Neighbourhood governance (462)

Theme Track: Regional and Urban Planning - Regional Governance

Authors:
Dönitz, Ulrich ; Meyer, Christian

The background of this abstract is an EU-funded research project, in which partners in 9 EU-countries will cooperate. Previous research of this network of partners has come to the conclusion, that on one hand the neighbourhood level is essential to promote social inclusion. On the other hand, however, measures taken by social professionals working in the neighbourhood often do not meet the needs of the residents and - unwillingly - sometimes even further the social exclusion or impede the development of self-generative capacities present in deprived areas. Welfare state agencies, social professionals and political structures interrelate with each other and create a set of barriers to change. This leads to the following questions concerning the nature of formal and informal networks on the neighbourhood level:

How do residents in deprived neighbourhoods operate in everyday life? How can the residents' needs as well as their capacities be addressed by social professionals? How can the potential for inclusion, which the neighbourhood level has, be used effectively? Who is involved in formal and informal networks of negotiation and decision making? How can adequate forums of communication, negotiation, decision making and implementation be formed? Who has access to the local forums and networks and who is socially excluded? These aspects of local governance are to be researched in a range of 11 case studies in distressed neighbourhoods, one of them is to be conducted in Wuppertal-Ostersbaum by the ILS (Dortmund). Ostersbaum is a densely populated neighbourhood centrally located in the city of Wuppertal. It was developed in the nineteenth century at the height of textile production. With textile industries and local commerce in a restructuring process, many workplaces in the area have been lost. In addition, large parts of the housing stock are in a poor state of repair. As a deprived neighbourhood Ostersbaum has been funded by the Northrhine-Westphalian program for Urban Areas with Special Regeneration Needs since the end of 1997. This program supports an integrated and comprehensive approach to neighbourhood regeneration. In comparison to other approaches within the state programme, Wuppertal-Ostersbaum stands out for its decentralised and inclusive structures of governance. The starting point of the case study in Wuppertal Ostersbaum will be a report on national, regional and local policies, which have great impact on the neighbourhood level. This report includes both, area based policies as well as sectoral policies and forms a framework determining governance structures on the neighbourhood level. The structures of neighbourhood governance themselves are to be investigated through in-depth interviews with both residents living in the neighbourhood and professionals working in it. These interviews will be carried out between February and July 2002. In the interviews we will try to answer the following questions:

How is the neighbourhood perceived by residents in comparison to professionals? What are the key problems in the neighbourhood ( i.e. safety and security, public space, education and unemployment etc.) as regarded by residents in comparison to professionals? How are these key problems handled according to residents in comparison to professionals? How are formal and informal networks in Wuppertal Ostersbaum structured? What are the existing forums for interaction within the neighbourhood and how are they linked with each other? Who are important actors and what are the roles taken by residents? How can existing forms of negotiation and implementation be described? Our presentation will include the results of our empirical work dealing with the questions above. After mapping present governance structures in Wuppertal-Ostersbaum we will also discuss how they can be reformed to promote social inclusion.

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