Spatial inequalities and international cooperation projects: a bottom-up wellbeing model for inclusion

In international cooperation projects it is possible to recognise many of the challenges regarding spatial inequalities that are visible across Europe. Certainly, the scale changes, because these projects are often addressing conditions far below European minimum subsistence levels, confronting a different idea of wellbeing on which to intervene with proposals for transformation. In any case, these are significant challenges, because while cultivating 'a south-west gaze' (Yiftachel, et al.) it is important not to shy away from a commitment to what can be done in favour of the most fragile areas. In this context, the chapter gives an account of the international cooperation project Re-generation Al Zaytoun that was developed for the hybrid neighbourhood of Cairo, which involved youth (children and young people) and religious minorities. The project was a propitious opportunity to define guidelines to ensure a higher level of wellbeing within a bottom-up and inclusive process. The overall claim is that this case outlined a practice for intervention that can also be replicated in other contexts of international cooperation and that can be useful for holding together the physical regeneration of a semi-informal area with the enhancement of wellbeing and the contextual fight against spatial inequalities