Institute of Geography and Geology

AbstractThis article examines citizen participation in the governance of contemporary urban green space. Rather than exploring normative questions of ideal forms of participatory democracy, it focuses on changing roles and relationships between local state and non-state actors in order to identify and explain the changing nature of participation. I argue that neoliberal urban restructuring has changed the conditions for participation and thus participation itself in fundamental ways and that we need an account of changes in statehood and governance in order to capture this conceptually. Based on the case of community gardens in Berlin, the article discusses the extent to which this changed relationship is expressed by current citizen participation as well as the potential and problems that result from it. My empirical results show the emergence of a new political acceptance of autonomously organized projects and active citizen participation in urban green space governance. The central argument of this article is that this new acceptance can be conceptualized as an expression of the neoliberalization of cities. Nevertheless, this neoliberal strategy at the same time leads to complex and contradictory outcomes and the resulting benefits are also acknowledged.This article examines citizen participation in the governance of contemporary urban green space. Rather than exploring normative questions of ideal forms of participatory democracy, it focuses on changing roles and relationships between local state and non-state actors in order to identify and explain the changing nature of participation. I argue that neoliberal urban restructuring has changed the conditions for participation and thus participation itself in fundamental ways and that we need an account of changes in statehood and governance in order to capture this conceptually. Based on the case of community gardens in Berlin, the article discusses the extent to which this changed relationship is expressed by current citizen participation as well as the potential and problems that result from it. My empirical results show the emergence of a new political acceptance of autonomously organized projects and active citizen participation in urban green space governance. The central argument of this article is that this new acceptance can be conceptualized as an expression of the neoliberalization of cities. Nevertheless, this neoliberal strategy at the same time leads to complex and contradictory outcomes and the resulting benefits are also acknowledged.RésuméCet article examine la participation citoyenne dans la gouvernance de l'espace vert urbain contemporain. Plutôt que de s'attacher aux aspects normatifs de formes idéales de démocratie participative, il s'intéresse au changement dans les rôles et les relations entre les acteurs locaux gouvernementaux et non gouvernementaux, afin de repérer et d'expliquer la nature évolutive de la participation. La restructuration urbaine néolibérale a modifié, de manière fondamentale, les conditions de la participation et, par conséquent, la participation elle-même. Le restituer sur le plan conceptuel implique de décrire les changements dans la nature de l'État et la gouvernance. S'appuyant sur le cas des jardins communautaires berlinois, l'article analyse la mesure dans laquelle cette relation évolutive s'exprime dans la participation actuelle des habitants, ainsi que le potentiel et les problèmes qui en découlent. Les résultats empiriques montrent l'émergence d'une nouvelle acceptation politique à l'égard de projets organisés de façon autonome et d'une participation citoyenne active dans la gouvernance de l'espace vert urbain. Selon l'argument central de cet article, cette nouvelle acceptation peut être conceptualisée comme un mode d'expression de la néolibéralisation des villes. Néanmoins, cette stratégie néolibérale conduit parallèlement à des décisions à la fois complexes et contradictoires, et les avantages qui en résultent sont également reconnus.Cet article examine la participation citoyenne dans la gouvernance de l'espace vert urbain contemporain. Plutôt que de s'attacher aux aspects normatifs de formes idéales de démocratie participative, il s'intéresse au changement dans les rôles et les relations entre les acteurs locaux gouvernementaux et non gouvernementaux, afin de repérer et d'expliquer la nature évolutive de la participation. La restructuration urbaine néolibérale a modifié, de manière fondamentale, les conditions de la participation et, par conséquent, la participation elle-même. Le restituer sur le plan conceptuel implique de décrire les changements dans la nature de l'État et la gouvernance. S'appuyant sur le cas des jardins communautaires berlinois, l'article analyse la mesure dans laquelle cette relation évolutive s'exprime dans la participation actuelle des habitants, ainsi que le potentiel et les problèmes qui en découlent. Les résultats empiriques montrent l'émergence d'une nouvelle acceptation politique à l'égard de projets organisés de façon autonome et d'une participation citoyenne active dans la gouvernance de l'espace vert urbain. Selon l'argument central de cet article, cette nouvelle acceptation peut être conceptualisée comme un mode d'expression de la néolibéralisation des villes. Néanmoins, cette stratégie néolibérale conduit parallèlement à des décisions à la fois complexes et contradictoires, et les avantages qui en résultent sont également reconnus.

The paper contributes to understandings of contestation and resistance in urban politics, using a land use struggle against a “big-box” development in Vancouver, Canada as an example. It surveys Foucault's work on “governmentality,” highlighting the centrality of the notion of resistance in this work before focusing in particular on Foucault's yet underexplored conceptions of “conduct” and “counter-conduct”. These concepts offer an analysis of urban politics beyond the binary of successful implementation of city policies or their failure, and of cooption or revolt; therefore, proving especially useful in the analysis of urban governance which is increasingly characterised as “post-political”.

