EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network - Neighbourhood panels in the pipeline in Amsterdam

Neighbourhood panels in the pipeline in Amsterdam

Introduction

In 2002, "Stichting De Wijk is van ons Allemaal" ("The Neighbourhood Belongs To All Of Us Foundation") experimented with setting up three neighbourhood panels in the following districts in Amsterdam: Van der Pek, Transvaal and Geuzenveld.

Description

How are these three experimental neighbourhood panels developing in the eyes of the individuals involved? The evaluation is aimed at increasing the insight into the role of active citizenship with respect to the quality of life in multicultural districts. The goal of the neighbourhood panels is to find residents who want to actively dedicate themselves to improving the quality of the collective social and living environment.

Conclusions

In many municipalities, it has proven to be difficult to keep residents interested in their own social and living environment. Moreover, the existing frameworks for residents are only moderately representative, given the new district demographics. Residents’ groups are ageing at a fast pace and are indicating that recruiting a ‘new framework’ is proving to be problematic. Conversely, ingrained habits and the use of existing resident infrastructures form a barrier to the participation of ‘new’ groups of citizens, such as young people and those of foreign and ethnic descent.
Neighbourhood panels suit the times and are a viable form when it comes to working on the quality of the collective social and living environment. They contribute to a lasting social atmosphere and promote personal responsibility with respect to individual and collective living space.
In each of the three Amsterdam neighbourhoods, a self-acting neighbourhood panel has been started that is characterised by high level of concrete activity. The panels operate on the basis of an inner and outer circle. The ‘inner circle’ consists of the fixed core of residents on the panel. The residents who belong to the ‘outer circle’ are brought in when their assistance is needed.
The panels are relatively young and ethnically diverse. This solves two problems traditionally related to resident participation: an over-representation of ‘white’ and ‘elderly’ residents, though there is still room for improvement.
The panels’ professional partners in the neighbourhoods are generally positive with regard to the panel. In particular, the panel’s ability to operate independently is valued. The panels work together with the neighbourhood management in a constructive fashion.
Approximately one year is needed to allow such a self-acting panel to come into being. Getting a panel to create itself from the ground up is a time-consuming and intensive affair. At the start of the process, having support from a number of institutions – one of which acting as the lead – is advisable.
For institutions and local administration, dealing with the neighbourhood panel represents a cultural change in the way they think and conduct business. It requires a balanced mix of providing support, keeping a distance and showing involvement with respect to the panel’s activities.
For the sake of continuity, the panel must be able to count on professional support.
The question regarding which particular methods could be devised based on the three experiments will be addressed in a subsequent report.

Contact info

Verweij-Jonker Institute, Utrecht

Publication date

15/05/2003

Researcher

Raspe, A., J. Foolen, with the cooperation of E. Kromontono

Cities

The city of Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Article info
ISBN: 90 5830 122 2

Links

Verweij-Jonker Institute

Buurtpanels in de steigers in Amsterdam (PDF, Dut, 280 KB)

Document type

research

Themes

Urban Policy > Social inclusion & integration > Community development

Keywords

Citizens' participation