Place Making | Makers by Designskolen Kolding

INDEX Summary .................................................................................................6 Resumé ...................................................................................................8 Glossary ................................................................................................ 10 1

Introduction and overview .............................................................. 16 Framing the subject matter ................................................................................. 16 1.1.1

Global issues can make local relevance even more present............................... 19

1.1.2

Research focus .................................................................................................... 20

Relevance and motivations ................................................................................. 20 Place Making|Makers ......................................................................................... 21 Contributions...................................................................................................... 23 Thesis structure .................................................................................................. 24

Contextualising and Positioning the PhD ......................................... 26 Positioning the PhD project ................................................................................. 26 Situating social sustainability within an urban context and within design ............. 29 2.2.1

‘Social sustainability’ in urban development ...................................................... 29

2.2.2

Social sustainable design ..................................................................................... 32

A brief history of the rise and development of social housing in Denmark ............ 34 Current thinking and practice in the development of deprived neighbourhoods ... 37 2.4.1 city

A greater coherence between the deprived neighbourhood and the surrounding 38

2.4.2

Improved image of the neighbourhoods ............................................................ 39

2.4.3

Greater interaction between residents............................................................... 40

2.4.4

Empowering residents through efforts ............................................................... 42

2.4.5

Creating connections between physical and social actions ................................ 42

2.4.6

Thinking and practice in Skovparken................................................................... 43

Limitations of the research area .......................................................................... 45

Theoretical Scaffolding for the Project............................................. 48 Theoretical approach .......................................................................................... 48 The Critical Urban Theory .................................................................................... 53 ANT and the coherent city ................................................................................... 55 The city as a constellation – the perception and coherence of public urban places 57

The understanding of space and place ................................................................. 59 The sociality of place........................................................................................... 63 Relation to place ................................................................................................. 64 Territorialisation of place .................................................................................... 67 The link between place and behaviour ................................................................ 69 Collaborative Urbanism....................................................................................... 69 Performative and relational design of public urban places ................................... 72 Design research .................................................................................................. 74 Movements in design practice and design research.............................................. 74 Situating the PhD thesis within the framework of Social Design, Design for Social Innovation and social sustainable design of public urban places ...................................... 76 Participatory design in the agonistic space........................................................... 82 Summary ............................................................................................................ 85

Research Approach and Method ..................................................... 86 Design research approaches ................................................................................ 86 Design research methods for data production ..................................................... 89 4.2.1

Observations ....................................................................................................... 90

4.2.2

Urban Songlines .................................................................................................. 96

4.2.3

Interview ............................................................................................................. 98

4.2.4

Engaging with the site through relational practice and Site-Writing.................. 99

4.2.5

Participatory artefacts as ‘boundary objects’ ................................................... 100

Research approach – ‘grounded theory’ in design research ................................ 100 4.3.1

‘Grounded theory’ (GT) and ‘thematic coding analysis’ (TCA) .......................... 103

4.3.2

The role of ‘grounded theory’ in this practice-based design research project . 103

The four empirical studies ................................................................................. 104 4.4.1

Superkilen .......................................................................................................... 104

4.4.2

Urban Songline study ........................................................................................ 104

4.4.3

Safety Day & A Place Called…. ........................................................................... 105

4.4.4

Words Upon a Place .......................................................................................... 106

Limitations and biases....................................................................................... 107 Summary and reflections .................................................................................. 109

Superkilen ..................................................................................... 110 Ydre Nørrebro and Mjølnerparken .................................................................... 111 Presentation of Superkilen; aim, concept, configuration, and expression ........... 112

5.2.1

The objective for creating Superkilen ............................................................... 112

5.2.2

The design concept of Superkilen ..................................................................... 114

5.2.3

Configuration of Superkilen .............................................................................. 115

5.2.3.1

The Red square .............................................................................................. 116

5.2.3.2

The Black Square ........................................................................................... 116

5.2.3.3

The Green Park .............................................................................................. 116

Methods for collection of empirical data and for analysis................................... 119 Design parameters affecting the development and the place, Superkilen ........... 125 5.4.1

Interactions, relations and negotiations of place ............................................. 125

5.4.2

Design and place supporting Collaborative Urbanism ...................................... 136

5.4.3

Social frictions and spatial edge zones .............................................................. 140

Summary and reflections .................................................................................. 147

The Urban Songline Study ............................................................. 148 Description of the Urban Songline book and the process of an interview ............ 148 Urban Songline book as a mediator for an empowered situation........................ 155 Urban Songline analysis .................................................................................... 160 6.3.1

Interactions, relations and negotiations of place ............................................. 163

6.3.2

Places in Skovparken supporting Collaborative Urbanism................................ 168

6.3.3

Social frictions and different worlds and value systems ................................... 172

6.3.4

Relations to place .............................................................................................. 175

Summary and reflections .................................................................................. 178

Safety Day and A Place Called… ..................................................... 180 Safety Day ........................................................................................................ 180 7.1.1

My role and method for data collection ........................................................... 180

7.1.2

The course of Safety Day ................................................................................... 181

Observations and analysis ................................................................................. 182 7.2.1

Influencing actors creating the experience of unsafety in Skovparken/ Skovvejen 182

7.2.2

The power of participating residents ................................................................ 185

Motivation for A Place Called… ......................................................................... 187 A Place Called....... ............................................................................................ 187 Site-Writing as a method for analysis ................................................................ 199 Analysis of the intervention A Place Called…...................................................... 200 Summary and reflections .................................................................................. 202

Words upon a Place ....................................................................... 204 Motivation and method .................................................................................... 204 The centre square and the Library Park.............................................................. 207 8.2.1

Method and process for data collection ........................................................... 209

Thematic analysis of Words upon a Place .......................................................... 214 8.3.1

Interactions, relations and negotiations of place ............................................. 217

8.3.2

Design and place supporting Collaborative Urbanism ...................................... 222

8.3.3

Social frictions and different worlds and value systems ................................... 225

8.3.4

Power and the negotiation of place .................................................................. 227

8.3.4.1

The power relations resulting in the action by the boys............................... 227

8.3.4.2

The negotiation with the boys about the place ............................................ 229

8.3.4.3

The benches as a mediator for the negotiation ............................................ 231

Summary and reflections .................................................................................. 232

Discussions, Conclusions and Reflections....................................... 234 Discussion and contributions ............................................................................. 235 Concepts and models supporting the development of ‘social sustainable development of public urban places’ ............................................................................ 239 9.2.1

Levels of interest (Critical Mass) ....................................................................... 240

9.2.2

‘Place attachment’ (Idling Capacity).................................................................. 242

9.2.3

Social frictions (Trust between Strangers) ........................................................ 245

9.2.4

Design as ‘mediator of knowledge ‘ (Belief in the Commons) .......................... 247

Implications for design practice ......................................................................... 248 Reflection on future research ............................................................................ 253

Acknowledgements ............................................................................. 265

Summary Place Making |Makers This PhD thesis was conducted in collaboration with the City and Development Department at Kolding Municipality and Design School Kolding. Kolding Municipality´s motivation for entering into the project was founded on an ambition for increased knowledge regarding social sustainable city development. Design School Kolding’s interest in the project is rooted in the school´s strategic focus area regarding Social Design, and the thesis will contribute to strengthening the school's already strong research focus on Social Design and ´research through design´. The thesis therefore, contributes to both research and practice. The PhD thesis is rooted in the growing challenges posed by segregation in the modern city. This issue is related to the increased economic disparities, but also to a heightened intolerance towards ethnic minorities, which makes segregated cities a serious social problem. The subject matter of this thesis is ‘public urban places on the edge between deprived housing neighbourhoods and the surrounding city’ and aims to contribute with knowledge about pivotal design parameters for developing public urban places that support interaction between people and a coherent city. The thesis contributes to research with knowledge about the underlying social phenomena´s influence on the physical surroundings (public urban places) through an investigation and discussion of their mutual interaction and dependence. The investigation likewise contributes with a definition of ‘social sustainable design of public urban places’, aiming to highlight the need that public urban places be designed through an approach with an equal focus on the social phenomena and the physical objects. The definition of ’social sustainable design of public urban places’ includes a conceptual separation in terms of the aim of a potential design project and its position within the two research approaches – Social Design and Design for Social Innovation. The positioning within the two approaches and the definition of ‘social sustainable design of public urban places’ likewise includes an argumentation of the role of design as well as an approach to navigating within the complexity. These issues are discussed through the empirical studies which illustrate how social phenomena, such as power or ‘place attachment’, appear in public urban places, and how design, as interventions or artefacts, can strengthen the identification and the involvement of these issues in order for ‘opportunity spaces’ to arise. The thesis contributes to practice through the development of a Matrix for Mapping Collaborative Places as a tool for structuring the mapping of public urban places with the aim to identify important actors that influence the place. This mapping of the public urban places is further developed through the use of the concept of Collaborative Urbanism, which contains four categories supporting an increased operationalisation of the interaction between the social phenomena and the physical surroundings.

The research approach is Research through Design, where I have used my competencies as an architect and a designer in the production of empirical material. The empirical studies were conducted at two locations in Denmark: •

The public urban park Superkilen in Copenhagen on the edge between the deprived housing neighbourhood Mjølnerparken and the surrounding city.

•

The deprived housing neighbourhood Skovparken/Skovvejen in Kolding.

In Skovparken/Skovvejen the area around the local shopping centre was identified as the most important edge zone in the neighbourhood regarding potentials and challenges for interaction between citizens and a coherent city. The two locations have acted as case studies within the thesis, supporting the investigation of social phenomena in a real-life context, where they appear when the line between the social phenomena and the context is less evident. Using case studies for my empirical investigation enables me to triangulate my investigations of the same locations and their immanent social phenomena. The PhD thesis is positioned within ‘Constructive Design Research’, where something tangible is constructed to generate empirical data. The thesis has used design artefacts and design interventions, working as ‘mediators for knowledge’ between the respondents or the place and me. The last design intervention, Words Upon a Place, moved from ‘Constructive Design Research’ into ‘Action Research’, when the ‘mediator for knowledge’ (the interactive benches) was destroyed and a negotiation about the place began. The research approach is ‘grounded theory’, where all knowledge is grounded on data from the field. The theoretical scaffolding has been built up during the entire PhD process based on findings from the field, and the empirical material has been revisited several times.

Resumé Place Making |Makers Dette PhD projekt er gennemført som et samarbejde mellem By- og Udviklingsforvaltningen i Kolding Kommune og Designskolen Kolding. Kolding Kommunes motivation for indgåelse i projektet er forankret i en ambition om større viden indenfor social bæredygtig byudvikling. Designskolen Koldings interesse i projektet er forankret i skolens strategiske indsatsområde om Social Design, hvor projektet skal bidrage til at styrke skolens forskningsmæssige tyngde indenfor Social Design og forskning gennem design. PhD projektet har derfor til formål at bidrage til både forskning og praksis. PhD projektet er funderet i de stigende udfordringer omkring segregering i den moderne by. Udover at være forbundet med en voksende økonomisk ulighed er der også indeholdt en dalende tolerance af etniske minoriteter, hvilket tilsammen gør segregering til en alvorlig samfundsmæssig udfordring. Afhandlingens genstandsfelt for undersøgelser er offentlige byrum på kanten af udsatte boligområder og den omkringliggende by, og projektet bidrager med viden om afgørende designparametre til udvikling af offentlige byrum, så de understøtter interaktion mellem mennesker og en sammenhængende by. PhD projektet bidrager til forskningen med viden om de underliggende sociale fænomeners indflydelses på den fysiske kontekst (offentlige byrum), gennem en undersøgelse - og diskussion af disses gensidige interaktion og afhængighed. Undersøgelserne bidrager ligeledes med en definition på social bæredygtig design af offentlige byrum, der belyser, hvordan byens rum må designes gennem en tilgang, der har lige meget fokus på de sociale fænomener som på de fysiske objekter. Definitionen på social bæredygtig design af offentlige byrum indeholder en konceptuel opdeling i forhold til et potentielt designprojekts målsætning og dermed en positionering indenfor de to designforsknings retninger - Social Design og Design for Social Innovation. Positioneringen i de to retninger og definitionen på social bæredygtigt design af offentlige byrum indeholder ligeledes en argumentation af, hvordan design kan bruges som tilgang til at navigere i kompleksiteten. Måden at navigere i kompleksiteten bliver undersøgt og diskuteret gennem de empiriske studier, der belyser, hvordan sociale fænomener som magt eller tilhørsforhold optræder i byens offentlige rum, og hvordan design som interventioner eller artefakter kan styrke identifikationen og inddragelsen af disse for derigennem at bidrage til, at mulighedsrum kan opstå. Afhandlingen bidrager til praksis med udvikling af Matrix for mapping collaborative places (matrice for kortlægning af samarbejdende byrum), der skal hjælpe til at strukturere en kortlægning af byens offentlige rum med det formål at kunne pege på de afgørende aktører i byrummet. Denne kortlægning af byrummet viderebearbejdes i konceptet Collaborative urbanism (samarbejdende urbanisme), der indeholder fire kategoriseringer for en øget operationalisering af interaktionen mellem de sociale fænomener og den fysiske kontekst.

Forskningstilgangen har været forskning gennem design, hvor jeg har brugt mine faglige kompetencer som arkitekt og designer i produktionen af det empiriske materiale. De empiriske undersøgelser er foregået på to lokationer i Danmark; • •

Det offentlige byrum Superkilen på kanten mellem det udsatte boligområde Mjølnerparken og den omkringliggende by Det udsatte boligområde Skovparken/ Skovvejen i Kolding.

I Skovparken/ Skovvejen blev området ved det lokale indkøbscenter lokaliseret som boligområdets vigtigste kantzone i forhold til potentialer og udfordringer for interaktion mellem mennesker og sammenhæng med resten af byen. De to lokationer er blevet behandlet som casestudier med sigte på at undersøge sociale fænomener i den virkelige kontekst, hvor de foregår, og hvor grænsen mellem de sociale fænomener og den fysiske kontekst ikke er indlysende. At benytte casestudier til mine undersøgelser giver mig mulighed for at triangulere mine undersøgelser, så samme fysiske lokationer og deres iboende sociale fænomener, undersøges på forskellige måder. Metodisk placerer forskningsprojektet sig i Ćonstructive Design Research´, hvor noget håndgribeligt konstrueres til indsamling af viden. I forbindelse med PhD projektets undersøgelser har jeg benyttet mig af design artefaktet og designinterventioner, der begge har fungeret som håndgribelige mediatorer for viden mellem mine respondenter eller stedet og mig. Den sidste designintervention, Words upon a place, bevæger sig fra at være Ćonstructive Design Research´ til at blive Áction Research´, da mediatoren (de interaktive bænke) for undersøgelser bliver ødelagt og en forhandling af byrummet går i gang. Den forskningsmæssige tilgang har været funderet i ´grounded theory´, hvor al genereret vide er forankret i erfaringer fra felten. Det teoretiske stillads er blevet bygget op løbende gennem PhDén på baggrund af erfaringer fra felten, og det empiriske materiale er genbesøgt flere gange.

Glossary Throughout the thesis, I will repeatedly use the following keywords: actors, coherence, design, design parameters, edge zones, negotiation, public urban places and spaces. The keywords can be interpreted in different ways, and they arise from different origins. I have, therefore, even before introducing the thesis, provided the reader with a glossary in order to ensure a precise understanding of the terms and how they are understood and used in the thesis. To develop the glossary, I have used the online Oxford English Dictionary 1, hereafter referred to as OED, in combination with theoretical explanations contained in the different terms and finally how the term is used and understood within this thesis. All the theoretical explanations are further presented in more detail in the Theoretical Scaffolding of the thesis. The glossary is in alphabetic order and is marked with a reference bracket (Gx) the first time the word is mentioned in the text, such as (G1) for Actor and (G2) for Coherence. Likewise, the glossary frames the arena which the reader will now enter. 1. Actors (G1) The definition of actors according to the OED is ´A participant in an action or process´. In their explanation the OED only refers to humans who are participating by playing a role. In my theoretical approach actors refer to the theoretical trajectory of Actor-Network Theory (ANT) (Latour, 2005). ANT focusses on the connection between all kinds of materials which is referred to as actors. Actors can be both human and non-human. In ANT the focus is not on the different materiality of the actors, but on what they do, and how they connect and interact with other materials. Actors are defined by the energy and action in the ´space between.´ In this thesis, actors are understood as all the different materials influencing a place such as buildings, legislation, people, paths, furniture or other materials. Referring to the title of the thesis, ´Place making | Makers,´ the actors are the makers, and the making is the place between the many actors. The construction of a place happens in the interplay between the makers and the making. 2. Coherence (G2) The definition of coherence according to the OED is ´The quality of being logical and consistent,´ or ´The quality of forming a unified whole’. Both explanations refer to something as connected. The explanation by the OED can refer to the material as well as the immaterial. Brighenti (2014) explains the relationship between territory and mobility as something creating coherence in a city. He argues that mobility is a pivotal element in territoriality, not only because it supports the connection between places and flows but also because it has the power to sustain certain associations and thereby also create new ones (Brighenti, 2012). He further links territory to mobility by arguing that when we link territory to acts and events, we set them in motion, and thus we can obtain a much more territorial understanding of mobilities (Brighenti, 2014). Through this understanding, coherence is both a connection through physical movement and also connections though movements of associations. 1

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/

Brighenti writes that ” territory is not defined by space, rather it defines spaces through patterns of relations” (Brighenti, 2010, p.57). In this thesis, coherence, like in the OED, may consist of both material and immaterial elements. It can refer to the roads or paths which connect one part of a city to another, and it can also link the relational place of place identity and stories from a place — all supporting a coherent city. 3. Design (G3) The definition of design, according to the OED, evolves around the movement from making a plan to having something material: ´The arrangement of the features of an artefact, as produced from following a plan or drawing´ or ´Purpose or planning that exists behind an action, fact or object.´ The theoretical understanding of design throughout this thesis is as an artefact for communication and as an approach to investigation. I am designing artefacts which support a dialogue between participants in my research and myself, or between a place for investigation and myself (Koskinen and Hush, 2016). Ehn (2008) describes artefacts as ‘boundary objects’ between the participants and the researcher, where something visual and tactile is used to empower a situation. In this thesis design is both the making of a plan and the creation of something material. The plan is the intention behind the investigation, and the materials are the Urban Songline book, the design intervention in A place called, and the creation of four storytelling benches in the design intervention, Words upon a place. 4. Design parameters (G4) According to the OED, the term parameter refers to the amount, frame or scope defining the limit within which an action can happen. Á quantity whose value is selected for the particular circumstances and in relation to which other variable quantities may be expressed.´ Or Á limit or boundary which defines the scope of a particular process or activity.´ Translating the OED definition in combination: Design parameters are the action based on a plan within a specific relational framework. Design parameters are the outcome of the analysis of either the doing of an actor or the relational space between the different actors. As illustrated in Figure 1, design parameters can, therefore, exist in the behaviour of an actor, looking at what this specific actor does to the place, and they can exist in the space between different actors as a relational dynamic such as hierarchies, power relations, (Kärrholm, 2017; Laclau and Mouffe, 2014; Massey, 1994) or ‘place attachments’, understood as a ‘level of attachment’ a user can have towards a place (Relph, 1976). The feature of design parameters and the reason they arise in an ópportunity space´ is that they are catalysts for change, based on an analysis or a plan, like in Skovparken, where a group of young boys are dominating a public square. The analysis shows that the boys must be integrated into the design process. This analysis is a plan which creates movement or change within a defined frame or scope. The defined frame or scope is the public square. 11

Figure 1: The feature of design parameters

A similar ‘opportunity space’ for changing the relational and social context also appears in ‘relational art’ or ‘relational aesthetics’ (Bourriaud, 2010), an art movement originating in the mid-1900s. The art piece or action of art existed in the relationship or the interaction between conductor, object or action, and the spectator. The aesthetics are in between and inherited in the experience of the action. ‘Relational art’ is the tool for a changing interaction. Design can do the same. The ‘opportunity space’ emerges in the construction of a design artefact designed to create knowledge (Koskinen, 2011). The term, ‘design parameters’, has been developed by me for this PhD thesis to explain the ‘opportunity space’ or ‘attentions points’ in the development of public urban places. An example of a ‘design parameter’ within this thesis can be the social friction between actors influencing a place. 5. Edge zones (G5) According to the OED, an edge is; ´The outside limit of an object, area, or surface´ or ´The line along which two surfaces of a solid meet.´ Both explain the line or the shift between two different elements. Sennet (1993) accentuates the edge zones as important places in the city because those are the places where most interaction happens. Sennet (2015) distinguishes between edge zone in borders and in boundaries (2015). A boundary makes no exchange possible, for example a cell wall, whereas a border, on the other hand, is porous like a cell membrane, which makes exchange possible. He explains that the realisation of a porous city is a city of interaction and tolerance. Places supporting interaction must, therefore, transform from boundaries into borders. In this thesis, the edge zones are the physical subject matter for investigation because of the theoretical argumentation that they contain most interaction, and are therefore pivotal places for interaction and a coherent city. 6. Negotiation (G6) According to the OED negotiation means ´Discussion aimed at reaching an agreement,´ or ´The action or process of transferring legal ownership of a document’.

