Restorative Cities

Around the world, cities have declared either that they are, or aim to become, restorative.

What this means in practice varies from place to place. For some, the emphasis is on creating places where conflicts are resolved restoratively not punitively. For others the vision extends more widely to building strong relationships, breaking down community divides and rebalancing the relationship between citizen and state.

This is how it’s described in Canberra:

“Being a restorative city is a vision of what it means to be community, to live in community, and to be part of the Canberra community. It is focused on asking: How can we live and work in ways that foster the connections to one another that we need to be well, to be safe and to flourish? It is as much about how you recognise and strive to address the problems of relationship and inclusion, and of difference, as of the harms of the past and the present.”

— Canberra Restorative Community

(Image credit: https://justice.act.gov.au/justice-programs-and-initiatives/canberra-restorative-city) — (Image credit: ACT Government: Justice and Community Safety Directorate)

Research on restorative cities

The Mint House is grateful to colleagues working on restorative city initiatives across England and Wales for sharing their learning with us during interviews we carried out in 2018. You can find the results here:

Restorative Cities Report - what can be learned from the experiences of others

Research to date on restorative cities is mainly descriptive. This includes a series of case studies, with commentary, published in 2019 in the International Journal of Restorative Justice. This and other materials have been brought together by a European Forum restorative cities working group. You can find these resources here:

Restorative Cities | European Forum for Restorative Justice (euforumrj.org)

Summary

Here are what we take to be the lessons from experience so far:

Be clear what you mean by a restorative city
Specify the outcomes you hope for and how these will be measured, then evaluate
Understand and build on the strengths (skills and resources) you have already
Make sure you don’t depend too much on a single individual
Look beyond professionals
Resist silos: beware of replacing one power structure with another
Work with communities to respond to needs
Use creative communications to share the vision so it doesn’t just involve enthusiasts
Make the case for the restorative city – including the economic case.
Think about sustainability, then prepare for the long haul!