MANAGEMENT OF URBAN SPACES

IN COLLABORATION:
SIX DILEMMAS
Magnus Johansson
Peter Parker

Why collaboration?
Improve or maintain quality of park management
for instance in times of limited public resources
Tapping local knowledge and involvement so as to
find locally appropriate solutions.

In order to address issue of justice or social

equity
Explore the needs of different groups and address
issues of social equity
Provide a space for underserved groups
Improve participation as a means toward broader
participation in society (democratic aspect)

BUT
We note six organizational dilemmas
that spring from trade-offs in integrating
local and municipal perspectives.
We believe these dilemmas are general
but clearly there must be some variation
with local organizational forms (your
input is of interest)
Each dilemma entails balances and
trade-offs that ultimately affect quality or
justice aspects.

SIX DILEMMAS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Power Who owns the project and the resources?

Who has final say on developments?
Degree of organization among participants
conditions of participation, threshholds
Justice and empowerment, old groups vs new
political aspects
Appropriation vs inclusion
Expert vs local knowledge (spatial perspective)
Short vs long time frames

TRADE-OFFS AND
CONSEQUENCES
Successful collaborative management will
mean different things depending on tradeoffs in relation to each of the dilemmas.
The chosen strategy of dealing with
dilemmas will have consequences with
respect to quality and justice aspects of
the resulting space.

QUESTIONS
1. Do you agree on that collaborative
management may be an important element of
developing public space?
2. Do the dilemmas that have been presented
reflect your experience? Which dilemmas are
more important?
3. Are there other kinds of dilemmas, not
discussed, that you see as important?
4. What experience do you have of successful
collaborative management of public space?
What kinds of trade-offs were involved in
terms of the dilemmas presented?