Translating the OED´s last explanation into the context of public urban places could be: ´The action or process of transferring legal temporary occupancy of a place’. Both OED explanations of negotiation imply an act of tolerance, which to Bauman (1993) is essential if we want to create places for co-presence. Negotiations in public urban places happen most often peacefully, for example when stepping aside to let a fellow citizen pass or when one urban tribe (families with children or skaters) (Hajer and Reijndorp, 2001) takes over after another in an urban public place, dependent, for example, on the time of day. In this thesis, negotiation is used to explain both the peaceful processes, and the process that different actors enter into in the development of a public urban place. I use and understand the conversation I have with the Faktaboys in my last study as a negotiation of the centre square. 7. Public urban places (G7) Public urban places is an everyday term, broadly used by laypersons. Public in this thesis is used as an adjective. According to the OED, public means; Óf or concerning the people as a whole.´, Ópen to or shared by all the people of an area or country.´ Hajer and Reijndorp (2001) account for the emergence of ‘new public domains’. They explain public as clearly the opposite of private and the essence of a public place as a place that is freely accessible for everyone. One important matter to take into account when reflecting on and defining the word public, is the fact that it is described as something that can potentially be for everybody in both the theoretical literature and by the OED. It is explained as open, concerning and accessible for everyone, but it does not account for the equality or potential power relations within a place. Massey argues that “all public places are products of and dislocated by heterogeneities and sometimes conflicting social identities and relations” (2005, p. 152), in other words, it applies even if agonistic social dynamics are present in a place and a place is being dominated by a specific urban tribe (Hajer and Reijndorp, 2001). It does not prevent it from being public. Public does not necessarily refer to equality, but the potentially free access for everyone. Urban refers to a city context. It is also in this thesis used as an adjective. According to the OED, it is Ín, relating to, or characteristic of a town or city’. City planning often distinguishes between urban and suburban areas. A suburban area is defined as being on the outskirts of a city and often pertains to residential districts. The distinction between urban and suburban relates to the density of people, buildings, infrastructure and functions. In this thesis, I do not distinguish between urban and suburban places. I find the distinction irrelevant to my research, since the research focus evolves around the role of design, the mapping of actors, their interactions and how that impacts a place. However, I still find the distinction relevant to mention in the clarification of concepts, because my empirical data is collected in both an urban (Superkilen) and a suburban (Skovparken/Skovvejen, Kolding) environmental context. Important city planning elements such as density and Critical Mass are different in the two locations, and the elements in general affect the feature of a place. But the different design parameters that are present in a place (in general) are, on the other hand, independent of the different concepts. For that

reason, both urban and suburban contexts can enter equally as arenas for the collection of empirical data in my research. Place is used as a noun in this thesis. According to the OED, a place is Á particular position, point, or area in space; a location.´ Thus the OED also refers to a specific location, when using the word ‘place’. This thesis distinguishes between place and space. When I use the word place, it is always related to a specific geographic location. This is not tantamount to the perception that all things influencing that place are also geographically bounded. Place is relational and the sum of all the connections going on (Massey, 1994), space and place are equally concrete and abstract and equally local and global (Massey, 2005). Heidegger refers to places as something that takes place (2012). This means that place in this thesis contains all the relational connections taking place on one specific geographic site. Public urban places in this thesis are thus, understood as a specific geographical area, potentially accessible to everybody located in a city or town context. 8. Space (G8) According to the OED, space is understood very broadly Á continuous area or expanse which is free, available or unoccupied ór ´The dimensions of height, depth, and width within which all things exist and move’. The OED thus also explains space without a physical demarcation. Space is used when referring to the energy that is deployed within the physical place (Lefebvre, 1991), the space between subject and object or subject and subject happening in a place. Brighenti defines space as ´patterns of relations´ (2010, p.57). When Kärrholm (2017) explains about territorialisation in relation to space he refers to power relations, acts and events. He argues that they are creating a space. They function as actors, and the sum of and the interaction between them are creating a space. Therefore space is not defined by a specific area, but is always dependent on materiality. In this thesis the materiality is the place and what happens in the place between the actors is space.

1 Introduction and overview This thesis aims to study public urban places (G7) on the edge between deprived housing neighbourhoods and the surrounding city in Denmark. It investigates how different actors (G1), their behaviour, their perceptions or their configuration influence a place, and how design can be integrated into the social sustainable development of public urban places. The investigation contains two mutually coherent aims: The first investigation studies pivotal design parameters (G4) that affect a public urban place. The second research aim investigates how design (G3) can empower the involvement of citizens and thus how design can support social sustainable development of public urban places. The two core research questions of the thesis are: •

What design parameters are pivotal in the development of social sustainable public urban places, on the edge between deprived housing neighbourhoods and the surrounding city, with the aim to support interaction between citizens and a coherent (G2) city?

•

How can design contribute to empowering the involvement of citizens and to the development of places?

Within my research, I have applied different methods which have simultaneously contributed to the knowledge of both research questions. In the following pages, l shall present a more in-depth overview of the framing, motivation, content and structure of the thesis to help guide the reader through the thesis.

Framing the subject matter This PhD thesis takes its point of departure in the local challenges (scaling down) posed by segregated neighbourhoods in Kolding and in Copenhagen and investigates the relationships between the many different actors (Latour, 2005; Yaneva, 2013). For the last 25 years Kolding has struggled with segregated, deprived housing neighbourhoods, and it is therefore of local interest and of relevance for Kolding Municipality to acquire new knowledge. In Kolding, there are two deprived housing neighbourhoods, both represented on the Danish Government´s Ghetto List as illustrated in Table 1. The two neighbourhoods are Skovparken/Skovvejen and Munkebo. Skovparken/Skovvejen is the largest neighbourhood of the two listed, and the place which I have used in my field studies. The challenges characterising neighbourhoods on the Danish Government’s Ghetto List are factors such as high unemployment rates, a generally low education level and/or a high level of convicted citizens. As evident in Table 1 and accounted for by Iversen et al. (2019) all the neighbourhoods on the list have a high number of citizens with low socioeconomic status. The related causes of the high clustering of citizens with low socioeconomic status is further accounted for in section 2.3, A brief history of the rise and development of social housing in 16

Denmark. Section 2.3 also describes why the clustering happened in the same type of postwar, modernistic building typologies and neighbourhoods.

Table 1:The Danish Government’s Ghetto List 2018

Integrating Skovparken/Skovvejen and the neighbourhood residents is a challenge for Kolding Municipality. The lack of successful integration appears in different societal challenges such as a high unemployment rate among the residents compared to the rest of the Municipality and a generally bad image among the residents of Kolding. Residents living both inside Skovparken/Skovvejen and in other neighbourhoods of the city describe Skovparken/Skovvejen as a neighbourhood that stands out by being full of conflicts and crime. Skovparken/Skovvejen has been part of the deprived social housing initiatives for the past 25 years, and yet another ´Comprehensive Plan´ (Helhedsplan) 2018-2021 has recently been initiated 2. As Table 1 shows, deprived neighbourhoods exist in many other Danish cities besides Kolding, and the challenge is not limited to a Danish context. In Denmark, as in the rest of the world, 2

https://byliv.kolding.dk/images/publikationer/Samlet-helhedsplan--2018-2021-hjemmeside.pdf

cities have become increasingly more segregated in terms of levels of income. Segregated cities are as such nothing new. In cities in the Middle Ages the wealthiest and most powerful, such as the merchants or the aristocracy, lived in the most attractive places in the city (the city centre); the craftsmen lived along the main streets, and the poorest citizens lived in the outskirt of the society, sometimes even banished to live outside the city walls. A sociographic segregation of residents is not necessarily a negative phenomenon. It depends on whether it is related to preference-borne or exclusive segregations. However, increasingly, economic differences in society together with less tolerance towards ethnic minorities, as we see it today, mean that segregated cities become a more serious matter (Andersen and Larsen, 2011). In Denmark, segregation is particularly present in the cities such as Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense and Aalborg that experience the largest growth, and here segregation has been increasing for the last 40 years (Bech-Danielsen and Christensen, 2017). Bech-Danielsen (2014) explains that segregation of neighbourhoods is a threat to the social cohesion in a city because it prevents social life from expanding across social, economic and cultural boundaries. It is problematic when residents do not meet across those communities and when groups from the top and the bottom of society keep to themselves. This adversely affects social cohesion and creates insecurity in the neighbourhoods, which become more socially disproportioned. Additionally, it contributes to the retention of resource-weak residents in unfortunate situations, since shared negative codes of behaviour can contribute to keeping residents in challenging situations for example being unemployed. He explains that when a high concentration of e.g., unemployed citizens live in the same neighbourhood, a shift in the perception of what is ´normal´ can easily happen, where it becomes normal and hence acceptable to be unemployed. This can further result in constraints for development and a lack of role models for the neighbourhood children. Deprived housing neighbourhoods, as previously mentioned, are not a recently emerged challenge. Most of the neighbourhoods in Denmark were built during the 1960s and 1970s, and both physical and social challenges occurred soon after. In chapter 2, I account more thoroughly for the historical development of the neighbourhoods. The most recent investigations conclude that architects, municipalities and social housing associations still have insufficient knowledge regarding connecting deprived neighbourhoods to the surrounding city. Christensen (2013) concludes in her PhD thesis that neighbourhoodbased actions have failed to positively contain the impact of the structural circumstances that create residential segregation. In the report `Evidence of Social Effects from Physical Action in Deprived Housing Neighbourhoods´ (Bjørn and Holek, 2014), Copenhagen Municipality together with The Danish Association of Architects conclude that physical actions have a social effect, but that we still know too little about how to work around the physical context. In their book From Ghetto to Mixed City (Bech-Danielsen and Stender, 2017) the authors present a list of tools which have successfully been integrated into former developments projects, but argue that the essence of a successful development project lies in the analysis of the neighbourhood. I will elaborate on and integrate this list in my presentation of current thinking and actions in chapter 2. The status quo shows that great efforts, actions and monetary resources have been and are being allocated to the challenges presented by segregated neighbourhoods. Attention to solving the challenges are present at all levels, from local volunteer initiatives to the 18

government level, since the consequences of segregated neighbourhoods affect both the individual living in the neighbourhood and society as a whole. The status quo thus illuminates that places are products of both the individual everyday life and at the same time of legislation and power structures. The challenge of segregated, deprived housing neighbourhoods in Denmark is a complex causal situation, which calls for further investigations. As an architect and a designer, I chose to focus on public urban places on the edge between deprived housing neighbourhoods and the surrounding city as my specific subject matter. Sennet (2015, 1993, 1992) argues that edge zones (G5) are the most advantageous potential place for interaction between the inhabitants in a city. Thus, I shall investigate one corner of this complexity and study how the use of design can make the complexity of this place more operational. There is already attention on the physical elements of edge zones where the mindset adding infrastructure, tearing down building blocks, physically softening the edge zones or adding physical functions that would lead to coherence and interaction. In this research project I aim to contribute with knowledge that can strengthen this work by focusing on the space between subject and object (Schechner, 2013) by studying the influencing actors (Latour, 2005; Yaneva, 2013), and by adding attention to social parameters such as ‘place attachment’ (Relph, 1976) and ‘power relations’ (Brighenti, 2014, 2010; Kärrholm, 2017; Laclau and Mouffe, 2014) to secure interaction across world and value systems and cultural patterns (Healey, 2006; Lefebvre, 1991; Massey, 1994).

1.1.1

Global issues can make local relevance even more present

According to forecasts on urban growth and increased migration to European cities, the challenge of segregated and deprived neighbourhoods in Kolding and in Denmark in general are at risk of growing even further. This PhD thesis finds its global relevance in argumentations about growing cities and increased migration globally (Manzini, 2016; Nations, 2014) and claims that professionals must develop cities in the future with an increased focus on coherence and interaction between citizens. The population of people living in urban areas will most likely increase rapidly over the next years. In 1950, 30 per cent of the world’s population was urban. This number increased to 54 per cent in 2014, and by 2050, 66 per cent of the world’s population is projected to be residing in urban areas (Nations, 2014). Manzini (2016) writes that due to wars and natural disasters Europe will, in the coming decades, be the place-to-go for several million people, and integrating newcomers as resources in our cities will be a vital goal. If wars and natural disasters are the causes of increased migration to Europe existing forecasts of population growth in European cities are no longer reliable, and cities must have the competencies to integrate a larger number of newcomers much faster than predicted. “Creating cities, towns and communities that are economically, environmentally and socially sustainable, and which will meet the challenges of population growth, migration and climate change will be one of the biggest tasks of this century.” (Woodcraft et al., 2011, p. 5) As stated by Woodcraft in the quote above, sustainable city development is a pressing challenge that makes more research within the area important.

1.1.2

Research focus

Both the local and the global relevance is embraced and integrated into the project formulation below: This thesis takes its point of departure in the local challenges related to segregated neighbourhoods in Kolding and Copenhagen. The current relevance is further supported by the argumentation that in general growing cities are becoming increasingly more segregated. The argumentation also claims that European cities, due to wars and natural disasters, will be rapidly expanding and must hence be able to absorb a larger number of migrants in the future. Having deprived neighbourhoods as detached enclaves inside or on the outskirt of a city presents a huge societal challenge, both in Denmark and in the rest of the world, since segregated cities prevent the expansion of social life across social, economic and cultural boundaries. A review of the literature on development projects of deprived housing neighbourhoods in Denmark shows that there is a great focus on connecting the neighbourhoods with the surrounding city and an awareness of the edge zones. However, I identified a lack of research focussing on the underlying social phenomena influencing the physical context of public urban places on the edge between deprived housing neighbourhoods and the surrounding city and on the the connection between the physical context and the social phenomena. This thesis, therefore, investigates public urban places, on the edge between deprived housing neighbourhoods and the surrounding city. Those places are core areas for interaction in a city because they are shared places and hence potential crossroads and meeting points.

Relevance and motivations This PhD was initiated by a common interest by both Kolding Municipality and Design School Kolding in expanding existing knowledge about social sustainable city development and the role of design within this context. Design School Kolding Design School KoldingÂ´s (DSKD) motivation for initiating the PhD is based on a focus and interest in Social Design. Social Design has been a strategic focus area at the school for several years. From the fall of 2018 the school also offers a thematic Masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s programme in Social Design â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Design for People. It is, therefore, of great interest for DSKD to obtain and contribute with new knowledge on how to use design in projects with a social agenda. The research approach at DSKD is characterised by a high degree of integrating design practice and design knowledge into the PhD projects. Cross-disciplinarity with other professions and theoretical approaches are incorporated from the humanities and/or technological trajectories. Like this project, PhD thesis are often conducted in collaboration with external partners from either the public or the private sector. DSKD has three strategic focus areas: Planet, Play and People. All research projects at DSKD reinforce one strategic focus area, which in this project is People and the collaborator is Kolding Municipality.

Kolding Municipality In 2017, Kolding was nominated as a UNESCO Design City. UNESCO substantiated their selection based on a long-term design strategy within Kolding Municipality, which was decided by the city council back in 2012. The strategy focussed on integrating design thinking into the Municipality’s work and the city development. As the only municipality in Denmark, Kolding has a Design Secretariat that coordinates and integrates design thinking as an approach and a tool throughout the Municipality’s work. When Kolding Municipality decided to enter into collaboration with Design School Kolding on this PhD project, design was, therefore, an inherent element for both collaborators. The PhD is located in the City- and Development Department in order to obtain increased knowledge of how the use of design can support the social sustainable developments of the city. Halfway through the PhD period, initial findings were presented and challenged at a workshop with participants from several different departments within the Municipality. At the start of the workshop, the Head of Department, Jan Krarup, presented the argumentation for entering into the collaboration on the PhD: “We believe that, by now, we are quite proficient when it comes to environmental sustainable development of the city. But we know far too little about social sustainability. That is why we initiated the collaboration.” (Jan Krarup, Urban Laboratory, workshop Kolding Library, 2016) Kolding is a growing city, with several urban areas in the process of development. In collaboration with Cowi, Kolding Municipality (Kolding Kommune and Cowi, 2017) has devised a forecast showing that the population of the entire municipality will rise from 92,288 citizens in 2017 to 103,116 primo 2030. This equals an increase in the population of 11.7 per cent. The expected increase nationwide in the same period is set at 6.2 per cent (Kolding Municipality and Cowi, 2017). Even If Kolding only grows as forecasted, several city development projects have already been initiated which makes this research relevant. In 2016 the city council initiated a large-scale development project for a whole new district – Marina City – including a large marina and new attractive dwellings located by the bay, with the additional aim of creating a better connection to the bay. Another urban project focusses on strengthening Kolding as an attractive study city, by developing yet another district – Design City – with Design School Kolding and the newly built University of Southern Denmark (SDU) as important promoters. This expansion and densification process in Kolding makes the thesis relevant, since the city, as it grows, needs to be aware of maintaining cohesion and interaction between residents across the city.

