Build4People

The main Build4People communication platform is our Build4People Facebook page which has two main purposes: We use it, 1) to provide updates about our activities and 2) as a capacity building tool to inform on good practice examples worldwide in the field of urban sustainability.

Since its establishment in August 2019 we have been able to gather about 3,800 followers, mainly from the site of our project region, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and mostly young people, around 40% of which are between 18-24 years old and around 40% between 25 and 34.

So far, we have published approximate 600 postings and we are now very happy that just recently, the first one went viral. It reached out to about 250,000 people and was shared 600 times.

A positive side effect was that it also increased the numbers of our followers by about 15% during that short time.

Feel invited to follow us as well at: https://www.facebook.com/buildingsforpeople/

#Build4People #BMBF_SUREregions #sciencecommunication #leavingthescientificbubble

The Build4People team is happy to report that we presented about our transformative approaches at the 28th IAPS Conference “Enacting Transdisciplinar Knowledge: People, Places, Movements and Sustainabilities” in Barcelona on 03 July 2024.

The title of our cross-cutting presentation was “Supporting Sustainable Urban Transformation in Cambodia: The Build4People Project” it was jointly presented by Anke Blöbaum, Jan-Peter Mund, Michael Waibel, and it was additional prepared by Rolf Messerschmidt, Oliver Lambrecht, Núria Roig, Ellen Matthies, and Sok Serey among others.

We concluded that a mix of objective and subjective data published in a transparent way to the public are needed to support a transformative urban shift of Phnom Penh. Furthermore, we advocated for integrated approaches involving multiple stakeholders in an iterative dialogue and for engaging societal actors in continual processes of learning and change to foster implementation. Finally, we consider outreach efforts outside the scientific bubble and active communication in society as essential to maximize impacts. Overall, we are convinced that transformation as social innovation has to be carried out by a process-orientated transdisciplinary approach thereby leaving the single disciplinary comfort zone.

More info: https://www.iaps2024barcelona.com/iaps-topics

On 18 June 2024, Dr Anke Blöbaum, leader of Build4People Work Package “Behaviour Change”, Magdeburg University, gave a talk about the challenges of urban sustainability transformation from a psychological perspective at the Federal Association for Housing and Urban Development (vhw) in Berlin.

Thereby, she illustrated the interactions between the designed environment and human behavior and pointed out that participatory processes in urban development can play an important role in reducing behavioral constraints, increasing self-efficacy and supporting the acceptance of sustainable lifestyles.

As a good-practice example, Anke presented the Build4People Ecocity Transition Lab (ECTL) series, which was carried out as part of the Build4People project in Phnom Penh. The ECTL is an inclusive and collaborative planning tool that brings together citizens, academics, the public, the corporate sector and local frontrunners of urban sustainability to identify a common understanding of current urban challenges and to jointly develop and to present alternative visions of sustainable urban development.

The final day of the Build4People delegation trip was mainly dedicated for leisure activities after long, intensive, and sometimes stressful days of a very dense schedule.

Some delegation members met with Michael Waibel for a last coffee at a local coffee roastery. This was also an opportunity for Bunleng Se and for Serey Sok to ride the bicycle of Michael.

It was also time for short, yet informal wrap-up which will be followed by a structured one, by sending out a questionnaire to all participants about their feedback and learnings of this trip. Particularly, we are would like to get more to know which approaches of sustainable urban transformation from Germany the Cambodians regard as transferrable to urban Cambodia in the context of the upcoming implementation phase from 2025 till 2027.

The whole Build4People team would like to kindly thank all participants of the Build4People delegation trip for their active participation and great motivation to join the program. It was really great to have you in Germany for this hopefully inspiring learning experience and for the meaningful face-to-face exchange with the German partners. #build4people