Epsilon Open Archive

Abstract

Management of green spaces in rental multi-family housing areas is discussed in a Swedish context and the benefits of maintenance for residents examined in this thesis. In Sweden, these green spaces are an important part of the urban green structure and the housing companies who manage these spaces are important green space providers. However, the management and maintenance of such green spaces and its benefits for residents seldom receive attention in research. The residents’ perspective is the main interest here, since they are to benefit from maintenance. The perspective of the providers (housing staff) is also included, because of their influence through provision on residents’ experiences. Taking an ex-plorative and mainly qualitative approach, two empirical studies were conducted using interviews as the main method of collecting data. In a case study of three rental and multi-family housing areas, 27 residents and 13 housing staff were interviewed regarding their experience of the maintenance of green space and their views on maintenance provision respectively. In a telephone survey of 30 municipal housing companies, housing staff were asked how they organised maintenance of green spaces and what motivated that choice. The case study identified several benefits of green space maintenance for residents and three were further explored: (1) green space being ‘well-kept’ (2) the housing area being safe and (3) a just distribution of maintenance. The results showed that several elements of maintenance and the social context, such as views of maintenance staff and of other residents, contribute to residents’ experience of these bene-fits. Views of well-kept green space were for example not simply about technical quality but e.g. the image of maintenance staff and their efforts was also considered. There is consequently a need to widen the technical discussion about how to manage and maintain green spaces.