Report is available in Latvian only. Following is the English abstract.
The Urban Development and integration Laboratory (PAIL) is our proposed title for a framework to promote public participation in addressing local development and societal integration. The development of Latvian cities, with some exceptions, is to be seen in the context of a declining population and an ageing population. Society’s integration on the basis of shared values remains a challenge, given both the still difficult USSR’s time legacy and Russia’s expanded policies and human migration. The negative migration balance, when more people leave Latvia than when they arrive, does not change the fact that all Latvian municipalities have arrivals from other countries. Latvian reemigrants return with spouses who are carriers of other cultures. Their children, having grown up in another country, are also learning to live in Latvia. PAIL is a framework that allows the municipality to develop a deeper understanding of the possibilities for addressing local development and integration issues and to implement solutions in a long-term perspective.