Dynamic sectors
The city needed to gather support from its most dynamic sectors with the objective of kick-starting significant changes, overcoming reticence and facing new challenges. These features are particularly characteristic of a model that is deeply democratic and would not work without this collaborative approach, which proves essential in ameliorating collective intelligence.
Participatory and democratic
Neighborhood associations, local federations, business representatives, parish councils and residents make up an effective and streamlined political body whose contributions are fundamental for this encompassing process of transformation.
Each street is unique
For those who have witnessed the changes Barcelos, one of the main squares in the city, very close to the high street, has undergone, the process involved in collaborative decisions is quite clear: the suppression of indiscriminate parking and the ideas presented by a group of schoolchildren, who developed a project with the help of their teachers to pedestrianize the square, has managed to create a new space for children to play safely without preventing drivers from reaching their destination as efficiently as before.