Place Making|Makers The title of the thesis; Place Making | Makers refers to both the theoretical framing and the empirical approach of this PhD project. My research focusses on places within a specific physically bounded, urban location. Even though the places I investigate are bound places, like one specific park or square, the places

are still understood as products of multiple entities (Makers) affecting this specific place (Healey, 2006; Massey, 1994a, 2005b). These Makers are both physically located at the place, like buildings or paths, it can be different users of the place or professional (urban planners, architects, designers) or legislation or rules having influence on the place. The Making of a place arises in the space (G8) between the many Makers (Schechner, 2013). In the space between appear social phenomena such as ‘power relations’ (Brighenti, 2010; Foucault et al., 2007; Kärrholm, 2017; Laclau and Mouffe, 2014; Mouffe, 1993), ‘place identity’ or ‘levels of place attachment’ (Relph, 1976). All the Makers, their Making, and their interconnectedness are theoretically accounted for through the Actor-network Theory (ANT), first conceived by Latour and later developed into an architectural and design process context by Yaneva (Latour, 2005; Yaneva, 2013). In addition to the theoretical discussion of, and approach towards, places as products of multiple physical objects and social phenomena, this PhD thesis takes its point of departure in Critical Theory, adding an extended theoretical discussion of the social space by comparing theory from Collaborative Consumption (Botsman and Rogers, 2011) with urban theory (Awan et al., 2011; J. Gehl, 1971; Healey, 2006; Laclau and Mouffe, 2014; Lefebvre, 1991; Massey, 2005, 1994; Nielsen, 2001; Studio, 2017; Whyte, 1988) and critical thinking (Best, 2016; Brenner et al., 2012; Lefebvre et al., 1996, 1998). The aim is to explore the possibility of approaching development of public urban places as an act of designing the physical place and the social space simultaneously. The PhD project follows the methodology of ´research through design´ (Archer, 1995; Frayling, 1993). In the empirical studies, different design artefacts are used as a ‘mediator for knowledge’ (Corlin, 2016) that conveys knowledge from a person, a situation or a place onto the researcher through a performance (Schechner, 2013) or the construction of an artefact (Koskinen, 2011). The empirical studies are further supported by architectural observations focussing on the interaction between people and places (Gehl and Svarre, 2013; Spradley, 1980; Studio, 2017). Both design interventions take inspiration from the relational art practice, where human relations and social context become the artistic practice (Bourriaud, 2010). The methodological approach emerges through four empirical studies: • •

The empirical study of Superkilen (a public urban park in Copenhagen, Denmark) Three empirical studies in Skovparken/Skovvejen o The Urban Songline study o Safety Day /A Place Called… o Words Upon a Place.

All empirical studies critically examine the different actors (Makers) influencing a place. The investigation of Superkilen focusses on the different design parameters that have been activated into the development of the park, and also which parameters have been neglected in the development of the park. The Urban Songline study investigates how 15 residents in Skovparken use, perceive and relate to different places in the city of Kolding and in their neighbourhood, to study what elements have the greatest impact on the respondents’ relation, use and perception of self-chosen public urban places. 22

Safety Day/ A Place Called… and Words Upon a Place, both focus on the centre square in Skovparken/Skovvejen. The two design interventions both aim to study how design can function in the development of a place with constrained interaction between the residents in Skovparken and the coherence with the surrounding city. In Words Upon a Place, the Library Park in Kolding is integrated as an additional urban arena for investigations. The Library Park is incorporated into the design intervention to investigate the possibilities of working across the cadastral borders to challenge and investigate the mental edge zones across the city.

Contributions The contributions of the PhD thesis target design research and also the design, architectural and planning practice. Hence the thesis also responds to both Kolding Municipality and Design School Kolding. The main contributions of the PhD thesis consist of: •

Knowledge of the underlying social phenomena influencing the physical context of public urban places through an investigation and discussion of the mutual interaction between social phenomena and the physical environment.

•

A discussion of how social sustainable design of public urban places is positioned within the field between Social Design and Design for Social Innovation and how the design approach can help master the complexity.

•

A discussion of power in public urban places, how it appears in different ways and how designs, such as interventions and artefacts, can strengthen an investigation of social phenomena as power relation and thereby contribute to the creation of opportunity spaces.

•

Development of the Matrix for mapping collaborative places and the concept of Collaborative Urbanism, which can function as a theoretical and conceptual framework for analysis of public urban places.

•

Introduction of the term `Social frictions´ in the context of urban development.

I will present an in-depth description of the contributions in the final chapter.

Thesis structure The thesis is structured in three overall parts divided into Foundations, Investigations and Contributions. Each part contains different chapters. The structure of the thesis is visualised in figure 2.

Figure 2: Thesis structure

Chapter two presents a contextualisation of the PhD thesis, first by positioning it within the field of city development in deprived housing neighbourhoods and secondly by a position within social sustainability through a discussion of urban social sustainability and social sustainable design. Chapter three contains the theoretical scaffolding used in the project. The chapter is organised to reflect the theoretical narrowing down process. It starts on a meta level, moves closer and closer towards the physical subject matter of the thesis and ends by presenting theories of the methodology used in the research project. Chapter four presents an in-depth description of the research approach and methods. It positions the thesis within Social Design and Design for Social Innovation, within participatory

design, ´Constructive Design Research´ and also ´Action Research´. Finally, it accounts for the different methods and approaches employed within the empirical studies. Chapter five presents the case study of Superkilen. The case study functions as a pilot study in the research project, using observations, interviews and a small design intervention to map the different actors influencing the park. Chapter six describes the Urban Songline study in Skovparken. This study contains 12 in-depth interviews with 15 residents in the neighbourhood of Skovparken/Skovvejen. The interviews are conducted through the use of the design artefact, The Urban Songline book. Chapter seven presents the empirical study Safety Day followed by the design intervention A Place Called….. Safety Day was arranged by the social housing organisation, Byliv Kolding. I was observing and filming the day. The design intervention A Place Called….. was a direct response to Safety Day. It was conducted as part of my stay at Bartlett UCL, London. I conducted a Site-Writing project using writing and direct engagement with the centre square to create a critique of the place. The Site-Writing project, a Newspaper, is Appendix 3 in the thesis. Chapter eight describes the final design intervention in the project, Words Upon a Place. This study contains the design of four interactive benches, placed at two locations in Kolding, The centre square and the Library Park. Chapter nine is the concluding chapter. Here I synthesise the previous chapters and link the analysis from the four empirical studies to answer the main research questions and also to make clear the contribution of the research to the field of Social Design and the design and planning practice of social sustainable urban development. I end that chapter by pointing to future research possibilities.

The Appendix contains: • • •

Appendix 1: Three articles written during the PhD project period Appendix 2: Scheme with notes of 20 reference projects Appendix 3: The Site-Writing project, A Place Called…, Newspaper

All illustrations and pictures have been generated by me unless otherwise noted.

Contextualising and Positioning the PhD

In the following chapter, I contextualise and frame the PhD project to position it within the field of design for social sustainable public urban places. I present a historical overview of the subject matter and the contributing causes leading to the rise of deprived social housing areas in Denmark. I explain the current practice of developing the neighbourhoods and link the practice to the theory behind it. Additionally, I expose my definition of urban social sustainability by relating the understanding of two different domains: • •

First into the domain of urbanity as an approach to physically contextualising the term Secondly into the domain of design research for a methodological position of social sustainable design

In the final section, I present limitations and biases within the thesis.

Positioning the PhD project This PhD is positioned between the social and the physical space and investigates how the social parameters and the physical configuration of a place are affecting the perception, use, users and identity of a place. It aims to strengthen the knowledge of how to work with social sustainable development of public urban places in Danish cities. The subject matter for the investigation is public urban places on the edge between deprived housing neighbourhoods and the surrounding city. Current recommendations regarding the development of deprived housing neighbourhoods argue in favour of a connection between the physical and the social efforts (Bech-Danielsen and Christensen, 2017; Bech-Danielsen and Stender, 2017; Bjørn og Holek, 2014). To position the research within current practice, I studied 20 development projects/reference cases in Denmark (Appendix 2) to investigate the role, connection and appearance of the social elements within these projects. I divided the social elements which I found in the projects into two categories: social efforts (mostly presented through initiatives within the ´Comprehensive Social Plan´) and social involvement and interaction. Social efforts are placed under the ´Comprehensive Social Plan´ (Den Sociale Helhedsplan). Projects under the plan focus on public health and enhanced competencies among the residents. They support both adults and children within the neighbourhood in improving their living conditions. Social involvement and interaction cover all the physical efforts such as urban gardening or events in community centres where residents meet and socialise. This category also covers all the development projects where residents are involved in different participatory workshops, discussing activities and functions within the development project of new outdoor places, or where residents themselves are involved as producers/ builders of the outdoor places. However, as I studied the projects, I identified yet another category within the social category as an underlying phenomenon that had not received much attention, which I name ‘social frictions’. It was not an acknowledged category, yet several of the reference projects within 26

this study reveal examples of a failure to integrate different kinds of social frictions into the development project that later has weakened the project aim. In the following paragraphs, I present three examples of social frictions from the reference cases (Appendix 2) to explain what I mean by ´social frictions´ in the thesis. The concept of ‘social frictions’ is expanded and developed throughout the thesis, as I build up more knowledge about the concept through empirical studies. 1. Finlandsparken, Vejle. The coherence with the surrounding city has failed. One of the reasons is the poor infrastructural coherence to the context. The surrounding dwellings, social housing associations (Østerbo & Lejerbo), denied a greater coherence with Finlandsparken and therefore refused to continue the new paths running through Finlandsparken and into their neighbourhoods. A resident states “It is fine with the different ´clusters´ (word for theme-based activity courtyards between the blocks), but if something is going to happen, we need activities across Finlandsparken and other places in the city” (Bech-Danielsen and Stender, 2017, s. 59). The aim of greater coherence might have been reached if the ‘social frictions’ between the three social housing associations had been integrated into the design process as part of the development work. 2. Cohesion was the main issue when the Copenhagen Municipality and Realdania entered into a partnership agreement in 2004 about Mimersparken, Nørrebrohallen and Superkilen (BechDanielsen and Stender, 2017). Superkilen has not succeeded in connecting Mjølnerparken with the surrounding city, partly because of local resistance to more openness (Bech-Danielsen and Stender, 2017). I will elaborate further on this specific topic in my case study of Superkilen/Mjølnerparken. 3. After the opening of Multipark in Vapnagård, in Elsinore, the place suffered from vandalism and local gangs hanging out in the park. This was solved by frequent visits by the police, installation of surveillance cameras and pedagogic actions preventing the gangs from staying there. In the development of the Multipark the project entered a domain ´belonging´ to a gang of young men and changed the area into a shared place primarily used by younger middle-class children. By integrating the young gang of boys into the design process, the riots and surveillance cameras could have been avoided, and stronger interaction between old and new users could have evolved. The ‘social frictions’ presented in the reference projects contain elements of agonistic behaviour based on power relations, political priorities or agendas and unresolved conflicts. Figure 3 illustrates three different categories of ‘social frictions’ identified in the reference cases, which I argue can affect a development project and the subsequent use and perception of a public urban place.

Figure 3: Identified categories of social frictions affecting the physical design or use of public urban places.

Unresolved conflicts can be mistrust between different stakeholders in a place, e.g. across cadastral borders, if, for example, owner and user belong to different groups. It may also be conflicting notions of increased coherence and connection, or it may be contradicting visions of the physical solution. Political priorities or agendas refer to placement of institutions like kindergartens or drop-in centres, which may affect the connection to the surroundings, or it may be agendas or legislation within the social housing association, preventing work across cadastral borders. Agonistic behaviour refers to a user group intimidating and dominating the place through their behaviour. I position my research within the space between the social and the physical place to investigate how to map, integrate and work with the social phenomena in development of the physical place. Melgaard (2018) adds to the argument of the ideal spatial design and the importance of implementing the social phenomena into development projects. She writes in her thesis: “The studies presented in the thesis show that to define the public spaces most suitable for developing into public domains, physical and social parameters must be addressed as a whole, not separately, as they mutually condition each other” (Melgaard, 2018, p 12). In Melgaard´s (2018) definition of social parameters, she refers to Hajer and Reijndorf´s (2001) definition of ‘new public domains’ evolving around a broad ‘place attachment’ among neighbourhood residents, a host of different users being present simultaneously and the possibility of negotiation (G6) of place. As part of my positioning, I integrate the theoretical trajectories which focus on explaining the space between subject and object, where there is an interlinked connection between behaviour and the physical world. I integrate theory from power, power relations, (Foucault et al., 2007, Laclau and Mouffe, 2014), territorialisation (Brighenti, 2010; Kärrholm, 2017), place

attachment (Relph, 1976) tolerance and solidarity (Bauman, 1993), performative design and ‘collaborative consumption’ (Botsman and Rogers, 2011; Kiib, 2010; Schechner, 2017). In the following two sections, I present my definition of social sustainability, first within an urban context and secondly within the field of design.

Situating social sustainability within an urban context and within design In this section, I situate the PHD thesis within the understanding of the term ‘social sustainability’. Since the term is so widely used it is often difficult to understand what the term actually means (Davoudi et al., 2012; Dempsey et al., 2011; Murphy, 2014; Woodcraft, 2015, 2012). I find it relevant to explain how I perceive and use the term within the context of the thesis. I narrow my study and discussion of ‘social sustainability’ to be within the context of design and urbanity by clarifying the concept of social sustainable urban development and how to approach this subject matter through design methods. The term ‘social sustainability’ was first established in the Brundtland report (Brundtland and World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987) (Brundtland, 1987). The report defined a trichotomy of sustainable development by dividing it into social, environmental and economic sustainability. From that time and for the following 20 years ‘social sustainability’ received little notice. In the last ten years, however, it has received increased attention as a distinct concept in both theory, policy and practice (Woodcraft, 2012).

2.2.1

‘Social sustainability’ in urban development

Within the context of urban theory Woodcraft (2012) describes ‘social sustainability’ as: social capital, human capital and wellbeing: ”In spite of its multiple interpretations and a sense of ambiguity about the policy objectives, there appears to be a consensus in the literature that social sustainability incorporates a set of underlying themes that could be described as social capital, human capital and well-being” (Woodcraft, 2012, p.30) To create social sustainable cities, close attention has to be paid to social problems that can be addressed by applying ‘social sustainability’ as an approach (Woodcraft, 2012). I will elaborate on the three terms; social capital, human capital and well-being in the following paragraphs, since Woodcraft (2012) argues that they appear consistent in literature. ‘Capital’ as a term refers to assets or the value of assets. I juxtapose human capital in the context of this PhD thesis as the empowerment of the individual citizen to contribute within a city or neighbourhood context. The ‘social capital or the social assets’, in the context of this thesis, refers to the shared capital of a community or neighbourhood community, which enables it to integrate, embrace, and support each individual human being. The last term, ´well-being’, refers to the support a city can provide its citizens regarding physical and mental well-being. Well-being is fundamental to both the individual and the 29

community, since well-being increases in areas where citizens are involved and can influence their neighbourhood (Hothi et al., 2008). Additionally, well-being also refers to the physical environmental capacity to support physical and mental well-being, such as green parks or bicycle lanes. The concept of ‘urban social sustainability’ (Dempsey et al., 2011, p.2) is not absolute or constant, but a dynamic factor which can change over time in a place. Regarding the argumentation that places are products of multiple influencing entities (Healey, 2006; Massey, 1994), where different actors (Yaneva and Heaphy, 2012) such as political decisions about closing a school, opening a café or changing the infrastructure, influence the ability of a place to be social sustainable, ‘urban social sustainability’, therefore, combines the design of the physical realm with the design of the social structures so that people can use, benefit from and contribute to place development, and also that a place can grow and be vibrant which, according to Woodcraft et al.(2011), is fundamental for a place to qualify as social sustainable. To contribute to the understanding of ‘urban social sustainability’ for design research and to make the concept more operational for a design, architectural and planning practice, I turn to Dempsey et al.´s (2011) conceptual separation and their argumentation that the ability of a place to be social sustainable operates on two planes. To explain and elaborate on the two planes and to contextualise the concept into the subject matter of social sustainable design of public urban places, I add references from the theoretical scaffolding of the thesis and relate the concept to a discussion of a design research approach to socially sustainable development. Plane 1 is the overall plane of ‘social equity’ (Dempsey et al., 2011). In an urban context, this relates to social and environmental exclusion, where citizens can participate economically, socially and politically in society, or where citizens have equal access to all services and facilities within a city (Lefebvre et al., 1996). Equity refers to the distribution of welfare, goods and life chances, that people across genders, cultures and social status have equal opportunities to both survive and fulfil their development potential, by having equal access to things like employment, education, social networks, or essential medicine (Murphy, 2014). Within the physical context of this PhD project the built environment, inequity, and social exclusion manifest themselves in deprived neighbourhoods with poorer living environments and lower access to be, what Lefebvre (2003) pronounces as, equal consumers and contributors to the city. The manifestation of ‘social equity’ in the built environment is also emphasised by Bourdieu (2014), who argues that social stratification manifests itself in the physical place through habitus. Plane 2 is ‘sustainability of community’, as denominated by Dempsey et al. (2011), which relates to a prevailing social order in a neighbourhood and the support of interactions and networks between all residents. As argued by Blackman (2006), it is difficult to separate social activities from the physical setting in which they take place. Plane 2 is therefore related to a bounded physical location, which is additionally relevant regarding the research subject matter of 'social sustainable design of public urban places.

Taking the point of departure in Dempsey et al.´s (2011) explanation of ‘sustainability of community’ and the immanent connection to the physical environment, I have identified four aspects to be included in the concept of social sustainable design of public urban places. • • • •

Place attachment Participation Social interaction Physical form and configuration

I will elaborate on each aspect by combining Dempsey et al.´s (2011) definition with relevant and supporting theory from the theoretical scaffolding of the thesis. Place attachment is also referred to by Dempsey et al. (2011) as ‘sense of place’. ´Place attachment´ can grow both because of the physical environment and because of the people who inhabit it (Relph, 1976). Included in ‘place attachment’ are also the social order and common norms. Shared norms and values support a deeper sense of community for the citizens, to the point where it manifests itself in the built environment, because shared values and norms turn into codes of behaviour (Bourdieu, 2014; Dempsey et al., 2011; Kearns and Forrest, 2000). If a place, for example, suffers from a high level of vandalism, it most likely affects negatively on the feeling of safety, which again results in a reduced level of interaction and community participation. Participation supports the feeling of cohesion, and it is important for the social capital. Participation in organised activities contributes positively to community sustainability (Dempsey et al., 2011). It further refers to citizens being contributors (Lefebvre, 1991) and users (Tietjen et al., 2017) and to the importance of citizens having influence (Hothi et al., 2008). Gauntlett (2011) also describes how social capital can arise through shared experiences and through the experience of creating things together and how a community evolves through sharing and common experiences. Social interaction is fundamental for a cohesive neighbourhood and city and is an imbedded part of the social capital (Forrest and Kearns, 2001). It refers to social networks and aspects like trust, knowledge, relationships, obligations, expectations and ‘place attachment’, which are all dependent on social interaction (Dempsey et al., 2011; Pennington and Rydin, 2000). Social cohesion depends on social interaction and is fundamental for citizens’ ability to participate and to be included in a community. Social interaction furthermore combats cultural intolerance and strengthens solidarity (Bauman, 1993). The physical form and configuration, such as density, scale, mixed functions and mixed use of functions combined with the configuration and order between different physical elements, affect the range of citizens using a specific place (J. Gehl, 1971; Jacobs, 1961; Sennett, 1993). Thus, the physical form and configuration influence the physical potentials and opportunities for social interaction, participation in activities, and also ‘place attachments’ regarding the identification with place. The interconnectedness of the physical and the social elements in ´urban social sustainability´ is thus obvious. The theoretical explanation of ‘urban social sustainability’ is one element in positioning and understanding the term ‘social sustainable’ within this PhD thesis.

