Stadsdelsträdgård - plats för gemenskap och kreativa processer

Public Garden. A Place for Community and Creative Processes Abstract The thesis draws attention to an aspect of society that is of profound importance to the achievement of sustainable development, namely the relation between governing forces (top-down policies) and local practice within bottom-up initiatives. Informal groups constitute an important, but often overlooked, resource when working to change society towards sustainable development. The objective is to identify and analyse aspects of local gardening initiatives where people jointly design and use public space in a socially and ecologically sustainable manner. Particular focus is placed on the driving forces within the gardening initiative and the processes identifiable in the contact between the users and the local authorities. The aim is to contribute to an increased understanding of self-organised gardens for community and cultivation as a social phenomenon. The method is explorative with a qualitative approach. Case studies have been carried out and each case was subjected to in-depth interviews and observations in situ. The concept stadsdelsträdgård (a community garden in a Swedish urban context) is introduced, in which the meaning of the concepts self-organisation and landscape, i.e. the social process and the place-making process, are brought together. In the garden the users are self-organised in relation to the local authority, attaining a common right of usage where it is the users who make the decisions. By cultivating organically the users develop knowledge of ecological cycles and the condition of the ecosystem. Through daily cultivation practices this knowledge becomes incorporated in the shaping of the garden through a process of interplay between the people and the physical landscape. Ideally, this creative place-making process creates a fertile ground for the trying out of new patterns of action for sustainable development. When users create gardens jointly the outcome are gardens with a personal touch and a feeling of hominess, which distinguish them from the public park. The self-organised garden thus fosters a combination of being in public space and feeling at home. The thesis contributes knowledge concerning what a socially and ecologically sustainable public garden may look like in relation to tangible, lived life in the city. The interplay between community and the physical landscape needs to be recognized, this thesis argues, as a potentially important dimension of the planning process.