Trust Within Networks During the Initiating Phase of Spatial Redevelopment Projects

Abstract

Globally seen, two trends are noticed that threaten the quality of the living environment in cities. First of all, a strong urbanization trend is seen. Secondly, cities have to deal with increasing climate changes. These two trends lead to the development of new policies with the aim to sustain the liveability of city centres by making motorized vehicles less dominant in city centres and improve the quality of public space. Such new policy development always takes place in a network consisting of public and private actors, as well as non-profit organisations and societal stakeholders. All these actors in the network are highly interdependent and characterized by different values and interests. In practice these differences lead to strategic choices and actions of actors to stand up for their own interests which cause complex decision-making processes during spatial redevelopment projects. Despite such varying values and interests, to achieve good outcomes of such collective decision-making processes, support of a suggested policy by involved actors in the network is important. However, although trust is considered as an important condition for support and consequential successful policy development, based on earlier studies it can be concluded that the amount of literature on trust in public-private networks” in public administration, public management and policy science is remarkably small. Consequently, it is not clear which governmental interventions can be carried out during decision-making processes in governance networks to steer on trust. For this reason, the goal of this research project is to find out how trust within public-private networks works and if this can be influenced. The following research question is formulated: “Which and to what extent lead interventions to trust within networks during the initiating phase of spatial redevelopment projects in city centres with the aim to make motorized vehicles less dominant and improve the quality of public space?”

This research project starts with literature research to construct a preliminary model that shows how we assume that “trust within networks” evolves during the initiating phase of spatial redesigning projects. During the second phase of the research project three cases in Rotterdam are investigated. Neighbours, entrepreneurs, municipal officials and independent researchers are interviewed. This explorative research leads to a number of observations that improve the model and answer the question which specific interventions and events lead to more or less trust during the initiating phase of spatial redevelopment plans.

It is observed that the initial amount of trust that actors have at the start of the initiating phase, is not significantly changed by current investigated interventions during the initiating phase. Especially the trend of competence trust and collaborative trust seems hardly changed during the process by interventions. The trend of companion trust is influenced by the investigated interventions, but not necessarily in a positive direction. Companion, competence and collaborative trust during the initiating phase of spatial redevelopment projects are already merely subject to overarching, longer term processes that characterize actor networks.