BuurThuis: a citizen participation tool that stimulates citizens to feel home in their neighborhood

Abstract

Many cities in the Netherlands have poor areas that have to deal with a lot of social problems. One of the approaches that policymakers use to improve these areas is the so- called gentrification approach. In this approach policy makers renovate and rebuild parts of the neighborhoods in order to attract more ‘better educated’ citizens to these neighborhoods. Although it seems this approach enables a mix of different social capitals, research show the opposite. A lot of research is conducted on how these negative effects of gentrification can be reduced.

According to Van der Graaf (2009) the solution is not to understand how to solve the social cohesion, but to research the actual causes of this lack of social cohesion. The changes in spatial elements and social structure that gentrification implies, lead to a decreased or even a disappeared attachment to the neighborhood. The aim of this master thesis is to investigate how the feeling home of residents in neighborhoods that are being transformed could be improved. A research through design approach has been used to perform this research. This research provides a new perspective on how policymakers can deal with the negative effects of gentrification.

A conceptual framework of the feeling home is developed to understand how to research the feeling home in neighborhoods. Spangen is characterized as a gentrified neighborhood with a diversity of people and high involvement. Although it seems that the high involvement solves the problems with gentrification in Spangen, it reinforces the gap between strong (close friend) and weak ties (acquaintance) in Spangen. This high involvement is often the result of the effort of particular groups (strong ties) that are not representative for the neighborhood. There are also residents that do not even have weak ties in the neighborhood. This gap explains also why public spaces in Spangen are often (partly) appropriated by one group. A group with strong ties that excludes others from using the place.

This gap is visible when a citizen’s initiative is requested for this public space. The groups that initiate the initiative usually operate individual and that often results in social exclusion and conflict. Other residents are not satisfied with their share in the process or even not aware of the possibilities to be involved. Therefore, the design aims to make the development process of a citizen’s initiative in public space accessible for interested residents to create representative public support for the initiative.

The BuurThuis concept shows that by making participating more accessible, people are able to appropriate the place and to explain their needs towards the place and the place. Since both aspects are needed to feel home, BuurThuis presents a participation tool that stimulates the feeling home. BuurThuis shows that is not always needed to foster real-life interaction between people in contrary what most policymakers strive for. The insights of this research support the research of Van der Graaf (2009) that advices governments to focus on supporting neighborhoods to live together instead of directly connecting people.