In the next section, I approach ‘social sustainability’ from a design perspective. To be able to define the concept of ‘social sustainable design’ of public urban places, I turn to the argumentation of a social sustainable design research approach (Mazé et al., 2011) to argue the role of design within the concept of ‘social sustainable design’ of public urban places.

2.2.2

Social sustainable design

‘Urban social sustainability’ is the epitome of a ´wicked´ problem (Rittel and Webber, 1973) with multiplicities of frictions, different political and personal agendas and perceptions of both the physical and the social world. ‘Wicked’ problems within design research that works with social sustainable projects call for a critical approach, since social sustainable problematics aim towards more desirable situations. The field of design research and practice has the capacity to incorporate theories and methods from other relevant fields and is therefore able to address ‘wicked’ problems and social parameters aiming to expand and deepen ways of approaching and integrating social parameters into development work (Mazé et al., 2011). Within this thesis and hence also within my definition of ‘social sustainable design’, I add an extended trajectory of theories and concepts to argue for an expanded way of approaching and integrating social parameters into the development process of ‘social sustainable design’ of public urban places. I propose to integrate Collaborative Urbanism as a theoretical concept that enables the integration of social parameters and physical elements on equal terms into a design development process. Mazé et al. further argue. “In the tradition of participatory design and critical futures, our design research takes on a role of framing ‘microcosms’ in which societal and future problematics may be made present, visible and tangible, as a basis for critical thinking, social learning and constructive action” (Mazé et al., 2011, p. 10) The framing of problematics on a micro scale, which can address societal and future problems (macro-scale) has connections to Manzini´s (2014) definition of ‘Design for Social Innovation’. In my theoretical scaffolding (chapter 3) I elaborate on Social Design, Design for Social Innovation and participatory design. I argue that they are fundamental design theoretical takeoffs in my research of ‘social sustainable design’ of public urban places, since they support a close connection between the physical form and social parameters such as behaviour, power, empowerment, frictions, tolerance, and solidarity. Furthermore, they build on a critical approach that supports the addition of an extended theoretical layer to implement into future research and practice. Explaining my design research approach to ‘social sustainable development’ of public urban places I position my argumentation of using participatory design, critical design and ´Constructive Design Research´ methods as methods for data production and integrate them into the design process, where constructed design artefacts become ´boundary objects´ (Ehn, 2008) or ‘mediators of knowledge’ (Corlin, 2016). These then support an expanded production of knowledge and an extended ability to integrate the social parameters into a development process. Connecting the concepts of ‘urban social sustainability’ (Dempsey et al., 2011) with Mazé et al.´s (2011) discussion of a design research approach to ‘ social sustainable development’ and

positioning both in the physical subject matter of this PhD – public urban places on the edge between deprived housing neighbourhoods and the surrounding city – has developed into the foundation for the analysis of ‘social sustainable design’ of public urban places in this PhD project. The section above presents the understanding and positioning of ‘social sustainability’ within this thesis, based on theoretical explanations of ‘urban social sustainability’ and on argumentations of a design research approach to sustainable development. Figure 4 illustrates my definition of ‘social sustainable design´ of public urban places. The two planes are not independent of one another, but they must be seen as a useful conceptual distinction (Dempsey et al., 2011), which can make the term more operational. Both planes are present in the work with ‘social sustainable design of public urban places’ and both planes influence the social and human capital as well as the well-being of the citizens. The design approach appears in the middle of the four aspects involved in the concept on plane 2. The design approach differs regarding each specific project and its specific challenges. It can thus impact the relationship between the four aspects on plane 2 in such way that it changes the internal relationship between the four aspects, where one project requires a main focus on ‘place attachment’ whereas another project demands more emphasis on the ´physical form and configuration´.

Figure 4: The aspects included in the concept of ‘social sustainable design of public urban places’

In positioning this PhD I identified three types of ‘social frictions’. ‘Social frictions’ within this thesis are always bound to the specific geographical location and refer to behaviour in or regarding that specific location, which means that ‘social frictions’ appear on plane 2 and that the ‘social frictions’ can also affect the design approach in terms of the type of ‘social friction’.

In the following section, I present a historical overview of the subject matter of deprived housing neighbourhoods and the associated causes resulting in today's deprived housing neighbourhoods in Denmark. This section is followed by a description of the current thinking and actions aimed at developing deprived neighbourhoods.

A brief history of the rise and development of social housing in Denmark By the end of the 1800s the first legislation was introduced regarding public support for social associations to build housing for people who could not afford the cost themselves. The labour movement and its political party, the Social Democratic Party, increased and gained extended political influence. This resulted in the emergence of a large amount of good, cheap housings. The oldest social housing association; The Labour Cooperative Housing Association (Arbejdernes Andelsboligforening) was established in 1913. It was founded by working-class people who united and built cheap housing which was cooperatively owned. Other associations were started at the same time by wealthy citizens or charitable foundations with the goal to provide cheap housing for the poor working class in the cities. After the Second World War, the lack of housing in Danish cities was acute. The public financial support for the housing associations was extended several times, and a large number of housing units were built in order to remedy the lack of housing in the post-war years. This progress continued, and today there are 550 housing associations in Denmark (members of BL – Boligselskabernes Landsforening), with a total number of 550,000 housing units for rent. The social housing scheme developed from being for the poor working class into being for everybody. Social housing in Denmark is a product of a strong national labour movement along with forces working for equal living conditions. Social housing associations are fundamental bricks in the Danish welfare system, representing some of the core values on which the Danish welfare state is founded, such as democracy and solidarity. The background history is relevant to briefly sketch because of its impact on the democratic approach and involvement of the housing associations and of the residents even today. Each department within a social housing association has ´inhabitant democracy´, with an area committee representing the residents living in the department. Thus, the residents have influence on possible changes within their department through democratic processes. Every fifth Danish citizen lives in social housing estates and most places are the framework of well-functioning living conditions. However, some areas have turned into deprived social housing neighbourhoods. The following paragraph describes the different convergent forces resulting in deprived housing neighbourhoods across the country. Most of the deprived social housing neighbourhoods in Denmark were built after the Second World War as a result of growing wealth; most were built in the outskirt of cities and most comprise whole neighbourhoods. The housing construction was industrialised as a strategy for erasing the lack of housing in the post-war period. During the period of the 1960s to 1970s around 200,000 social housing units were constructed. A substantial number of large flats were built, intended to attract middle-class families with children. The planning of several of the post-war neighbourhoods was inspired by the British planning ideals of ´new towns’, where neighbourhoods were meant to function as independent city

districts, containing all city facilities such as shopping, schools, homes for seniors, libraries, churches and day care centres. The ideal behind ´new towns´ was a solid starting point for community building and also the reason behind the ideas of citizens’ houses and other shared facilities inside the neighbourhood (Bech-Danielsen, 2008; Mumford et al., 2016). Most of the post-war neighbourhoods were therefore constructed as independent enclaves containing housing as well as city functions. Challenges within the neighbourhoods were quickly visible and caused by several factors. The rapidly constructed prefab construction soon needed renovation, and the neighbourhoods showed visual signs of physical challenges shortly after they were built. Additionally, the financial crises in 1970, with a high rate of inflation, high interest rates and continuing low prices of detached houses made it cheaper for a family with children to buy an owneroccupied dwelling than to rent a social housing flat. Both situations resulted in rental challenges for housing associations. Bech-Danielsen and Stender (2017) propose a third reason by pointing to a cultural shift in society moving from a focus on fellowship and community to a stronger focus on individuality and a wish to own one’s own home. The huge monotone building blocks did not accommodate such needs. The social challenges increased during the 1980s. The problems of quick demand for renovation, the social challenges and the rental problems led to financial problems for the housing associations. The empty flats resulted in the application of the Municipal Assignment Law (Den Kommunale anvisningsret), which meant that marginalised citizens moved into the apartments regulated by the municipality. This occupancy led to a high concentration of citizens on welfare, immigrants and other socioeconomically disadvantaged population groups in the neighbourhoods. The development was self-perpetuating, and the renting challenges were exacerbated (Bech-Danielsen and Stender, 2017). Since the 1980s the Danish Government has spent 36 billion Danish kroner on area-based actions in deprived housing areas (Christensen, 2013). The actions can be divided into three generations lasting from 1985 until now (Bech-Danielsen and Stender, 2017). •

•

1985–1999: Focussed on the physical renovation and the belief that improving the housing quality would lead to a ‘social lift’. 2000–2009: The second generation of the ‘physical lift’ focussed on using quality materials. It concentrated on the improvement of the flats and the outdoor places. The actions only took place inside the neighbourhood’s cadastral borders. Few signs of integrating the surrounding context emerged. There was an increased focus on social actions from 2006–2010, and it became possible to ensure that marginalised citizens moved into the most deprived housing area. 2010–2017: The dedicated goal is a socially mixed group of residents. Actions have moved to a citystrategic level, where the neighbourhoods are seen as part of the larger city. The challenges changed from being internal to becoming more of a shared problem, where solutions are found in collaborations between housing associations, municipalities and other stakeholders. There is still a focus on renovation, improvements of the apartments and development of the outdoor places inside the neighbourhoods, but 35

they are now combined with a focus on infrastructural actions trying to support a more coherent city. In some places, building blocks are demolished, and new functions and owner-occupied dwellings are added into the neighbourhood (Bech-Danielsen and Stender, 2017). Bech-Danielsen and Stender (2017) and Christensen (2013) state that, in spite of 30 years of determined efforts, and even though these efforts have indeed improved the living conditions, most neighbourhoods are still deprived. Christensen (2013) argues that we know very little about what works, that the efforts seem like isolated treatment of symptoms. She concludes in her PhD thesis (2013) that the effects of the efforts are difficult to pinpoint. Results show that efforts can have individual results and residents can be affected positively, but that the neighbourhood efforts do not have the strength to affect the structural conditions that create residential segregation. Bech-Danielsen and Stender (2017) argue that a shift in the hierarchy must take place, so that people who actually have a choice in where to live, will choose one of the neighbourhoods sketched above. Skovparken/Skovvejen is part of the story outlined above. The main part of the neighbourhood, Skovvejen, Dep. 2, was built in 1973–75 and 1982–85 and renovated in 1997. Skovparken Dep. 21. was built in 1971–73 and renovated in 1995 and again in 2005–2007. Both departments were constructed as part of the post-war building boom. The first renovation occurred under the first generation of renovation strategies, focussing on the physical renovation in the belief that physical improvements would lead to social improvements. The second renovation, in 2005–2007, which only covered Skovparken, involved new façades, bathrooms, expansion of the community centres (Café 43 and No. 119) and development of the outdoor places. Like many other similar neighbourhoods, Skovparken is configured as an enclave detached from the surrounding city, planned with the intention that neighbourhoods should function as independent parts of the city, with caretaking and shopping facilities. Skovparken/Skovvejen, therefore, contain the shopping centre and two kindergartens, located in the middle of the neighbourhood. The 2005–2007 development was the first initiative aiming to break down the concept of the independent and isolated enclave. One of the initiatives in the development of the outdoor places was to open up the neighbourhood through removal of the dense planting which surrounded the neighbourhood. Concurrently the development established a number of new playgrounds, which are now visible from the outside, and a neighbourhood square was constructed, surrounded by a new caretaker office and the children´s club Ambassaden. The first initiatives and the thoughts related to greater coherence are thus more than ten years old. Besides the physical renovations a lot of social efforts also occurred in Skovparken /Skovvejen. Such initiatives are positioned under the Comprehensive Social-Housing Plan (den boligsociale helhedsplan), which is managed by the organisation Byliv Kolding. Byliv Kolding is the city of Kolding´s shared social-housing secretariat, conducting and coordinating the social efforts in Kolding. The secretariat is a collaboration between the three social housing associations in Kolding (Lejerbo Kolding, AAB Kolding and Boligselskabet Kolding) and Kolding Municipality.

The section above explains the historical process behind the subject matter for this thesis. It describes the complexity of the challenges and the amount of efforts that have gone into solving the problems. This concludes the section about Skovparken/Skovvejen in a historical context. In the following section, I present an investigation into today´s efforts and approaches aiming to develop a number of challenged social housing neighbourhoods into well-functioning and well-integrated neighbourhoods. I focus my description on current thinking and practice regarding outdoor places.

Current thinking and practice in the development of deprived neighbourhoods Challenges with deprived housing neighbourhoods have existed in Denmark since the 1970s and so has the awareness of the problem. As outlined in the section above, attention and determined efforts have shifted between physical efforts and social efforts since the mid1980s. Today there is a shared conviction that no singular effort can change anything. When a neighbourhood has improved, it is due to several simultaneous, interacting actions, lifting in the same direction (Bech-Danielsen and Christensen, 2017; Bech-Danielsen and Stender, 2017; Bjørn og Holek, 2014; Christensen, 2013). The section above sketched the complexity of challenges within deprived housing neighbourhoods. Even though I have just argued that all efforts are interconnected and mutually depended, I narrow down my description of current thinking and practice to efforts related to outdoor places regarding my subject matter and to make the description and discussion operational and focussed. Based on investigations of 20 cases presented either by Bech-Danielsen and Christensen (2017), Bech-Danielsen and Stender (2017) or my desk research of current development projects I present a clustering of five categories of today´s efforts: 1. A greater coherence between the deprived neighbourhoods and the surrounding city (both physical and social) 2. Improved image of the neighbourhoods 3. Greater interaction between the residents 4. Empowerment of residents through efforts 5. Establishment of a connection between physical and social actions The projects in the survey are no more than ten years old, since their role in the thesis is to present current aims, approaches and practices. All included projects are listed in Appendix 2, with short descriptions of aim and efforts. Since my desk research is too brief to represent a case study, the projects do not appear as case studies within the thesis. I have looked solely at formulated goals and efforts and have not entered into an investigation of whether the goals have been accomplished. Some of the projects are also still being developed. In cases of projects described by Bech-Danielsen and Christensen (2017) and Bech-Danielsen and Stender (2017), I use their investigations and analysis as part of my description of the project. I refer to the projects as ´reference projects´.

Figure 5 illustrates the location of all the neighbourhoods I refer to during the following five sections. This is to provide the reader with an overview and to make the text more accessible.

Figure 5: Location of all ´reference cases´

In the following five sections, I elaborate on each category by discussing them in terms of some of the investigated projects and by presenting some of the theoretical trajectories supporting each category.

2.4.1

A greater coherence between the deprived neighbourhood and the surrounding city

Most deprived housing neighbourhoods suffer from a poor infrastructural connection with the surrounding city, which is a fundamental physical barrier for coherence (Bjørn and Holek, 2014). Such goals are described in Mjølnerparken with the final ´Comprehensive Plan´ (Helhedsplan) (Lejerbo, 2015), in Gellerup/Toveshøj (Brabrand Boligforening, 2011) and Kildeparken (Himmerland Boligforening, 2016). All places make concerted efforts to add city functions such as shops and working places in the housing area and to connect the neighbourhood to the city infrastructure. All three projects are still in the development process, and it is therefore too soon to evaluate the results. 38

In Gyldenrisparken, on the other hand, the development project has densified the neighbourhood by adding a day care centre and a nursing home to the area. This effort successfully attracts newcomers to the neighbourhood, extends the flow of people through the neighbourhood and thus contributes with positive stories from the neighbourhood. In several projects, like Vapnagård, there is a focus on activating the ´edge zone´ (Sennet, 2015) as an effort to support a greater coherence. In Vapnagård the development of Multiparken, located between the deprived housing neighbourhood and the surrounding city, results in many citizens passing by naturally due to the closeness to several public institutions and city functions. Multiparken provides the neighbourhood with positive stories. Multiparken is an attraction for the whole city of Elsinore and not just a skateboard park for young people in Vapnagård. A greater coherence between deprived housing neighbourhoods and the surrounding city is theoretically supported by Hillier and Hanson (1988). They argue that the external interaction with the rest of the city is of vital importance and that roads must be interrelated to connect different districts in a city. In their development of the Space Syntax method 3 Hillier followed by The Space Syntax Laboratory describe that the interrelation of streets has a vital impact on our movement patterns and therefore our interaction with each other.

2.4.2

Improved image of the neighbourhoods

(I find this a relevant topic within the thesis. Even though current efforts are not always directly related to the outdoor places, it is still an interesting design parameter, in an investigation of design´s potential to support coherence and interaction between deprived housing neighbourhoods and the rest of the city, focusing on edge-zones.) Copenhagen Municipality chose the Danish architectural firm BIG as part of a branding strategy in the development of Superkilen/ Mjølnerparken, since the firm is known for its branding expertise of their projects. Bech Danielsen and Stender (2017) argue that Superkilen has not improved the image of Mjølnerparken, but it has supported the gentrification of Ydre Nørrebro. Bech-Danielsen and Stender (2017) and my study of Superkilen and Mjølnerparken both show that Superkilen has not contributed in increasing the use of Mjølnerparken by external users. My study shows, however, that Superkilen has contributed to an increased feeling of safety both by people living in Mjølnerparken and among other citizens. In Gyldenrisparken positive stories in the newspapers about the renovation and the building of a day care institution have improved the image. The day care centre and the nursing home attract people from across the city into the area and signals that it is an integrated part of the 3

The Space Syntax Laboratory was established in 1972 by Professor Bill Hillier and grew out of a realisation that one aspect of the built environment is key to its social function, and also to its failures, and this is the pattern of space contained within and between buildings. It is the space that we occupy and move through, in which we come into contact with one another, and this form of contact is prerequisite for social interaction and economic transaction. The patterning of space – the result of architectural design – is therefore a crucial component in the social and economic functioning of organisations and communities. In other words, architectural design matters.

https://www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/space-syntax/about-us

city which may be used by everybody. Physically entering a neighbourhood is pivotal to a change of perception (Bech Danielsen and Stender 2017). In Ådalen/Engen, a new name and an architectural lift have improved the image, and an effort to create positive stories from the neighbourhood in the media has furthermore helped to improve the image. The great power of the media when it comes to image is exemplified in Finlandsparken. The image has not improved due to negative stories reported in the media. The physical improvements cannot beat the stories in the media when it comes to image perception. “It is the people, not the physical surroundings that will change the reputation…..” (quote by residents in Finlandsparken) (Bech-Danielsen and Stender, 2017, p. 59). According to Bech-Danielsen and Stender (2017), several research studies show that the mass media play a crucial part in creating the negative stereotypes and give neighbourhoods where the lower social classes live a bad reputation. The views of image and stigmatisation are theoretically supported by Waquant (2007; et al., 2014), who uses the term ´territorial stigmatization,´ referring to situations where people are being stigmatised because of where they live. Bourdieu (1989) refers to it as ´symbolic power´. The Ghetto List created by the Danish Government is another example of using the language as a ´weapon´ (Foucault et al., 2007) for effectuating power and stigmatising a neighbourhood.

