The Contributions of a Creative City to the Debates on Sustainable Urban Development: Curitiba and its Real Model

• In Event: Brazil's Creative Cities: Challenges and Opportunities for Social Inclusion in the Americas

Abstract

Unsurprisingly to anyone who studies urban development, Curitiba, the capital of the Paraná State, in Brazil, has been incorporated into the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, which aims to promote intermunicipal cooperation for urban sustainability. With an almost half-century reputation as "the model city" for its innovations in public transportation and environmental practices, Curitiba projects an image of an archetype to be followed by other cities, worldwide. Departing from the well-known (and debatable) slogans (model city, the green city and human city, among others), this paper will argue that the most valuable contributions of Curitiba reside not on its innovative urban initiatives themselves (some more successful than others, and not necessarily all replicable), but on the nature of the municipal public policy environment that generated them.
As the goal of the UNESCO program is to promote international cooperation to address urban challenges, the case of Curitiba can illuminate the important role that municipal leadership and dedicated city agencies play to foment the implementation of public policies towards a more harmonious urban development process. The focus on both municipal governments and the knowledge provided by city experts is of high relevance to Brazil and most of Latin America where local governments are weak, lacking the capabilities to address the urban challenges in the third millennium.

Author

• Ivani Vassoler-Froelich, State University of New York/Fredonia