Co-creation in practice III: Co-creating age-friendly routes (Zaragoza)

Abstract

This chapter reports on the third co-creation project described in this book. The project was managed by two departments of Zaragoza city council: the Department of Elderly Care and the Technical Office of Participation, Transparency and Open Government. Several activities aiming to improve the lives older citizens have been conducted by the city administration since Zaragoza joined the Global Network of Age-Friendly Cities and Communities. In a consultation process, older citizens had expressed a demand for safe and well-equipped outdoor spaces. Thus, the broad problem focus of this co-creation project was on the improvement of an age-friendly city infrastructure. The co-creation project covered six walks in three different districts. In each district, groups of six to eight older residents defined two relevant routes and collected information (problems and improvements) about them. The data was integrated in a collaborative digital map provided by the city’s Technical Office. The result of the project is an enhanced map service, which allows (older) citizens to report problems in the public (road) infrastructure and/or propose improvements. Their suggestions for improvements enter a list of citizen proposals for a participatory budgeting process.