2.4.3

Greater interaction between residents

The edge zones inside the neighbourhood focus on adding levels of privacy to the outdoor places, in order to support interaction among citizens. Holek and Bjørn (2014) put great emphasis on arguing for softer edge zones between the private buildings and the public shared place. In Ådalen/Engen a citizen centre with activities for the residents has supported interaction. Activities in the citizen centre have furthermore succeeded in attracting residents from other parts of the city. In Kalmargade residents are running a café to support interaction among the residents, which aims at attracting citizens from surrounding areas. Greater interaction within a neighbourhood is also supported through efforts like ´Life Between the Drying Racks´ in Esbjerg, where the effort has created a more coherent and eventful string of shared outdoor places, or `My Place´, in Northwest Copenhagen, where residents have told stories about their favourite place, which have been worked into interactive benches placed in the shared outdoor areas inside the neighbourhood. ´Urban Plant´ in Urbanplanen and ´Urban Farming´ in Gellerup/Toveshøj are likewise examples of physical functions supporting interaction between the residents through shared activities. Today´s efforts on developing outdoor places in deprived housing neighbourhoods are grounded in both sociological and architectural theories. Opportunities for interaction between residents in different neighbourhoods are required for the social capital in an area. The social capital has a positive impact on problem-solving among residents, and communities have better conditions under which to progress because the residents know that they can trust each other. In addition, the shared knowledge urges us to be more tolerant, less cynical and more empathetic (Putnam, 2000). Putman´s argumentation can be collocated with both Hillier’s (Hillier and Hanson, 1988) and Jacobs’s (1961) statements on the importance of

interaction between citizens for the support of knowledge and the increase in tolerance, and the Social Life 4 argumentation of the importance of people and places growing together. Jacobs (1961) points to the importance of liveable cities by adding public functions to the ground floor and integrating places for staying and places for moving. She argues for éyes on the streets´ to support the feeling of safety and describes the importance of avoiding empty streets and places since people add more éyes on the street´ and nobody wants to look at an empty street or place. She further argues for clear demarcations between public and private space. The importance of people in a place is further supported by Whyte (1988) saying “What attracts people most, it would appear, is other people.” based on his studies of urban life in American cities, Sennet (1971, 1993, 2015) argues that public places are the most important in interaction between people from different social strata. Gehl (1971, 2007) is often mentioned in writings on Danish development projects. He bases his many urban life studies on theories by Jacobs (1961) and Sennet (1971). In many of these projects Gehl´s urban studies on people´s behaviour in public places and his argumentation regarding the scale, the attraction of other people and the need for zoning between private and public places are presented as the theoretical argumentation behind the efforts. He states that outdoor activities grow in number, duration and diversity when the physical opportunities improve. In his discussions about integration and segregation, he applies the term ‘integration-oriented city structure’, where he discusses how different functions and people are allowed to function together or side by side, or how they are separated. “Integration of different events and functions in and around public places primarily gives the implicated parties the opportunity to work together and thereby stimulate and inspire each other. Additionally, the mixture of different functions and people offers the opportunity to observe how the surrounding society is compounded and how it works. Also, in this situation it is not the formal integrations of buildings and the overall city functions, but the actual integration of different events and people on a small scale that has a crucial impact if the network or the interactions are monotonous or faceted. What counts is, therefore, not whether the factories, residences, service functioned, etc., are located close to each other in the plan, but whether the people working and living in different buildings actually go to the same places and meet in relation to their everyday functions” (Gehl, 2007, p. 95). Gehl argues that we can arrange everything correctly on drawings or plans. But what makes the difference is how people act. This is a pivotal point in my investigations, since it argues for greater awareness of designing with closer attention to behaviour and present social phenomena. Even if we have all the physical items organised ćorrectly’, there are still other actors (Latour, 2007) affecting the perception, use and experience of a place. 4

Social Life is a British organisation under the Young Foundation. They work with Social Sustainability in deprived urban areas. http://www.social-life.co/

2.4.4

Empowering residents through efforts

In the context of outdoor places, the aim is to empower residents through efforts focussed on integrating the residents into the development process and to support the empowerment of residents through activities. One example is the development of Multiparken/Vapnagård. The project was initiated by young skaters and pedagogues, and both the process and the subsequent management is thus rooted in local strengths. In the project ´My Place´ the residents are participating and contributing to the design project by telling stories about their favourite place in the neighbourhood. In ‘Urban Plant’ in Urbanplanen or ‘Urban Farming’ in Gellerup/Toveshøj the residents are involved in running an urban garden as part of their neighbourhood. In Charlottekvarteret the ‘urban co-creation’ concept is based on the residents’ opportunity to impact their immediate environment, working with social challenges and sustainable societal developments through collaboration in different projects. The residents built all the shared activities themselves together with a project team. In Superkilen/ Mjølnerparken my study reveals an example of the opposite, where a conflictual citizen involvement led to a distance between the place and the involved citizens. The empowerment of residents is linked to the theoretical trajectory of Design for Social Innovation (Manzini, 2015). Manzini refers to the term ‘strategic design’ and argues that design experts can trigger and support meaningful social changes focussing on emerging forms of collaboration. This can happen within a broad array of contexts and also in community support and city development where, as in the case of city development, designers and residents together aim to achieve socially recognised goals in a new way. Efforts targeting the empowerment of residents further build on thoughts from participatory design, Design for Social Innovation and Social Design (Björgvinsson et al., 2012; Chen, Cheng, Hummels , Koskinen, 2016; Ehn et al., 2014; Hillgren, Seravalli, Emilson, 2011), which I will describe and integrate further later in the thesis.

2.4.5

Creating connections between physical and social actions

In several of the development projects, there is a focus on creating coherence between the physical and the social actions, which also places them theoretically within the framework of Design for Social Innovation, Social Design and participatory design. In ´It Sprouts in Gadehavegård’, the project team has created an exercise area and combined it with, what they call, a ´Big Brother arrangement’, where an affiliated training consultant arranges activities for the children and young people within the time frame where there is an extended risk of crime. A consultant is also affiliated with the high school, with certain classes held at the school, the local unions and clubs to create coherence across housing associations and with residents in the surrounding neighbourhoods. In ´The good street life, the life between´ in Vestervænget, there is a similar effort. They have developed a series of functions for physical activities, linked together by a jogging/bike path. The aim is to support coherence between residents and neighbourhoods and to prevent vandalism and other behaviour that generates insecurity. In Stakhaven the project team aims to develop a green solution for housing development through resident involvement. The project will demonstrate how ‘green’ and ‘social’ can be simultaneously developed through low-tech solutions created by the residents. In Finlandsparken the residents have likewise been involved in the development of the four 42

different themes which are the main concept of the development work. In ´Life between the Drying Racks´ in Esbjerg, residents are participating and contributing to the design projects. And as already described some projects use local work forces in the construction work. Looking at the section above and Appendix 2 as a whole, coherence and interaction through physical actions and activities are, in one way or the other, embedded in all projects. The efforts in terms of coherence and interaction are embedded in the objective of securing a stronger connection between: • • • •

Residents and the labour market or education system Residents and residents within the neighbourhood Residents and residents from other neighbourhoods Neighbourhood and surrounding neighbourhoods

The section above describes the five categories of today´s efforts regarding the development of outdoor places in deprived housing neighbourhoods. The following section describes the effort and approaches in Skovparken.

2.4.6

Thinking and practice in Skovparken

Both Skovparken and Skovvejen were renovated in the late 1990s, with an addition of new attractive rooftop flats. Skovparken underwent yet another renovation in 2007. Both rounds of renovations have followed the predominant conceptions at the time of the renovations, which I have already accounted for earlier in this chapter. Skovparken/Skovvejen and the rest of the neighbourhood have been part of the social housing initiatives during the past 25 years, and yet another ‘Comprehensive Plan’ (Helhedsplan) 20182021 has just been initiated 5. Since 2008 all the social housing initiatives are centred at and coordinated by the social housing joint secretariat, Byliv Kolding. Byliv Kolding is a coordinated collaboration effort between the housing associations and Kolding Municipality. The Comprehensive Plan aims to support an increased feeling of safety in the neighbourhood and the improved well-being among the residents. Byliv Kolding has an increased focus on creating a local, sustainable development inside the neighbourhoods by targeting the actions locally. “The point of departure is to work with challenges, influencing the residents and the neighbourhoods’ positive development. This means the social housing challenges are being solved locally by creating social changes inside the neighbourhoods for the residents.“ (Byliv Kolding, 2018, p. 4) The objectives of the social Comprehensive Plan are: • • •

Strengthen the level of education and employment in the neighbourhood – with a specific focus on children and young people Increase the well-being among children and strengthen the parents’ responsibility, focussing on giving the parents the tools and knowledge Strengthen the safety and well-being of the neighbourhood – focussing on creating networks across generations and ethnicity

https://byliv.kolding.dk/images/publikationer/Samlet-helhedsplan--2018-2021-hjemmeside.pdf

• •

Reduce/maintain the low level of crime – focussing on giving the children and young people tools and knowledge Strengthen the local collaboration among citizens, municipal actors, the police and voluntary organisations

(Byliv Kolding, 2018, p.5) The social housing initiatives in Kolding have a long tradition that is based on the ABCDmethod (Asset Based Community Development) developed by McKnight and Kretzmann at the Institute for Policy Research. They co-authored a book in 1993, Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing A Community’s Assets (McKnight and Kretzmann, 1993). The ABCD method focusses on the resources already inside the neighbourhood and on using them as a driving force for lifting the community and the built capacity by expanding the existing social capital. It identifies and mobilises individual and community assets, rather than focus on problems and needs. The ABCD method has been criticised, though, for arguing that deprived housing areas have all the resources they need to solve their community problems (Ennis and West, 2010). However, the ABCD methodology does imply that a society of systemic injustice may require that deprived neighbourhoods seek assistance outside the community (McKnight and Kretzmann, 1993). Byliv Kolding is working on a bottom-up strategy, focussing on solving the neighbourhood challenges by empowering the individual and community resources within the neighbourhood. At the same time, they are adding a large number of resources from outside into the neighbourhood through all the initiatives taken by Byliv Kolding.

Picture 1: Coffee and cake day in May 2016.

Skovparken/Skovvejen has not integrated the physical context into their development of the neighbourhood since 2007, when they aimed to open up the neighbourhood by removing a dense belt of vegetation. Their starting point in the ABCD model results in a focus on supporting greater interaction between residents and on empowering residents, which they do 44

through a large number of events. Picture 1 is from one of the social events,- ´Coffee and cake day´. The neighbourhood keeps experiencing many challenges, even though a large amount of effort and resources have been allocated to the neighbourhood over the past 25 years. In the final section of this chapter, I present the limitations of this thesis that also contribute to the contextualisation of the thesis and its position.

Limitations of the research area The research area of ´social sustainable city development, focussing on deprived housing areas and segregation’ is such a broad and complex area, which needs a focussed approach to be operational for investigations. It has, therefore, been a constant challenge through the thesis to juggle the host of trajectories appearing in the field and to keep my focus narrow concurrently with an awareness of all the other influencing aspects. Much knowledge already exists on how to configure the environmental surroundings regarding physical elements such as scaling, mixed functions or integrating infrastructure (I. Gehl, 1971; J. Gehl, 1971; Hillier and Hanson, 1988; Jacobs, 1977), as well as specific physical elements such as light, colour, materiality. However, it is not the aim of this thesis to add to existing knowledge regarding environmental psychology (Marcus, 2018; Ulrich, 1984, 1981; Ulrich et al., 1991), the tactility of materials, colours or acoustics, topics that are therefore not represented in the theoretical scaffolding of the thesis. Taking the approach of ‘grounded theory’ as the research methodology, I had no specific focus or formulated hypothesis before going into the field. Instead, I went out with the open approach investigating what appeared in the field. The limitations and focus of the PhD thesis appeared during the first two empirical studies and in the investigation of the reference cases (Appendix 2). The empirical studies revealed an interesting finding of social parameters, for example power relations, place attachment, social frictions and experiences of place appearing as phenomena that impact the ability of a place to support interaction and coherence and with close connection to the physical context. In the choice of subject matter for investigation and the production of empirical data, the project does not distinguish between an urban and a provincial context. (I argue that Kolding represents a provincial context and Copenhagen an urban context). Since my data are not quantitative and no comparison between the cases is undertaken, I find a distinction in relation to the terminology of urban or provincial to be irrelevant. The difference in the city typologies does affect elements such as Critical Mass, since the population density is very different within the two locations. However, that difference does not influence the content of the analysis and it does not affect the focus of the PhD thesis in terms of the relational place – the space between and the focus on how the many different actors that affect a place can support interaction and coherence. My limitation and the focus on the social parameters were further supported by the change of the initial plan for the collection of empirical data, which happened during the first six months of the PhD period.

Kolding Municipality had planned to buy and then demolish the neighbourhood shopping centre in Skovparken/Skovvejen, and the vacant building site was supposed to function as a test bed for different temporary initiatives illuminating the research questions. The vision and the agreement in the PhD thesis were to initiate some collaborative and participatory actions, investigating the site’s potentials for interaction among people and a coherent city. However, this plan did not come to fruition due to disagreements (what I will now term ‘social friction’) between Kolding Municipality and the owner of the centre. The shopping centre is privately owned, and during the spring of 2016 there was a meeting between Presan Buildings (the private owner of the centre) and the City and Development Administration about initiating a process, where Kolding Municipality would buy the centre and thus start a development process. Correspondence went back and forth over the summer, but finally died with a series of critical articles in the local newspaper in August 2016 about the centre. The articles caused too great a conflict in the negotiations, and Presan Buildings refused to sell or collaborate any further. The conflict in Skovparken/Skovvejen happened as I was conducting my investigations in Superkilen. This initiated an awareness of the impact of ‘social frictions’ in a place and their impact on the physical place. Hence, it framed the limitation and the focus of the PhD project to revolve around the interrelatedness between the physical context and the social phenomena such as ‘power relations’, ‘place attachment’ and ‘social frictions’.

Picture on page 47: Skovparken August 2016

3 Theoretical Scaffolding for the Project The following chapter presents the theoretical scaffolding for the PhD thesis. It covers the theory implicated in the PhD thesis and integrates theory from: • • • • •

Sociology Architecture Geography Urbanity Design

Within the field of sociology, the thesis initially integrates the thoughts of Bauman, Foucault and Bourdieu (Bauman, 1993; Best, 2016; Bourdieu and Bennett, 2010; Dreyfus and Rabinow, 2014; Foucault, 1977; Foucault et al., 2007) with links to the critical positioning of the thesis. I turn to Latour (Blok and Elgaard Jensen, 2013; Latour, 2005) for the fundamental understanding of the interconnectedness of the many different actors contained within a place and later to Sennet (1992, 1993, 2015) regarding the subject of public urban places on the edge between deprived housing neighbourhoods and the surrounding city. Regarding architecture, I apply the Actor-Network Theory (ANT) (Latour, 2005) in the context of the built environment through the contextualisation of Yaneva (Yaneva, 2013; Yaneva and Heaphy, 2012). I briefly present how the role of architecture has changed as part of explaining the interconnectedness between the physical context and the social phenomena (Awan et al., 2011). I integrate theories of the perception of place (Albertsen, 1999; Böhme and Borch, 2014; Böhme, 1998; Pallasmaa, 2005) and also the occupation and use of place (I. Gehl, 1971; J. Gehl, 1971; Gehl and Svarre, 2013; Kärrholm, 2017). Finally, in order to understand the subject matter of deprived housing neighbourhoods, I integrate the theories of BechDanielsen, Stender and Christensen (Bech-Danielsen and Christensen, 2017; Bech-Danielsen and Stender, 2017). In terms of geography, I integrate the geographical site-specific discussions of Massey, Tuan, and Casey (Casey, 2009; Massey, 1994; Tuan, 1977) and also the discussion of relations to place through Relph (1976). As far as urbanity is concerned I integrate the social understanding of the city through Lefebvre(1991, 2003; Lefebvre et al., 1996), Jacobs (1961) and the connection between different elements in the city and the city as a whole (Healey, 2006; Nielsen, 2001; Stauskis and Eckardt, 2011) and on territorialisation of place (Brighenti, 2014, 2012; 2010; Kärrholm, 2017; Relph, 1976; Sack, 1986; Storey, 2012). Within the field of design research, I integrate the theory of Social Design, Design for Social Innovation and participatory design. (Binder and Hellström, 2005; Björgvinsson et al., 2012a, 2012; Buchanan, 1992; Ehn, 2008; Hillgren, Seravalli, Emilson, 2011; Koskinen, 2011; Manzini, 2015; Markussen, 2017; Mazé et al., 2011).

Theoretical approach The PhD thesis positions itself in the same line of thoughts as Critical Theory. The section contains references to Foucault (Foucault, 1977; Foucault et al., 2007) and his understanding 48

of the inevitability of power relations followed by a passage on Bauman´s (Bauman, 1993; Best, 2016) explanation on solidarity, which continues into a description on habitus and lifestyles from the perspective of Bourdieu (2014). The description is structured in such a way that it moves from a macro-theoretical and global perspective of Critical Theory towards the micro scale of the critical approach within design research. Critical Theory originates from Marxism through the renowned Frankfurt School to a wide array of national and cultural traditions. Three of the most crucial thinkers come from German classical sociology, Marx, Weber and Durkheim. They all had a decisive impact on Critical Theory. However, the notion of Critical Theory in history is primarily associated with the Frankfurt School (Morrow and Brown, 1994). The first generation of the leading theorists from the original Frankfurt school was Horkheimer, Adorno, and Marcuse. The second generation of theorists emerged in the 1960s under the leadership of Habermas (Morrow and Brown, 1994). Critical Theory aims to challenge all previously accepted standards in life from a marxist perspective. It is a philosophical approach to culture and especially to literature that seeks to confront the social, historical, and ideological forces and structures which produce and constrain it. A central premise is that Critical Theory does not consider enlightenment and the individual ideals of liberty as philosophical wishful thinking, but rather as principles which a highly developed society has all historical preconditions for actualising for the common good. The ideology is thus already immanent in the existing social practice. Critical Theory has a specific focus on the problem of domination and is concerned with the way social relations can also mediate power relations. Relations of domination manifest themselves in social struggles and even in the physical space, where there are connections to both Foucault, who argues that every relation is a power relation (Foucault et al., 2007), and to Bourdieu (Bourdieu, 2014), who claims that social stratification manifests itself in the physical place through habitus. Several contemporary design research projects working in the field of Social Design and Design for Social Innovation (Björgvinsson et al., 2012; Hillgren, Seravalli, Emilson, 2011; Ilpo Koskinen and Gordon Hush, 2016; Manzini, 2015) have their foundation in Critical Theory and add their own design methods to investigate how things ought to be. Later in this chapter, I elaborate on the distinction between Social Design and social innovation and further position the distinction in the presentation of this thesis and the understanding of design for social sustainable public urban places. Bauman, as a critical sociologist (1993), outlines a postmodern turn in society, theory, culture, ethics and politics. He argues that changes in contemporary society and culture require new modes of thought, morality and politics to appropriately respond to the new social conditions. This turn, he argues, demands a reconfiguration of critical social theory and new tasks for postmodern sociology. Consequently, Bauman constructs a new perception of solidarity that incorporates several of the postmodern ideas. The postmodern ideas encompass a coincidence in the consequences and opportunities of actions which enable concepts like solidarity to arise. Solidarity is dependent on how different random events create the ´conditions for the opportunity’. This further means that ‘conditions for opportunities’ are constantly changeable because all the different random conditions can change the existence of the ´conditions for opportunity’. According to Bauman (1993), it is impossible to upgrade the individual perception of the truth to a universal truth, and the focus should, therefore, switch to the tolerance of other people’s perception. This statement is based on his perception of truth as a 49

social relation. Bauman (1993) sees the fundamental acceptance of other’s right to be different as a pivotal element in the new solidarity. Only by choosing to tolerate ´the other´ can one hope for mutual tolerance. He writes, “As we are doomed to share space and time, let us make our coexistence bearable and somewhat less dangerous. By being kind, I invite kindness” (Bauman, 1993, p. 235) The right to one´s own opinions, therefore, develops through the tolerance of ´the other’s´ opinion (Bauman, 1993). From Bauman’s (1993) perspective, tolerance is perceived as a satisfaction with the coincidence of one´s own perception of truth, without elevating it to universal truth. Bauman (1993) further elaborates that tolerance alone is not enough, since it can result in ignorance towards ´the other´. Bauman thus further implements responsibility towards ´the other´ and through that ´opportunity conditions´ for mutual responsibility despite differences (Best, 2016). The term responsibility covers an active effort to support and enter into a dialogue with ´the other´ despite the latter´s different perception of truth. It is, therefore, only through the act of taking responsibility for ‘the other’ that solidarity can arise. There is, though, no guarantee that one´s fight for the other´s right to be different will be mutual, and the individual can only hope for mutual compassion, tolerance and responsibility (Best, 2016). The mutual responsibility has great importance in the development and existence of public urban places and appears as an underlying aspect of much of the following literature. Foucault (1977, 2007) also focusses on the individual´s act and how it affects relations. Foucault is concerned with the individual in a community and the individual’s own free acts regarding society, institutions and other individuals. His consistent approach involves power relations among the individual and the institution, and he describes that the individual is the subject of perceiving and experiencing power. In his perception of power, he distinguishes himself from a marxist trajectory that saw power as a tool to control different social classes, which arose due to capital interests or power relations. According to Foucault, power is not a resource attached to different groups of actors or shared interests; rather he argues that power is ultimately inherent in individuals. Foucault does not perceive power as something negative or destructive, but rather as the fundamental force embedded in every social relation; every relation is therefore also a power relation – a neutral ability to cause, influence and change (Dreyfus and Rabinow, 2014). Power is, therefore, a relevant element in the investigation of public urban places supporting interaction and a coherent city, since the exchange of power is present, at all times, where more than one subject is present. To understand Foucault´s perception of power, it must be understood from a normative perspective, where power seeks to promote a distinctive behaviour by people in a specific context (Dreyfus and Rabinow, 2014). All public places – for example hospitals, universities, libraries, etc. – are permeated by norms for a specific behaviour. They all contain ´unwritten´ rules on how to behave ´properly’. According to Foucault, power has two objectives: to discipline the individual and to regulate the population. By doing so, power is capable of forming the individuals, their activities and their interrelationships. The mutual responsibility sketched by Bauman (1993) is affected by power relations described by Foucault (1977, 2007). Foucault further argues that power is acted out through our spatial organisation of the physical surroundings, which he illustrates in his writing about prisons, through the use of 50

