Governing and Transition of Greenspace in Urban Regions
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GOVERNING AND TRANSITION OF GREENSPACE IN URBAN REGIONS PhD thesis by: Carmen B.E.M. Aalbers Supervisors: Prof. Gertrud Jorgensen and Dr. Karina Sehested This thesis has been submitted to The Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, 11 September 2018. - 2 - GOVERNING AND TRANSITION OF GREENSPACE IN URBAN REGIONS PhD thesis by: Carmen B.E.M. Aalbers Name of department: Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management Author: Carmen B.E.M. Aalbers Title and subtitle: Governing and transition of greenspace in urban regions. Description: Ph.D. thesis. Academic supervisors: Prof. Gertrud Jorgensen; Dr. Karina Sehested. Submitted on: 11 September 2018. - 3 - - 4 - FOREWORD AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There is much room between conviction and science, and between being believed, being right by argumentation, and being understood. With years of experience, one can have a wealth of insights, and ideas about solutions, for which the argumentation has settled down like a mist in the unconscious part of the mind. All lose insights do not necessarily form one consistent picture that you can easily draw. And this is what I have been doing with the inspiring and supportive help of my two supervisors: researching, drawing, writing, reformulating and arguing, in order to come to a more consistent picture, which is also supported by scientific evidence of others. I have learned a lot. I found that some understandings are more complicated than I initially thought, or that others had already written about them forty years or even a century ago. Some of my insights go in quite against the mainstream ideas that idealize compact cities or collaborative governance, that forget about humans, differences in human access to nature, the benefits of urbanization and investments by the state. Doing a PhD has been the stick that helped me to dedicate my time to respond to my curiosity. This curiosity and also the convictions probably will never stop. But for now at least a part of my curiosity has been satisfied and convictions have found arguments or have been put aside and forgotten. It was mostly an interesting and pleasant experience. I hope that the developed insights will find a practical use. I am grateful to my supervisors, Prof. Gertrud Jorgensen and Dr. Karina Sehested who read my sometimes half finished texts and always found something encouraging to keep me going. My special thanks go out to Prof. Hilda Blanco for her good advice to ask Gertrud Jorgensen as supervisor for my subject. It was a pleasure to discuss the different policy theories with Karina Sehested, who was always able to also illustrate these bright ideas with concrete examples. I am also grateful to all those scholars who took the effort to put their insights on paper for scientific peer review and publication, so others can learn from it. Especially Giddens’ book on social structuration, from 1984, I find a real masterpiece. His insights are so very relevant to nowadays developments around social media and groups and what these can mean for society. But that is another issue. This thesis is about governing and access to greenspace in an urbanizing world, and I think this access is an undervalued issue. Carmen Aalbers, September 2018 - 5 - ABSTRACT The international scientific literature calls for research on governing of greenspace, on local knowledge and on the impact of different actors on greenspace and its quality. It expresses concern about the sustainability of urbanization. This study makes a literature inventory concerning urban greenspace, especially using recent review articles and focusing on greenspace in a context of urban development, the meaning of nature, greenspace management and governing. It looks into governing at the level of functional urban areas and at the local, neighbourhood level. It makes an international comparison between functional urban areas by using the ‘policy arrangement approach’ which specifies the means of influence at the urban regional level, and collects evidence from case studies, based on four years of international research together with practitioners. At the local level, local initiatives by citizens in cooperation with municipalities or companies are studied. (Again) the means of influence are looked into, and the differences are identified with state management of greenspace and with the type and use of greenspace that the local state produces. By using the ‘multilevel perspective’ and ‘strategic niche management’ approaches from transition studies, the study identifies ways to upscale the local knowledge of citizens. The thesis provides evidence that to preserve greenspace and integrate it in urban development, hierarchical government at the scale of the urban region is needed, equipped with a powerful set of means of influence. For the adaptation to local and private needs, pursuing complementarity between the means of local parties (citizens, companies) and the municipality is a workable strategy. The local study shows among others that innovation calls on all involved parties, not only the municipality. - 6 - SUMMARY Greenspace development in urban areas does not keep up with urban development, which leads to scarcity of greenspace, and consequently missing out on important benefits of ecosystems in urban areas. It also renders greenspace exclusive, which contributes to socio-ecological inequality and reduces the possibilities for urbanites to interact with nature. The scientific literature calls for more research on governance of greenspace and local knowledge, and on the impact of different actors on greenspace and its quality. Reference is made to the ‘parkification’ of nature by authorities, and lack of insights in the wishes of citizens in terms of greenspace. There is broad concern about the sustainability of urbanization. Management and governing of greenspace and greenstructure are aspects of sustainable urban development that need more understanding and development. On the basis of the international literature, two levels of scale of greenspace management are identified as critical: that of the Functional Urban Area and that of the local level or neighbourhood. Public interests are especially dependent on regional greenspace management, as balancing between urban development and greenspace, and secondly development and management of greenstructure, extend beyond the reach of individual cities. The private interests lay in the local neighbourhood, where citizens (can) interact most directly with nature. Local greenspace management can tailor greenspace to specific wishes and needs. The aim of this research is to gain a better insight in regional governing of greenspace in functional urban areas, in view of preservation and integration of greenspace in urban development, and to understand what governing approaches can make greenspace more responsive to the multiple needs and wishes of citizens at the local level. Considering the ongoing ‘ecological modernization’, greenspace management asks for being studied from the perspective of multilevel and multi-actor (between state, market and civil society) governance. The study uses the ‘policy arrangement approach’, and the ‘multilevel perspective’ and ‘strategic niche management approaches’ from transition studies. Much of the evidence is gathered via qualitative case studies in which also practitioners (e.g. government officers and citizens) and their insights are included. Based on an international comparison of governing in functional urban regions, this thesis provides evidence that to preserve greenspace and integrate it in urban development, hierarchical government at the scale of the urban region is needed, equipped with a powerful set of means of action: a tight web of rulings between the regional and supra-regional hierarchical governments, and close cooperation of the latter two are critical. It also requires resources to support municipalities and to steer lower level actors; and a strong integrative regional discourse accompanied with a spatial vision that is shared among the municipalities and includes the natural system as basis for human life into the urban development.. Research in The Netherlands of citizens’ initiatives in (urban) greenspace (although rather exclusive in terms of percentage and type of population involved) shows that these citizens demonstrate a multitude of values of nature and a desire for more interaction with nature. Tailoring greenspace to local interests of citizens is to happen within the frame that is set by the public interest in terms of greenspace preservation and integration and the related socio-ecological equality, ecosystem services and biodiversity targets. This thesis finds that the integration of greenspace has multiple dimensions: spatially, financially, functionally, and economically. Finances are needed to stimulate new green management practices together with other actors. Concerning functional integration, much can be enhanced considering the meanings attributed to nature by citizens as proposed by the studied citizens initiatives. Economic integration is needed to make new practices more resistant against the building economy and to invest in peri-urban areas. There is evidence that this will enhance the cognition of and emotional attachment of citizens to nature. For the adaptation to local and private needs, pursuing complementarity between what local parties (citizens, companies) and the municipality can do is a workable strategy. For innovation, also offering a listening ear to citizens with specific