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The focus of this theoretical-conceptual article is the contribution of the Foucauldian governmentality approach for the understanding of processes of re-ordering the urban in the age of neoliberalism. For this reason, it reviews Foucault's original lectures from 1979 and of other governmentality scholars as well as recent work from urban geography and urban studies. Two main insights of the Foucauldian analysis of neoliberalism will be presented and it will be shown, how urban scholars have made use of and developed further these insights in their analysis of neoliberal urban governance: a) the art of exercising power and governing society in the form, and according to the model, of the economy and b) governing through community, responsibility, and participation. In an outlook it is discussed in how far the governmentality approach can contribute to urban geography and urban studies and vice versa.

German
In diesem konzeptionell-theoretischen Aufsatz wird der Beitrag des foucaultschen Gouvernementalitätsansatzes für die Deutung und Erklärung städtischer Neuordnungsprozesse im neoliberalen Zeitalter diskutiert. Dazu wird sowohl auf die Vorlesungen von Michel Foucault aus dem Jahr 1979 und Texte weiterer Gouvernementalitätsforscher_innen als auch auf jüngere, internationale Beiträge aus Geographie und Stadtforschung zurückgegriffen. Zunächst werden zentrale Erkenntnisse der gouvernementalen Analyse des Neoliberalismus vorgestellt (Regieren auf Grundlage der Ökonomie und Regieren über Gemeinschaft, Verantwortung und Partizipation), um anschließend zu zeigen, wie diese Analysen in der Stadtforschung aufgegriffen und weiterentwickelt wurden. In einem Ausblick wird diskutiert, inwiefern die Gouvernementalitätsforschung einen entscheidenden Beitrag für die derzeitige Stadtforschung leisten als auch die Stadtforschung Erkenntnisse der Gouvernementalitätsforschung vorantreiben kann.

The proclaimed aim of EcoDensity, an initiative of the former mayor of Vancouver, Canada, was the achievement of a more sustainable city development through densification of existing neighbourhoods. Since the invention of EcoDensity in summer 2006 it has become a highly debated topic. This paper aims at a critical analysis of how a planning strategy of densification tried to tie itself onto a discourse of sustainability, and also how it had to re-invent and reform itself through contestation and public debate in order to gain acceptance. Thus, the development of the strategy and its contestation are the focus of this paper. Theoretically informed by the theory on hegemony by Laclau and Mouffe, the paper shows why EcoDensity has been—although eventually approved by Council—a failing hegemonic strategy. By referring to a theory on hegemony, the paper theoretically captures practices and struggles around a particular ‘urban sustainability fix’.

In Berlin as in other German cities indications of stagnations and shrinking can be found. This leads to abundant empty lots and brown fields, which ask for innovative uses. Therefore a special form of community involvement in the urban green space sector – community gardens – is studied by the author. Although the tradition of German allotment gardens is nationally and internationally well known, community gardening as a form of collective gardening on public or semi-public spaces is a recent phenomena in Berlin. To date there is not much research and literature available on this topic. This article gives a general introduction, explains a basic typology of community gardens, and analyses three examples. Finally it concentrates on a specific question: What potential offer community gardens in situations of abundance of abandoned lots?

Confronted with the problem of urban vacant lots and against the background of decreasing financial resources and little demand from real-estate developers, the interest of planners and politicians in voluntarism is increasing. Voluntary greening and maintenance of empty lots offer opportunities for cost-extensive, unconventional and creative land uses. But conflicts and diverging interests also occur. Questions thus arise as to which strategies lead to a successful participatory interim or subsequent use. Based on three qualitative case studies on participatory uses of vacant lots in Berlin this paper presents conditions, chances and limits of such uses and derives recommendations for action.

Abstract:  The task for critical urban research is to analyze processes of neoliberalization “on the ground”. This paper examines—based on original empirical research—in how far the outsourcing of former local state responsibilities for public services and urban infrastructure is expressed in the promotion of community gardening in Berlin (Germany). It shows the contradictory outcomes: on the one hand, a failing strategy of outsourcing towards residents and the opening up of opportunity structures for other interests. On the other hand it shows how far the emergence of open green spaces maintained by volunteers can only be understood against the background of “roll-back” neoliberal urban politics and that their rationality cannot be separated from “roll-out neoliberalism”.

In 1995 Vancouver City Council approved new policy guidelines for future urban development that departed from the traditional model of suburban growth, instead prioritizing urban intensification. Theoretically guided by the Foucauldian governmentality approach, I argue in this paper that this shift towards intensification can be understood through an analysis of Vancouver’s extensive participatory planning process known as CityPlan. Created as an answer to conflicts around the intensification of historically evolved urban neighbourhoods, CityPlan Vancouver exemplifies a specific form of urban governance that has been understudied in geography and participation research: a governance consisting of conducting the conduct of citizens through participatory processes. The paper examines this “governing through participation” by carrying out a microanalysis of the problematizations, rationalities, and technologies of CityPlan. Such an analysis differs significantly from an evaluation of participatory planning processes against normative ideals, and thus enriches critical research on participation in urban governance.

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