Jeremy Bentham's concept of Panopticon, and the aspects of surveillance. Through Bentham's concept of Panopticon, Foucault visualises and argues that even the thought of possibly being monitored leads to a more disciplined behaviour. He visualises that spatial configuration supports discipline and argues that the state and the welfare society also at present controls discipline through spatial organisation. One concrete example is open offices or offices with glass walls, where it is easy to check whether people are present and are working.

Picture 2: Bentham's concept of `Panopticon.' 6

Foucault is interested in the organisation of language. He refers to the discursive practice in relation to language and refers to language as a thing of space, not just in a concrete meaning that words travel through space, but also that language – our speech – is already affected by our spatial practices and social relations before we even open our mouth. Both his understanding of power and the discourse of language lead to his interest in subjectivity – the way we relate and perceive of ourselves (“I am such and such a person who acts in such and such ways”) – and the way we conduct ourselves with people and things around us and mirror ourselves in them. Modes of subjectivity are determined by this double relation: the subject’s interaction with itself and with others (Foucault et al., 2007). The discourse about language has connections to the stigmatisation of deprived neighbourhoods, both outside the neighbourhood regarding the neighbourhood image and also inside as an internal dissociation among the residents. The language as a ´thing´ links to the ‘understanding’, which I will later explain through ANT (Latour, 2005), where language can be an influencing actor on a place. The connection between the subject and how the subject defines itself in an interlinked relationship with the physical context has connections to Bourdieu (2014). His main theoretical 6

https://michel-foucault.com/2014/06/29/real-life-panopticons/?unapproved=72584&moderation hash=69cd8fb62db35ec8e6d800588ee1a2a1#comment-72584

argument is that there are homologies between the social positions that different participants occupy and the cognitive tendencies, perceptions and action orientations which the participants carry. He describes that different conditions of existence produce different habitus, and our habitus is the foundation of our perception of the world. Our habitus is both being structured and is also the structuring structure (Bourdieu, 2014). He describes it as follows: “The habitus is both the generative principle of objectively classifiable judgments and the system of classification (principium divisions) of these practices. It is in the relationship between two capacities which define the habitus, the capacity to produce classifiable practices and works, and the capacity to differentiate and appreciate these practices and products (taste) that the represented social world, i.e. the space of lifestyles is constituted.” (Bourdieu, 2014, p. 139) Habitus, therefore, is the product of something embedded, and actions and preferences grow from this embeddedness. Preferences are connected to social layers, and the preferences one may have are attached to necessities. Lifestyles are thus affected by social conditions, and if someone is surrounded by others of the same social condition, their behavioural patterns will increase, because the shared social conditions become common. This statement supports the argumentation by Bech-Danielsen and Christensen (2017) mentioned in chapter 2 regarding the challenges of deprived neighbourhoods maintaining the residents in unfortunate situations, e.g. being unemployed. Additionally, the difference between social positions in the social space can rediscover and strengthen spatial differences by which the physical space becomes a symbol of the social space (Bourdieu et al. 1999). It is through our habitus that we choose our lifestyle. The choice of lifestyle can be out of necessity or by choice depending on our economic status. It is through our habitus that we consolidate and define ourselves and thereby also through habitus that we differentiate ourselves from other lifestyles. According to Bourdieu, the acts depend on our habitus. The body is both adapted to and located at a place and at the same time it is the adaptor and the locator of a place. Actions are dependent on our habitus “history turns into nature – the body that has incorporated cultural patterns into its basic actions…” (Bourdieu, 1977, p. 78). Our habitus is thus related to Foucault´s understanding of language and how we identify ourselves either through language (Foucault et al., 2007) or through our habitus (Bourdieu, 2014, 1977). The prevalence of deprived housing neighbourhoods can, therefore, from Bourdieu’s perspective, be understood as a manifestation that the social stratification is also reflected in the urban space. Bauman, Foucault and Bourdieu's shared line of thoughts on behaviour, identity and relations, and the interrelatedness between human acts and the physical environment are important elements in the understanding of acts, contexts and actors and relate to ANT (Latour, 2005) by focusing on what things do. In Foucault´s (2007) explanation about language it is not the words but the effect of the words and how they define and distinguish us. And it is the influence of our habitus that affects how we choose our lifestyle.

The element of power as it is accounted for in the sections above, as it appears in several of the following theoretical argumentations and as it appears in the empirical studies can be distinguished as follows: • • •

Power through spatial organisation of the physical surroundings Power through interactions and relationships Power through language

I will bring up and discuss this distinction in the final chapter after presenting other relevant theories and relating them to the empirical studies. The next section integrates the subject matter, the city, into the line of thought of critical thinking.

The Critical Urban Theory The Critical Urban Theory takes its point of departure in . Critical Urban Theories reject the division between labour and the state as the controller of the economy and social circumstances, the technocratic and the market-driven and market-oriented form of urban knowledge. In that sense, Critical Urban Theory differs fundamentally from the more ´mainstream´ urban theory coming from the Chicago School or the more technocratic or neoliberal forms of urban studies (Brenner et al., 2012). Critical Urban Theory and the concept of ´the right to the city´ emerged in the late 1960s with writings mainly by Lefebvre, Castell and Marcuse (Brenner et al., 2012) who all argued for the existence of a more sustainable, socially fair and democratic form of urbanisation or, as formulated by Brenner: “Rather than affirming the current condition of cities as the expression of transhistorical laws of social organization, bureaucratic rationality or economic efficiency the critical urban theory emphasizes the politically and ideologically mediated, socially contested and therefore malleable character of urban space that is, its continual (re)construction as a site, medium and outcome of historically specific relations of social power. Critical urban theory is thus grounded on an antagonistic relationship not only to inherited urban knowledge but more generally, to existing urban formations.” (Brenner et al., 2012, pp.11) The Critical Urban Theory is, therefore, a critique of power, inequality, injustice and exploitations within and among cities. During the last ten years, the phrase has been making a comeback among academic scholars, urban activist and political alliances (Brenner et al., 2012). When Marcuse (2012) writes about ´the right to the city´ he creates dichotomies of social classes and ways in which their rights and demands in the city are met and constrained. He also describes what political frictions cause an oppression of these rights and demands by different groups in a city. He argues that a picture of a city, where material and aspirational needs are met – the needs of the deprived and the alienated – can be painted to a point. This would be a city that embraces concepts such as justice, equity, democracy, beauty,

accessibility, community, public space, environmental quality and support for the development of human potentials and capabilities. Marcuse (2012) argues that we tend to see the city through the concept of the consumerist city, seen primarily in the broad perspective of what the city and city life has to offer, more interestingly from the perspective of the right to produce the city as well as to enjoy it, to participate in the production of the city, both through work, creative activities or socially valued work. He describes that Critical Urban Theory is a rejection of the prevailing capitalist system and that the most desirable constellation of a future city cannot be spelled out or designed in advance, since the core concept is that it arises through a democratic process of the people, maybe emanating from many minor initiatives that in a shared force can lead to a broader change. He points out that the motivation behind initiatives must not be for profit, since for the “culturally alienated and immediately deprived” (Marcuse, 2012, p.39) the greatest enemies are profit-driven forces such as capitalism, greed, the power elite and the capitalist class. Marcuse instead calls on non-profit organisations working in health, arts, education, space exploration and environmental movements to deepen democracy, expand participation in public decisions and work their way through the capitalist institutions. “A critical urban theory, intentionally linked to practice, might help get us there” (Marcuse, 2012 p. 39). In section 4 of this chapter, I elaborate further on the prevailing notions of collaborative consumption, the values and behavioural patterns behind these initiatives, and how they can be translated into the context of urban public places. To Lefebvre, the city is a social resource which must be seen as an important tool to organise society because it brings together diverse elements of the society and hence becomes productive (Lefebvre, 1998). He further describes the city as a place of difference and that the quality of urban space arises from the simultaneous presence of very different worlds and value systems and different ethnic, cultural and social groups, activities and knowledge. The urban space creates an opportunity to bring them together and make them productive; conversely, they also have a tendency to separate themselves from each other. Schmid (2012), responding to a question of the simultaneous presence of the differences, writes, “ The decisive question, therefore, is how these differences are experienced and lived in actual everyday life” (Brenner et al., 2012, p. 48). Lefebvre explains the difference as an active element that arises from gaps in the fabric of everyday life and from political struggles and a place where differences encounter, acknowledge and explore one another, and affirm or cancel out one another (Lefebvre, 1998). When Lefebvre discusses the city and the right and demand to the city, he does not refer to the right or demand to the existing city, but to the future city. He refers to and encourages ideas about new modes of re-articulating and re-organising the city and requests greater selfmanagement, where the right to the city becomes the right to self-determination (Lefebvre, 2003). One of the most pressing questions in Critical Urban Theory is how to reinvent arguments against the constantly evolving capitalist urbanisation. This is also what Lefebvre asks for when he requests more self-determination as a substitute for an increased economic control of the city development, and what Marcuse has in mind when he asks for a broader perspective than the consumerist city.

An interesting contribution to the scenario of Lefebvre´s future city can be found in the last ten years’ prevailing thoughts on Collaborative Consumption which, as already mentioned, I will fully elaborate on later in this chapter by placing the concepts into an urban setting. The next section presents the ANT approach (Latour, 2005), developed by Latour and placed in the context of the built environment by Yaneva (Yaneva and Heaphy, 2012).

ANT and the coherent city The following chapter presents the theory of ANT and how it relates to a coherent city. ANT is relevant as a theoretical base because it focusses on what things do and how they affect other things. It focusses on the space between different influencing actors and has, therefore, connections to the relational understanding of place as a product of multiple actors influencing each other. Latour originally formulated the Actor-Network Theories (ANT) together with Callon and Law in the 1980s (Blok and Elgaard Jensen, 2013). ANT is inspired by Greimas’s semiotics, which argues that every word is defined entirely by its relationship to other words in a language. ANT extends this relational semiotics to include all possible materials, actors and events. ANT is also called the semiotics of materials. It is, therefore, a theory that explains the ways in which entities relate to other entities, not a substantial theory about the character of these entities, but the mutual interrelations. ANT is widely used as a theory to understand and describe sociopolitical, socioeconomic or ecological issues and their interrelations, where non-human actors can be for example machines, buildings, microbes or written text (Blok and Elgaard Jensen, 2013). Yaneva (2012) uses ANT to explain the dynamic interrelations and processes among elements such as architecture, society, economics, culture and politics. She opposes the theoretical approach of sociologists and historians, who believe in a separation between context and content and between society and architecture. This approach, she claims, is prevalent even today, and is an underlying interpretation in many approaches to architectural criticism which, she claims, reduces the understanding of buildings and how they interact with many other parameters in a dynamic and ever ongoing process, which cannot be explained through an understanding of society as one static object. She argues in favour of a paradigm shift in relation to the predominant explanation of the interrelation between society and the built environment. She claims that the way architecture is represented today, through perspective drawings and computer renderings, supports the impression that buildings are static objects, which is far from how they act both in their genesis process and in their existence (Yaneva, 2013). Yaneva appeals for, what she calls, ´an irreductive pragmatic approach´ (Yaneva and Heaphy, 2012, p. 21), where we look at what things do and not what they are. She also promotes an understanding of buildings through a mapping of the ´controversies´, by investigating the different actors in a building process. Actors consist of both material and immaterial things, where an actor can be the architect or the investor as well as a sketch, legislation or an elevator.

Within this thesis ANT is used as lenses for observing, mapping and analysing existing public urban places in the daily life and the everyday entanglement of all the human and non-human actors in a public place, as well as understanding that the interconnected entanglement is what creates the place. ANT is used as a way of organising and thereby better appreciating the interrelations between the many actors that are part of the entanglement between the social and the physical space. In the conclusion of her book Mapping Controversies in Architecture (2012) Yaneva states: “The Mapping Controversies methodology also shows that designing is not about situating a building within an environment; it rather consists of situating and installing an environment made of different spatial pluralities and actors´ voices within a building… … The use of the Mapping Controversies methodology does not lead to the generation of a new architectural theory, but inevitable generates many new theories that are better suited to explain the actor´s worlds.“ (Yaneva, 2013, p. 108) ANT and the Mapping Controversies serve as a foundation throughout this thesis, which has further led to the title and the visualisation (Figure 6) of the title Place Making| Makers. The title indicates the approach of understanding the social and physical design parameters and their relational interrelatedness, where the actors can be humans but also buildings, paths, or legislation. Hence when a place arises, the Place Making exists in the connection and the coherence of what the different actors do.

Figure 6: Title and visualisation of the PhD project

This PhD thesis has an extended focus on the Makers (actors) and how the mutual relationship between the Makers impacts the Making of a place. Place Making is a generally accepted term which appeared within urban planning and design practice in the 1990s. It grew from thoughts by Jacobs (1961) and Whyte (1988), who argued that cities should be for people. Place Making is centred on the potential of public places to support health, happiness and well-being. In a design process, it pays attention to physical, cultural and also social identities which define a place as an approach to supporting and strengthening the social capital in a neighbourhood or a city. Contemporary Place Making is linked to the understanding of architecture from a more dynamic point of view, where the architect or the designer plays an active and ´negotiating´

role. This is a rather new discourse in architecture (Awan et al., 2011). Just like Yaneva (2012), Awan et al. (2011) criticise the static perception and understanding of architecture and argue for a much more multifaceted approach. Awan et al. (2011) suggest that architects and designers work as ´spatial agents´ negotiating existing condition with the aim of changing them. Even though, the thesis primarily focusses on what the different actors do and how they affect each other, it has not been within the framework of the thesis to discuss what shifting roles and features are required of the architect or the designer within a development process of ‘social sustainable design of public urban places’. I have therefore not entered into an in-depth discussion of the architect’s or the designer´s role and shifting features, but instead focussed my research on the mutual interrelatedness between the different influencing actors present in a place. The understanding of the mutual relations between the different actors will be explained and continuously expanded throughout the chapter.

The city as a constellation – the perception and coherence of public urban places Urban Theory as a whole is a huge field which I shall not account for here. The following section presents Urban Theory in relation to the ´web´, coherence and perception of public urban places within the city which have supported and impacted the analysis and the discussion of empirical data through a description of the subject matter and how social phenomena influence the connection among parts of the city. In chapter 2 I have already accounted for the modernist approach to city development, which influenced the establishment of detached social housing areas, due to the belief in the divided city. Sennet (2015, 1993) accentuates ‘edge zones’ as important places in the city. He highlights the ‘edge zones’ because they are where most interaction between citizens takes place. He describes that the edges can be more or less porous, and thus be either a constraint or a support for interaction and coherence. Sennet uses the term ‘the porous city’ and argues that urbanist architects can easily design ‘the porous city’. The first thing about porosity is that it deals with edges. He explains that edges come in two forms: Natural borders and boundaries. A membrane is a border; it is porous, but it has a cell wall, the porosity is not just free-flowing; the cell membrane is both porous and resistant. A cell wall is a boundary, where no exchange is possible. The edges are where the greatest possibility for interaction exists. Sennet explains that the realisation of a more ‘porous city’ and how boundaries can become borders in urban design is through a ‘less stronger identification’ with places. “To make the city more tolerant, we should have a less stronger identification with home; we should learn how to use the city and live in the city in a more impersonal way” (Sennet 2015) 7 .

Richard Sennet - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p4Qxc6pMeo

He further describes how cities are too monofunctional, like a shopping centre where you can buy things, but there are no places to pray. He, therefore, argues for a pluralist city where the edges are potential places for interaction. Hall (1969) describes how the ‘edge zone’ has a psychological effect on people, making them feel safer and having a better overview of a place. Alexander concludes his studies about the edge effect and ‘edge zones’ with the statement that If the edges fail, then the place will fail (Alexander et al., 1977) According to Jacobs (1977) edges and paths are also pivotal for interaction and coherence. She argues that urban renewal does not respect the needs of most city-dwellers and describes how all lived life on earth is delineated by some kind of physical surroundings and that the configuration of these spatial structures and objects affect the interaction between people inside a neighbourhood and also across a city. Jacobs points to the spatial structures as the main physical reasons for the challenges in the modernistic housing areas. In most modernistic housing areas to stay and areas to move through are separated which, she argues, prevents a natural interaction between the residents inside a neighbourhood. Many of the modernistic housing areas are planned as independent enclaves that are not well connected with the rest of the city. Stauskis and Eckardt (2011) argue for the importance of focussing on the different ‘levels of interest’ in the city hierarchy in order to create the physical foundation for interaction between people and, through configuration, support the interaction between actors and spectators (Stauskis and Eckardt, 2011). By focussing on the physical configuration of space, Stauskis and Eckardt describe how different ´levels of interest´ need to be considered in the desire to obtain interaction among people in a city. They claim that a place must ´be dressed for the right occasion´ as a metaphor for how designers need to understand the social context. “The most important principle to be observed by professionals of architecture is that the physical form of any taken public space of how it is planned, built-up, paved, painted or arranged landscape wise is just an external shell in which an architect that understands the basic codes of typical social interactions “dresses” the space by giving it an appropriate architectural expression in space and form.” (Stauskis and Eckardt, 2011, p. 121) Figure 7 is developed based on Stauskis and Eckardt’s (2011) investigation of public urban places functioning as catalysts for interaction in urban communities. The figure is developed simultaneously with my analysis of Superkilen; it is further theoretically supported by Hillier and Hanson (1988) and their theories on infrastructure. The figure visualises four ‘levels of interest’ through which a public urban place can support the interaction between citizens. In the thesis, I use this model to analyse all three public urban places (Superkilen in Copenhagen, centre square in Skovparken/Skovvejen and the Library Park in Kolding) that are integrated into the thesis and compare them in a shared discussion in the conclusion.

