14. Aveiro: Civic Movements to Promote Smarter Decisions for the Future of the City

Aveiro is the second largest city in the Centro Region of Portugal. In 2009, a major urban regeneration project named ‘The Sustainability Park’ (Parque da Sustentabilidade) was launched by the city council. Supported by the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF 2007–2013), the project involved 15 local and national partners, including the University of Aveiro and the Association of Small Businesses (commerce), and a budget of nearly 14 million euro, subdivided into 17 subprojects. This chapter presents the story of the project. As soon as the project became public, primarily through the media, citizens protested about the fact that they had not participated in the proposal’s design, nor had they been informed, to say the very least. This situation prompted a strong civic movement to call the City Council’s attention to the potential harmful impact of these projects on the local environment and on the daily lives of residents. This contribution describes how movements tried to engage in a series of talks with the politicians involved and bring tacit and codified knowledge to the process.