It is a researchproject with nine participating European countries. The aim was to identify and assess possible new governance structures to combat social exclusion in contemporary Europe. A question that comes out of the eleven case studies is that the relation between representative democracy and direct resident participation must be further considered. Rather than seeing this relation as problematic or conflictual our conclusion is direct resident involvement in neighbourhood management can be well accommodated within representative democracy.

The challenge lies in develop forums for communication and interaction which are inviting to residents and assessed as complementary supportive to the formal governance arrangements for representative democracy. In creating such forums issues of conflict and mistrust often must be taken as starting-points for analysis and discussions on how building trust and confidence gradually can developed in the process. Findings from the case studies strongly points at possibilities to handle this conflict in more constructive forms.

It is important to make governance arrangement and the decision-making process more transparent, i.e. clearly presenting the roles and decision-making powers allocated to various stakeholders involved. In doing this, the role and expectations of resident participation must be clearly presented, i.e. what is the political framework within which ideas and proposals must fit?

This research grew out of a previous project carried out with support from the European Union. Based on a description of structural changes in society and how they impact on localised social conditions, the project provided arguments for rethinking social strategies and introducing new responses to combat social exclusion. The project was largely focussed on the actual outcomes of implementing existing policies.

However, as the project developed, it became evident that the effectiveness of localised social cohesion programmes is not only a question of what is delivered. Of equal or greater importance is how and by whom programmes are delivered, that is, the mechanisms of governance in the areas, which were studied. Thus, the conclusion of the previous project formed the starting point the project now completed.

The research is based on eleven case studies of deprived neighbourhoods in nine EU-countries. The neighbourhoods were selected because of their ‘Gestalt’ as deprived neighbourhoods. In-depth analysis of these neighbourhoods have provided knowledge of the governance structures in these neighbourhoods. Theory development and, the identification of useful, transferable experiences and practices, have been explicit objectives of the research method. The research was built on the outcomes of a previous research into social exclusion and social integration in Europe, funded by the European Commission: Social Exclusion in European Neighbourhoods – Processes, Experiences and Responses.

The Danish projekt was financed by the Danish Building Research Institute with a subsidy from Key Action "Improving socio-economic knowledge base" within the Fifth Framework Programme of the EU.

Make space for the individual in the collective: Policies and programmes have been and to a large degree still is based on universal planning in the sense that one problem is solved by one solution no matter how the context or conditions are. However, identifying problems, challenges, and current solutions related to the neighbourhood indicate a need to move away from universal ideas and instead combine collective means to a broad defined framework in which there is space for contextual conditions. Solutions have to be distinct, but distinct solutions anchored in collective means and a collective framework.

Furthermore, it seems crucial that housing and social programmes replace the problem-identification-logic with a view on problems as constructive conflicts and challenges where there is no single, predefined solution but a solution that emerges during the process of tackling conflicts and challenges. When tackling conflicts and challenges it is important to acknowledge the variety of perspectives from residents, professionals, spiders (local key persons) and municipality on the neighbourhood and to bring these perspectives into play instead of advancing one perspective. Solutions, planning, decision-making, and subsequently, governance arrangements have to recognise differences and make space for these differences.

Danish Building Research Institute
Denmark
Hedvig Vestergaard

01/01/2004

Hedvig Vestergaard og Gunvor Christensen

research

Urban Policy

Social inclusion & integration