Figure 7: Levels of interest

Stauskis (2010) argues that the attractiveness of a public place depends on the diversity of accessible services and interests for citizens, where elements of social infrastructure play the key role in empowering contemporary public spaces to act as facilitators of different social activities.

Figure 8: Configuration of place

Stauskis and Eckardt (2011) further describe the importance of transit flows within the places which do not disturb the ´performers´ in a place. If there are no ´performers´, there will be no ´spectators´ and thus no place for interaction between different people. The importance of a place´s configuration and how it supports interaction and connection among the different users is also supported by Gehl in his many studies of city life (J. Gehl, 1971; Gehl and Svarre, 2013; Studio, 2017). Figure 8 visualises the different kinds of users who will be present in a place and how their interrelations are most beneficial. There must be an interaction between actors and spectators, and passers-by must not interfere with this interaction.

The understanding of space and place The following section accounts for the differentiation between the terms ‘place’ and ‘space’ in this thesis. Massey (2005) wants to break with the conception of space as the abstract and 59

place as the concrete. She argues that the dichotomy of place and space rests upon a problematic geographical conception. The dichotomies of local/global and place/space do not correspond to that of concrete/abstract. The global can be just as concrete as the local. “If space is really to be thought relationally then it is no more than the sum of our relations and interconnections, and the lack of them; it too is utterly concrete” …. And she elaborates further: “An understanding of the world in terms of relationality, a world in which the local and the global really are ´mutually constituted,´ renders untenable these kinds of separation. The ´lived reality of our daily lives´ is utterly dispersed, unlocalised, in its sources and in its repercussions, the degree of dispersion, the stretching, may vary dramatically between social groups, but the point is that the geography will not be simply territorial. Where would you draw the line around the lived reality of our daily life?” (Massey, 2005, pp. 184-185) Massey (2005) argues that it makes no sense to see place as the lived and the local and space as something outside. If we think of space as relational, then we must perceive it as the sum of all of our connections which are very grounded and concrete, even though they might stretch around the world. She does not argue that place is not located, specific and grounded; she just argues that space can be that too. Therefore, from her point of view, it is incorrect to contrast an embodied place with abstract space, as both can be just as concrete and abstract as the other. Heidegger describes ‘place’ from a phenomenological perspective, where the explanations of a ‘place’ focus on the perception of place. Like Massey, he argues that ‘place’ is more than just a location. He adds time into the concept of place by arguing that a place not only is, but a place is something that takes place (Malpas, 2012), perceiving the place as an event and something which opens up. However, Heidegger is still very ´place specific´ (site), and sees the static elements, such as a building, as the predominant element of a place. In The Production of Space, Lefebvre (1998) criticizes Heidegger for being too one-dimensional in his description of place since, he argues, his explanation of place is missing a subject. Lefebvre presents the ´real´ space, which is the space of social practice. He writes that “It seems to be well established that physical space has no ´reality´ without the energy that is deployed within it.” (Lefebvre, 1991, p. 13). He later (1998) states that all places are social; they are created by humans and are constantly being changed by history. Places only arise when they encounter a subject, which senses and relates to the place – places do not just exist. They arise, or they do not, through a continuing gesture – places are being produced. All places are created through historical and cultural layers of pictures and imaginations. Lefebvre´s explanation of place is a connection of several place perceptions which are under constant change. It is a coherent and dynamic event of actions, the physical surroundings, pictures and symbolic meanings in constant interaction and negotiation with the surrounding world. There are no rigorously formal aspects of codes characterising a particular spatial/social practice. Instead, codes must be seen as part of a practical relationship, as part of an interaction between ´subjects´ and their space and

surroundings. He thus also argues for a shifting and entangled interaction between different kinds of ´spaces’, which are at the same time interrelated and separated from each other. It is within this constant interaction and negotiation that Bauman (1993) argues that there is an opportunity for something, for example solidarity, to arise. Lefebvre´s presentation of ‘place’ further supports Boehme´s (1995) perception of ‘atmosphere’ describing the phenomenon of ‘atmosphere’ as being a characteristic manifestation of the co-presence of subject and object (Böhme and Borch, 2014). The term ‘atmosphere’ is presented by the philosopher and scientific researcher Böhme (1995), as a term for a new aesthetics, which does not take art as its starting point. Albertsen (1999) states that ‘atmosphere’ is an important and neglected dimension both in the relations that people have with each other and with their urban surrounding. Lefebvre argues that it is in the interaction and affections between forces, energies, space and time that we can perceive space, but that is too difficult to describe in a way that we can grasp and understand it intellectually. The ‘atmosphere’ becomes the result of the abundance of all the factors included in a place. It is the mesh of all things physical and social which exist in one specific place. The ‘atmosphere’ is, furthermore, not a static element. Rather, it changes simultaneously with the change of the objects and the subjects that create it. Casey (1996) supports the phenomenological understanding of place as something that exists only in the presence of a subject. He argues that one cannot know or sense a place without being there at a certain position from where one can perceive the place. Knowledge about the place is not a perception, he argues, but is integrated into the perception. He says that one cannot have an embodied knowledge about a place without being there and argues that “Perception remains as constitutive as it is constituted” (1996 p. 19). He also posits that sensing and knowing a place is to be cultural. To have a culture is to inhabit a place sufficiently to cultivate it, which means to be responsible, to respond to and take care of it, because culture can only be rooted in a particular place. Culture is also embodied, as culture is carried into places by bodies. “To be encultured is to be embodied” (1996, p. 34). Casey refers to Bordieu´s (2014) explanation of habitus. However, he formulates the entanglement between subject and object differently. He writes that places are conditional in terms of their content and the content is being expressed through narratives, discussions or descriptions of the place in a specific culture. Again there are parallels to Foucault´s (Dreyfus and Rabinow, 2014) explanations of the discourse of the language. Just like the culture is always present at a place, a place is always cultural. The emergence of a place is, therefore, a coming together of embodied perceptions and actions, incorporated in culture and also influenced and inherited in time, turning places into events: “Rather than being one specific thing – e.g. physical, spiritual, cultural or social – a specific place undertakes characteristics from them who has acquired the place, reflects those characteristics in its own constitution and describes and expresses them in its emergence of an event: (And it is because they happen that they lend themselves so well to narration, whether as history or as a story. Places not only are, they happen) (Casey; Feld and Basso, 1996)

In Casey´s explanation of place and all the elements contained within them, he also describes how places not just create a coming together and increased growth, but that they can also be destructive contain opposites and create frictions within its atmosphere. Massey defines what she describes as ´the common interpretation of space´ (2005, p. 9). She divides spaces into three categories. First, she argues, space is a product of interrelations, which are constituted through interactions, and space can range from infinite to tiny. Secondly, space is where there is a co-existence of both multiplicity and plurality in constant interaction, and thirdly, she argues, space is always under construction, referring to the constant interrelation and interaction between the multiple materials entailed in space. She says that “ Perhaps we could imagine space as a simultaneity of stories-so-far” (2005 p. 9). Massey (1994) further describes that our experience and perception of places has changed with the increased global mobility and with changes in society regarding capitalism and new ways of living. This, according to Massey, leads to increased uncertainty about what we mean by places and how we relate to them, and how all this movement and intermixing challenges our ability to retain any sense of a local place with its characteristics. The longing to find a place identity in the historical roots of the place leads to defensive places “and outright antagonism to newcomers and outsiders” (1994, p.1). She asks for a rethinking of our sense of place, and argues that we see 1. place as a process, something constantly developing and being changed by the people living there; 2. place defined by the outside world; because the limits are open, everything floats in and out of the place; 3. place for multiple identities and narratives; and 4. the virtue of the place as defined by the exchanges between things coming from outside and between all things contained in the place (Massey, 1994). Certeau likewise explains places in the relationship between subject and object. He describes “Space as a ´frequented place’, án intersection of moving bodies´: It is the pedestrians who transform a street (geometrically defined as a place by town planners) into a space” (1988, p. 81). Space is, therefore, explained as measureless actions happening in place but transcending geometry, described as co-existing elements, animating as space through movements and actions. Merleau-Ponty (1996) distinguishes between the ´geometrical space´ and the ánthropological space’, which together form the sense of éxistential space’. Through the use of different metaphors, Certeau (1995) describes space as something that makes the place come to life, where a place is the geometrical form and space is the movement; where place is the unspoken word and the inventory and space is the spoken word and the route. To be able to capture both the specific place and the abstract space at the same time, Augé (2008) describes that ethnography always operates with at least two kinds of places. The space of place – the specific subject matter, a neighbourhood or a firm – and the more extensive space it is enrolled in, and from where several different influences and circumstances all affect the local and specific dynamics and relations. He argues that the ethnographer must apply a methodological ‘double-vision’, where he must both observe the specific place and at the same time the important borders towards the extensive space. Summarising the discussion above on space and place, it explains the understanding of place and space within this thesis, where places are always bound to at specific location, the geometrical form (Superkilen in Copenhagen, Skovparken/Skovvejen in Kolding), and space are all the things that happen in the constant interaction and entanglement between subjects and objects.

ANT is a theoretical framework to explain the space between two (or several) actors, by understanding what they do, how they affect each other. This understanding is pivotal, because it is within this space that I argue social sustainable design operates. The following section will focus on the cultural influence within a place.

The sociality of place As described thoroughly in the section above, places are a manifold of geographically bounded sites and objects, meta-level experiences and associations and acts. I find it relevant to integrate theory discussing the experience of a public place and acts in a public place. This section presents the theory discussing perception and action in public places. By the 1970s, an increased awareness appeared regarding the cultural embeddedness of social life, economic organisations and politics. Questions about the belief in objectivity began to emerge, first in philosophical, sociological and anthropological literature and later widely presented in feminist literature (Haraway, 1988). Foucault (1977) worked on the micropolitics of the organisation of institutions of social control. He stated that every element of an institution – the informal practices, the physical surroundings, and the different discourses – all entail social meaning and power relation creating the argumentation that we live within a social order to which we are culturally linked. Healey (2006) argues that we experience an increased awareness of our cultural boundedness and of our own and of others’ biases because we are becoming more critical of the desire for further economic progress, our own identity, how we live, social orders and the limits of science. “We recognise difference and differentiation in our systems of meaning, our ways of acting and our lifeworlds, and see around us not homogenous values and ways of life, but cultural diversity. This leads to consciousness of difference between ús‘ and óthers’. We reflect on the differences between our times and what has gone before.” (Healey, 2006, p.37) When Healey uses the word ćulture’, it should be understood as the way people´s patterns of opinions and social acts are influenced by collective frames of reference and systems of meaning. The conception of culture goes beyond “individual subjective preferences,” but derives from models of thought. Our thoughts and acts are thereby influenced by our cultural ´belonging´. “The recognition of diversity thus implies a realization that local environmental conflicts may involve encounters between people in different ćultural communities´. This contrasts with notions of place-based culturally homogeneous communities.” (Healey, 2006, p.37) Healey further argues, referring to Latour (2005), that most people are influenced by different cultural communities since we are linked by our networks and by “networks-at-a distance”, which is why homogenous cultural communities in contemporary western societies hardly exist. 63

Each social network that we enter incorporates some local knowledge into us as part of our accumulated cultural baggage. Healey describes this accumulation of influences and interactions as our ‘social situatedness´ (2006, p. 38). Both ‘social situatedness’ and habitus (Bourdieu, 2014) argue that this multitude of social and cultural influences affect our acts. Healey (2006) asks how we can then establish a public realm as a gathering of all our cultural differences, and she answers that this can only happen through ‘intercultural dialogue’ (Healey, 2006, p.37), where we reflect on what we mean and understand in forms where we offer respect to our individual and cultural differences. The ‘inter cultural dialogue’ is important in the creation of opportunity spaces, where solidarity, tolerance and mutual responsibility can arise (Bauman, 1993). Healey´s idea of ´collaborative planning´ is grounded in these ´relational cultures´ and how they are linked in webs or networks in which we live our lives. The concept of webs of relationships is framed and structured by the history of past power relations. Since the structuring of power relations is constantly negotiated and re-formed, it creates the possibility that the present time can also be transformed into something different. However, it needs an awareness on the relational-cultural differences, which means that local conflicts over space and place do not only bring people with different interests and states together but also people operating in different cultures, with different ways of doing, seeing and knowing. “These relational encounters over shared local environmental issues reflect power relations. But the potential always exists, however small, to transform them.” (Healey, 2006, p. 60). Collaborative approaches focus on establishing links across very different networks, on creating new relational capacities across the diversity of relations which co-exists in all places. Relating Healey´s argumentation on collaborative planning to Bauman´s (1993) argumentation of creating opportunity spaces for tolerance to occur is interesting in the context of design of public urban places, because different cultural patterns do exist within these places and thus an opportunity space for interaction and tolerance could emerge, provided the development and the design of the places is approached through a collaborative mindset. The following sections discuss the relationship to places and interaction between different cultural patterns.

Relation to place Pallasmaa (2005) states that we experience our surroundings with all our senses, not just with our vision. We relate to and identify with places, and they become a part of us – both places we have visited that only exist in our memory and places we find ourselves in on a daily basis. The architectural space is the lived space rather than the physical space. The lived space always transcends geometry and measurability. “Modern architectural theory and critique have had a strong tendency to regard space as an immaterial object delineated by material surfaces, instead of understanding space in terms of dynamic interactions and interrelations.” (Pallasmaa, 2005, p. 68) We are in constant dialogue and interaction with the environment to the extent that it is impossible to detach the image of the self from its spatial and situational existence. What Pallasmaa (2005) describes above relates to both Merleau-Ponty (1996), Bourdieu (2014),

Massey (2005, 1994) and Healey (2006) in their discussions on perception and behaviour in space as being fundamental and embedded in cultural and social patterns. Relph (1976) categorises relations to places into seven different levels. He argues that involvement has a positive impact on the way people experience a place, and he sets up a distinction between ‘insideness’ and ‘outsideness’ regarding people’s relations to a place (Relph, 1976). He argues that emotional and empathetic involvement with the place and a need for identification with the place is necessary to develop a ‘place attachment’. However, as that existential ‘insideness’ may result in the exclusion of others, it appears to be empathetic ‘insideness’ that is fruitful when developing public space. He does not give any examples of how ‘place attachment’ will occur but argues that ‘place attachment’ will only arise through users who have a sense of belonging to the place or can identify with the place. Interaction with physical structures enables ‘place attachment’ to arise, and ‘place attachment’ can only be experienced directly by the insiders. ‘Place attachment’ is an indicator of how people will relate to a place in the future and hence how people will use it and take care of it.

Table 2: Levels of ‘insideness’ and ‘outsideness’

Relph (1976) defines ‘place making’ as a continuous process where places gain authenticity by being modified and dwelled in by insiders. ‘Place making’ implies a conceptualisation and an implementation of design as well as a use. A crucial task for a ‘place making’ process in a public urban place is hence how to involve empathetic insiders or existential insiders to whom the place seems important in the development of a place. Table 2 visualises the different levels of ‘insideness’ and ‘outsideness’ explained by Relph (1976). Relph´s explanation of ‘insideness’ and ‘outsideness’ is interesting to discuss in relation to ANT (Latour, 2005a), because it provides a scheme for placing the different human actors in relation to each other and in relation to the public place. The table can support a qualified discussion regarding pivotal actors influencing a place, and whether those actors have a distant or a close attachment to a place. The level of ‘insideness’ and ‘outsideness’ is related to the power relations of a place and to the potential territorialisation of a place, which is linked to the pivotal actors that impact a place. 65

Social psychologist Asplund (1983) highlights the need for making impressions. “A place makes impressions, but it has to be possible to make impressions on the place as well. ‘Monumentality’ in the negative sense implies physical premises that make impressions but do not take them, premises that reduce their residents or visitors, premises that are intended for spectating not for participating” (Asplund, 1983, p. 182). Gauntlett (2011) also describes how social capital can arise through shared experiences and through the experience of creating things together and how a community arises through sharing and united experiences. Bourdieu (2010), on the other hand, reaches the social capital from a more locked position, where the economic capital results in social and societal stratification. Gauntlett (2011) enhances the social capital as a demanding parameter for the joy of life, which is not solely dependent on the economic capital. He sees the social capital as having its own power and argues that the joy of creating things and creating things together is of the utmost importance for a neighbourhood. If there is no social cohesion in a neighbourhood and the neighbours are strangers to each other, the community will eventually fall apart with an increase in crime, mistrust, depression and illness (Gauntlett, 2011, p. 131) Public urban places near deprived housing neighbourhoods are also political places. As already described from several theoretical positions, places consist of numerous entities and relations that constantly interact and influence each other. This means that also external political agendas or subjectivities are elements that affect a specific place just as much as internal power relations. The construction of a place like Superkilen in Copenhagen or the centre square in Skovparken in Kolding is highly political and the identity of those places are subject to political subjectivity which is a decisive factor in the relational constitution of the specific place. Massey (2005) points to the potential of public places to promote the democratic sphere due to the three elements embodied in place: chaos, openness and uncertainty. But that requires an awareness of the power relations which constructs the places. The awareness of power relations is also brought to the table by Mouffe, who states: “Instead of trying to erase the traces of power and exclusion, democratic politics requires that they be brought to the fore, making them visible so that they can enter the terrain of contestation.” (Mouffe, 1993, p. 149) According to Mouffe (1993, 1995) places are arenas where identities and interrelations are constituted together, and it is through the recognition and acceptance of power relations that the negotiation of relations within multiplicities is possible and the social space is constructed. Hajer and Reijndorp (2001) account for the emergence of ‘new public domains’. A ‘new public domain’ is a place where an exchange between different social groups is possible and occurs and where different social worlds overlap. To become a ‘new public domain’ the place must be positively valued as a place of shared experience by people from different backgrounds or with dissimilar interest. Hajer and Reijndorp underscore the importance of citizens with different 66

world or value systems (Lefebvre, 1991) relating to the place. Hajer and Reijndorp (2001) name groups of citizens with similar world and value systems ‘urban tribes’. The dominance of an ‘urban tribe’ does not exclude a ‘new public domain’, on the contrary, since it contributes to identity and experience. For a ‘new public domain’ to emerge it must appeal to at least one urban tribe. However, that tribe must not develop too strong a ‘place attachment’ (Relph, 1976), because this may prevent other citizens from using the place and thus impede interaction. Places can develop into ‘new public domains’ because of their design or the prevailing policy objective. The key to the ‘new public domain’ lies in the analysis of the experienced time in specific places and the link to the design or policy objective. In the future, the quality of a ‘new public domain’ will not be measured in relation to spatiality and accessibility, but to how it affects the ‘atmosphere’ in different places (Hajer and Reijndorp, 2001). Hajer and Reijndorp´s description of ‘new public domains’ contain elements pertaining to power relations (Laclau and Mouffe, 2014; Mouffe, 1993) and the possibility of negotiating about the place. In the next section, I will further elaborate on the negotiation of place through a theoretical presentation of territory.

