of global changes, migration, and increasing diversity of cities.

2) Developing a plural economic approach to tackle the urban economic divide, social exclusion, and fragmentation of cities.

3) Rethinking cities and urban discourses in the ecological age.

4) Understanding urban practices: social participation, socially creative strategies and neighbourhood development.

5) Governing cities as a whole.

The two focused research agenda are presented as a summary of the debates of the Brussels launching workshop. The full text is available from the Coordinator. A shorter and more accessible version will be published on the Social Polis website early October.

The proposals should also fulfil the following criteria:

• Workshops must be genuinely led by members of the practice community
• Stakeholders from different sectors (community/civil society, policy, government and private), must be involved in the project
• Workshops should have a wide geographical spread or a particular community focus.
• At least one of the Social Polis partners should be invited to the workshop (but not as an organizer).
• They should be properly costed with respect to their scale; the budget must not exceed 10,000 Euro.
• Organizers must provide clear information on the envisaged outputs of the workshop (documents to be delivered to Social Polis coordinator – with short description of their expected content, plans for dissemination, contribution to future research agendas, etc). All outputs of the proposed workshop have to be delivered by 28 February 2009.

Proposals should include the following:

• The title of the workshop;
• Name(s) and contact information for all organizers;
• Procedures for selecting participants, inputs and/or presentations;
• Expected number of participants (this is important!);
• Potential invited speakers, presenters or facilitators (indicating sectors they belong to: community/civil society, policy, government and private);
• The proposed location, day, time and duration of workshop;
• The support facilities required;
• The detailed budget. Co-funding is highly recommended;
• A brief summary of the workshop and justification of the proposed topic. This needs to include a discussion of the particular benefits of the topic to the themes shared in two Social Polis focused research agendas (this is very important!);
• Plans for dissemination of notes, minutes and other outputs – especially contributions to future research agendas - from the workshop.

Depending on the quality of the proposals, up to three workshops will be funded

For more information on this call for stakeholder workshops please contact us directly. If you wish to discuss an idea for a workshop grant, please contact Frank Moulaert at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Proposals are due 30 September 2008. They should be submitted electronically to Dr Stuart Cameron at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Please forward this call for workshops to anyone who may be interested in organizing or participating in such an event.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Jean Hillier

Frank Moulaert

Stuart Cameron

Konrad Miciukiewicz