Last March, the residents of Elefsina were asked to define the place of culture in their city as well as their priorities for the future, in the context of the 2nd self-assessment workshop of the international participatory planning programme Pilot Cities of 2023 Eleusis European Capital of Culture. An international participatory planning project – an initiative by the European organisation in cooperation with the Culture Committee of the international UCLG organisation – United Cities and Local Governments. The presentation of the particularly fruitful results of the workshop will take place on 22 April at the Cine Eleusis.

Elefsina is the only Greek city and one of the 16 European ones participating in Pilot Cities. An international programme that places culture as the fourth pillar of a city’s sustainable development alongside the economy, environment and social inclusion. Through the unique context that the 2023 Eleusis European Capital of Culture has created in the city in recent years, Elefsina is moving towards a new model of sustainability, with art and culture at the heart of every human activity and the residents as the driving force behind the whole of this participatory programme.

The participatory process of self-evaluation highlighted the city’s good practices and their potential, revealed and named needs, revealed the dynamics of local groups, established informed discourse and dialogue as tools of influence, persuasion and redefinition and established the value of citizen access to participatory city planning. During the workshop, the residents of Elefsina, after being divided into groups with themes, each corresponding to one aspect of the cultural development of the city, defined the place of culture in the city and their future priorities. The quality of life, the economic development, the cultural heritage, the ecological and social transition, the cultural strategy and the freedom of expression were the axes on the basis of which the objectives for the cultural and social development of Elefsina were set.