Epsilon Open Archive

Abstract

During the last decade there has been a growing interest in public participation in operation and in decision making, in the public sector as a whole as well as in the public park sector in Sweden. The aim of the thesis was to study and analyse user participation in public park management and maintenance. The methods employed were studies of literature, studies of historical source material, two surveys and eight case studies. The thesis discusses four questions: Which are the prerequisites for users participation?; Does user participation affect the benefits of parks for the non-participants?; Does user participation affect the basis for park management?; Does user participation affect parks? The thesis also discusses the concepts of parks, public park departments, public park management, users and user participation. There were several reasons for participation, e.g.; the need to improve neighbourhood environment; to protect play- and sports ground from being closed down or to enjoy the possibilities of outdoor work together with friends. Knowledge of the opportunities to participate, an easy access to, and an informal dialog with, the employees of the park departments facilitated participation. The case studies gave examples of an increased use of parks as a result of participation. Case studies and surveys, however, gave examples of the risk of park spaces being privatize by means of intentional or unintentional territory marking. Participation called for new qualifications for the employees to be able to co-operate with both professional actors and unprofessional actors. The financial effect of user participation could be both positive and negative, but was as a whole insignificant. Though there was a widespread anxiety about maintenance-mistakes or self-interest decisions that could come out of participation, in several of the case studies participation meant better maintenance of the concerned parks.