Territorialisation of place Originally territorialisation was related to a bounded geographical place. Sack describes it as an “attempt by any individual or social group to affect, influence and control people, phenomena and relationships by delimiting and asserting control over a geographical area” (Sack, 1986, p.19). The original interpretation of territorialisation as a static relationship between place and territory has changed into perceiving territorialisation as an integral element in line with the general interpretation of place as a dynamic interrelatedness of a host of both social and physical factors. The notion of territorialisation has changed into a dynamic process and has become matter of social acts and negotiations always, though, related to physical reality. It is also referred to as inherited and affected by human behaviour. To describe this phenomenon Sack (1986) uses the notion of ´human territoriality´ and distinguishes between the word ‘territory’ as referring to a geographical place and ‘territoriality’, which refers to human actions in interaction. Massey (2005) also integrates thoughts about the territorialisation as a matter of interaction between place, time and social relations. She specifically urges to define spaces and places as products of social relations, which are often agonistic and unequal, “from the greatest public square to the smallest public park, these places are a product of, and internally dislocated by, heterogeneous and sometimes conflicting social identities/relations” (Massey, 2005, p.152). Places are developed through these constant negotiations which can sometimes be quiet and persistent and at other times powerful, and it is up to the diverse group of the citizens themselves to figure it out and negotiate who has the right to be there, and realise that a completely ´open space´ will probably never exist. Kärrholm (2017) describes that newer interpretations of territorialisation take their point of departure in thinkers like Deleuze and Guatarri, who also saw design, bodily perceptions and aesthetics as active co-producers of territories. They saw territory more as a matter of act 67

rather than a matter of space and territorialisation as processes of interactions between time and spaces, and not as spatial strategies. Kärrholm argues that “Territories are thus acted events, expressive and boundary-producing power relations, and as such not defined by a certain land or area (although always dependent on materiality)” (Kärrholm, 2017, p.685). Brighenti (2010) supports Kärrholm in his descriptions of territorialisation as a matter of social interrelatedness and with Massey in her description of places as arenas for constantly negotiations of social relations. Brighenti writes that: ” territory is not defined by space, rather it defines spaces through patterns of relations” (Brighenti, 2010, p.57). Brighenti also links territory to mobility by arguing that when we link territory to acts and events, we set them in motion and by doing so we can obtain a much more ´territoriological´ understanding of mobilities (Brighenti, 2014, p. 3). The same link is described by Rajchman (1998) when he raises the questions of being in the city or at a place together. He describes the constant negotiations between identities and different rhythms, meaning that the negotiations of place happen on the move by identities which are on the move. Brighenti (2012) argues that mobility is a pivotal element in territoriality, not only because it supports the connection between places and flows, but because it has the power to sustain certain associations and thereby also create new ones. Mobility also represents a form of liberation as an example the liberty, as a resident, to move out of a stigmatised neighbourhood. In Lefebvre´s argumentation about the ‘right to the city’, he also emphasises the right of not being stuck in a stigmatised neighbourhood. The final element inherited in territorialisation is time related to space, in time-space territories. Kärrholm (2017), Brighenti (2010, 2012), Massey (2005) and Rajchman (1998) all integrate time when they relate territory to acts, whether it is the act of moving, negotiating, or traces of power. Kärrholm (2017) divides time-space territories into three categories: either deliberately produced through ´tactics or strategies´ or as a consequence of someone´s act or use through áppropriations´ or ássociations´. 1. Tactics or strategically produced time space could be opening hours of shops, parking, the operating hours of factories, where the place is ćoded´ for a specific use, which thereby dictates who occupies the place and how. 2. Appropriation of space often leads to territorialisation, through time. This can happen through a temporary appropriation by a certain úrban tribe´ e.g., a gang converges on a street corner. The act of converging on a street corner happens many times by the same gang; however, it can also be a single act of taking up a seat at a lecture or in a bus. 3. Associations relate to behavioural regularity, like withdrawing money from an ATM, and not using that place for eating lunch. You use that place for a specific purpose within a limited amount of time. A lot of places are associated both with a specific use and with a ´proper´ duration for that act. (Kärrholm, 2017) Territoriality theory does, therefore, involve not just a subject and a space. It is an assemblage of both human and non-human actors (Latour, 2005a) in ´temporal processes´ (Kärrholm, 2017,

p. 799), involving time, space and acts (Brighenti, 2014, 2010; Kärrholm, 2017; Massey, 2005; Rajchman, 1998)

The link between place and behaviour In the following section, I present theories regarding behaviour in shared places. I have developed the theoretical concept of Collaborative Urbanism which, as already accounted for, has a connection to ‘urban critical theory’, as it argues for a more social approach to behaviour in public urban places, through a transformation of the theoretical concept of Collaborative Consumption into an urban concept. I use Collaborative Urbanism as a concept for analysing and comparing the three physical places integrated into the empirical work of the thesis.

Collaborative Urbanism As an extension to critical urban theory and an understanding of place, place construction and the effects of place, I find it relevant to integrate thoughts about Collaborative Consumption as interesting lines of thoughts that contribute to a new way of thinking about sharing public places as ‘collaborative user’ of places, or as ‘collaborative citizens’. Collaborative Consumption embraces both socialist and capitalist ideologies, and furthermore it is a contemporary shared global act, which arises as a countermeasure to the increased amount of environmental and social challenges caused by natural disasters and the flow of refugees, which will likely only grow in the future. Collaborative Consumption is a way of acting that has emerged over the last fifteen years. It is rooted in the technologies and behaviours of online social networks, and it is a growing movement with millions of people participating from all over the world. Botsman and Rogers (2011) argue that we will remember Collaborate Consumption as something that started online but that we will see the same collaborative principles and sharing behaviours extend into other physical areas of our everyday life. Collaborative Consumption shares the same underlying four principles which make them work: Critical Mass, Idling Capacity, Belief in the Commons and Trust between Strangers (Botsman and Rogers, 2011). It entails mobility from the state and into a platform where the individuals take responsibility through tolerance and trust in fellow citizens. This does not mean that it eliminates the notion of institutions as presented by Foucault (1977), or that power structures disappear, but it creates new self-established institutions, with a constant moving and collaborating hierarchy where the rules are negotiated by the concerned citizens and continually flow in the direction of the shared interest. In the following sections, I will recontextualise the four listed principles into the physical context of public urban places. I present and transform them one by one below: Critical Mass is used in sociology to describe the point where a system has acquired a sufficient amount of “mass” to become self-sustaining or self-running (Ball, 2014). In Collaborative Consumption Critical Mass has two meanings: one is directly transferable from the sociological term, meaning the specific number of users and suppliers to make trading sites or platforms as for example Airbnb attractive. The second meaning is a consequence of number one and presents the ´social proof’, which means that when people see the number of

users, which they can identify with in terms of value, it becomes attractive to be part of that user group. This means that a specific behaviour pattern is contagious and other people’s behaviour motivates us towards the same behaviour (Botsman and Rogers, 2011. p.82). Transferred into Urban Theory and the use of public places, there are several urban studies to refer to. However, Whyte expresses the notion very precisely: “What attracts people most, in sum, is other people” (Whyte, 1988, p. 10). Gehl (I. Gehl, 1971; J. Gehl, 1971; Gehl and Svarre, 2013) has conducted several studies on city life which support the statement by Whyte. Gehl argues that people orient themselves towards other people, that they stay and move where other people are, and that new activities arise in the proximity of already ongoing events (Gehl, 2007). He also describes how the existence or nonexistence of life between the houses is self-reinforcing because the events stimulate each other. The same situation is present when it comes to street life. If there is nothing to look at, the streets become empty, a no man´s land, where nobody wants to move to or stay (Jacobs, 1961). Idling Capacity, in the terminology of Collaborative Consumption, refers to multitude of things we are surrounded by that we only use a minimal number of times; Botsman and Rogers (2011) point for example to the many drills that gather dust in homes around the world. The notion of Idling Capacity can easily be transferred to our physical surroundings as places which are only used or activated for short time spans in the course of a day such as playgrounds at schools or parking lots in front of supermarkets. Such places are named ‘surplus landscapes’ by Nielsen (2001). In his explanation of ´surplus landscapes´ Nielsen initially describes the ´consumption´ as central, because it describes our ways of acting in the public space. This can happen either as actual and intentional acts ´fitting´ the content of the place, or it happens through the unintended or alternative consumption of the ‘surplus landscapes’, by using and holding them as landscapes. He states: “An urbanistic practice, which takes its point of departure in those tendencies, can perceive the role of the ‘surplus landscapes’ in relation to the additional parts of the urbanistic field, as a series of material resources, which, as long as they don´t fill the defined role in the city they can be put at the citizens disposal.” (Nielsen, 2001, p. 122) Idling Capacity translated into an urban context of public places involves the monofunctional or non-negotiable places which can extend their ´use potential´ if they were more available to other potential users, or appealed to several different urban tribes (Hajer and Reijndorp, 2001). Public urban places must be available to more users through a concept of sharing, by implementing negotiation in time and space (Kärrholm, 2017; Brighenti, 2010, 2012; Reijndorph, 2001), and allow the same objects, functions or places to appeal to difference urban tribes, who take over the objects, functions or places from each other. The Idling Capacity in places can thus support mobility in the territorialisation of places. Belief in the Commons has two trajectories within the terminology of Collaborative Consumption. First the belief that ‘the common’, will not take more than he or she needs – a belief in being able to put one´s own need to own or to have aside in favour of the shared need for having enough for everyone. Translated into an urban context, it can be compared with the willingness to negotiate our public places and to the way of acting and obtaining a place in a way which leaves room for others as well (Massey, 2005; Mouffe, 1993). 70

The second trajectory of Belief in the Commons takes its point of departure in Nobel Prize winner Elinor Ostrom´s work. She speaks to the way that people can self-organise to take care of resources that they care about. Self-organisation in an urban context is exemplified through the ubiquitous number of DIY (do it yourself) projects. A famous project in the European context is Wallisblok in Rotterdam. The local Municipality developed a model to attract resourceful young citizens to deprived social housing areas and made them engage in the neighbourhood. The Municipality gave or sold very cheaply, old blocks of flats, which were in such bad condition that they would otherwise be demolished. The citizens united, organised and paid for the renovation, and turned the block into great places to live; additionally, they added new energy into the deprived neighbourhoods. Other examples of Belief in the Commons translated into the urban practice of public places are in the favelas of Brazil, where many communities take pride in co-creating and selfmanaging their environment. Or in Colombes, a suburb of Paris, managed by Atelier d’Architecture Autogérée and Doina Petresco, where 400 citizens are co-managing 5,000 square meters of land, producing food, energy, and housing, while actively reducing waste and water usage. Belief in the Commons is almost a mantra in many urban development projects today and is fundamental in the general meaning of Place Making 8, which makes the list of examples endless. The final category is Trust between Strangers. In the context of Collaborative Consumption, it is understood as an elimination of the middleman who polices trade between production and consumption. Instead there is a direct engagement and trust between the involved actors. Translating Trust between Strangers into the context of public urban places involves an understanding and a solidarity among different users sharing the same public urban place. It thus relates to Lefebvre´s (1991) argumentation about the different worlds and value systems or the overlap in cultural patterns (Healey, 2006; Massey, 1994), because it allows for one place to be occupied by different users during a particular time slot. Trust between Strangers is fundamental to frictionless negotiation and mobility in territories (Brighenti, 2014; Kärrholm, 2017), where overlaps of cultural patterns create ‘opportunity spaces’ for tolerance, solidarity and shared responsibility to arise (Bauman 1993). To obtain Trust between Strangers power relations must be brought to the fore and acknowledged (Laclau and Mouffe, 2014). I argue that it is interesting and relevant to transform the four principles of Collaborative Consumption into an urban context. It is a globally prevailing lifestyle and a mode of behaviour which we today address in the context of materials. By translating it into an urban context I present a theoretical foundation for developing collaborative public urban places through an expanded understanding of the interconnectedness between behaviour and the physical context.

https://www.pps.org/article/what-is-placemaking

Performative and relational design of public urban places To explain the role of design in the development of public urban places and to further elaborate on the understanding of this thesis of what the different actors in a place do (Latour, 2005; Yaneva, 2013), how they are interconnected and how they impact each other, I integrate thoughts from ‘performative theory’ (Schechner, 2013) and ‘relational aesthetics’ (Bishop, 2006; Bourriaud, 2010), Several general critics of architecture and design tend to look at buildings and objects as static elements (Yaneva, 2013). ‘Performative theory’ focusses on the action taking place between the physical object, the users and the spectators by focussing on their interaction with the object. ‘Performative theory’ evolves around the space ´between´, which connects it to ANT. ‘Performative theory’ and ANT both focus on what things do and how the different actors (ANT) or the physical object, the users and the spectators (performative urban design) interact and interrelate. The performative space represents the space between. I argue that the space between in the context of public urban places is the space which contains elements such as power relations (Foucault, 1977, 2007; Mouffe, 1993), negotiation between both human and non-human actors (Brighenti, 2014; Best, 2016; Kärrholm, 2017; Latour, 2005), the place identity and the ‘place attachment’ (Albertsen, 1999; Jessop, 1997; Relph, 1976). Schechner (2013) writes that performances “exist only as actions, interactions, and relationships.” From such a perspective architecture and design are not static objects but rather actors in a dynamic process in constant interactions. Yaneva (2013) refers to the dynamic understanding of architecture and design as producing a ´social explanation´ of its design as a way of understanding and perceiving the material world and the social world as interlinked and simultaneously interacting. Schechner writes that “performance isn´t in anything, but between” (Schechner, 2013, p. 30). It appears between the subject and the object, which relates to the phenomenon of ‘atmosphere’ as being a characteristic manifestations of the co-presence of subject and object (Böhme and Borch, 2014), and to the explanations of place as something that takes place (Casey, 1996). The same dissociation of looking at buildings and objects as static elements is also recognisable in relational aesthetics or relational art (Bourriaud, 2002), which was a trend in art practice first formulated by French art critic Bourriaud. He defined the approach as: "a set of artistic practices which take as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations and their social context, rather than an independent and private space" (Bourriaud, 2002, p.113). The artist takes the position as a ‘catalyst in relational art’ 9, rather than being at the centre. ‘Relational art’ became a notion used by a generation of artists in the early to mid-1900s. They 9

Link to examples of relational art projects: http://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/rirkritmca.pdf

perceived art as something more than pure aesthetics, and extended the notion of aesthetics to involve the none-visual but still present relational dynamics which happened between conductor, object or action and the spectator. The aesthetics were in between and inherited in the experience of the action. In the approach to the art they perceived that “Art is a site that produces a specific sociability” (Bishop, 2006, cites Bourriaud, p. 161). And so are public urban places. Understanding places as products of different interconnected actors constantly influencing each other, places also produce a specific sociability, which affects the use, the users and the perception of the place. Thus, ‘relational art’ (Bourriaud, 2010), performance theory (Schechner, 2013) and Collaborative Consumption (Botsman and Rogers, 2011) all argue that without direct and continued engagement between óbject´ and ‘subject’, there will (depending on the context) be no éxperience´, ´trade´, ´design´, árt piece´ or ´place.´ This is further supported by Relph (1976), who argues that someone must feel a ‘place attachment’, which will only arise through a level of either empathetic or existential ‘insideness’, which emerges through an engagement with the site. To connect this understanding of place with something operational for design research (and design practice) I turn again to the art world and to the art theorist Rogoff (2003). She presents three categories of creating critique, which is useful and operational in creating critics of architecture and design. •

First, she presents ‘criticism’, which is concerned with judging the piece of architecture or design in accordance with whether it is good or bad through the process of finding faults.

•

Secondly, she uses the term ‘critique’, which is concerned with studying “the underlying assumptions that might allow something to appear as a convincing logic“ (Rogoff, 2003, p.119).

•

The third category she names is ‘criticality’. This is concerned with what the piece does (and not what it looks like), by “rearticulating relationships between makers, objects and audience” (Rogoff, 2003, p.119) as a way to investigate the piece.

I argue that a design researcher can enter the space between by rearticulating the relationship between makers, objects and audience through the use of an intervention or an artefact. Through this design approach it is possible to bring ‘social frictions’ as power relations to the fore, which is fundamental for making them operational for either knowledge production or social sustainable design of public urban places. In my development of the two interventions, A Place Called… and Words Upon a Place, I use Rogoff´s rearticulation as a concept for investigating the space between. The understanding of public urban places as products of interdependent and constantly influencing actors, as connections between subjects and objects, and of how design can enter 9

http://www.jenshaaning.com

the space between has led me to the following sections on design research and further on to my methods for investigations.

Design research The following section positions the thesis within design research theory. I position this thesis within the field of Social Design, Design for Social Innovation and participatory design; I also touch upon critical design. Design theory relating to the design approach and methods is thoroughly described and accounted for in the following chapter 4. I initiate this section by presenting the movement within design practice and design research, which created the platform for Social Design, Design for Social Innovation and participatory design. Then follows a more in-depth description and discussion of Social Design, Design for Social Innovation and participatory Design.

Movements in design practice and design research Design research has long historical roots but has expanded rapidly during the past 20 years. Early modernism desired to base design and architecture on objectivity and rationality by arguing for tools for objectivity within design. As a result, an increased focus on design methodologies occurred, and during the 1960s and early 1970s, several conferences and books on design methods and methodologies appeared (Cross, 1993). The original approach to design as problem-solving did not match the complexity within the post-war society´s emerging environmental and social problems in which design was engaged. Since an increased focus on social structures occurred as society changed, design entered new fields which contain a greater level of complexity. It was not possible to investigate social problems through a rational way of thinking. The increased complexity of problems of social policy was characterised as ´wicked´ problems, where there was no objective solution to be found (Rittel and Webber, 1973). The former rational approach to problem-solving was, therefore, no longer sufficient. Rittel (1973) referred to the methods developed in the 1960s as the ´first generation´ methods. The first generation was based on rationality and systematic approaches, which were simple but necessary as a start. The emergence of ´second generation´ methods permitted higher levels of participation (especially problems designated as ‘wicked’ problems) from different stakeholders, where designers were partners in a design process rather than leading experts (Cross, 1993). What Cross (1993) called the ´third generation´ methods contained characteristics from both first- and second-generation methods; however, they contained the ability to incorporate a higher level of complexity. Cross (1993) implies that design methodologies can navigate on a high level of complexity, in ways which permit structuring the web of many interdependencies into research. Buchanan (2001, p.7) refers to design as ´the new learning of our time’, which can connect knowledge from varies other disciplines to improve social life. Buchanan describes ´actions´ (interaction design) as “focusing on how human beings relate to other human beings through the mediating influence of products” (2001, p.11). ´Products´, in the quote, are understood as more than physical objects; they also include experiences, activities or services. Environments or systems, he argues, are where the actions take place. Buchanan´s description of environments and systems as; ”the totality of all that is contained, 74

has been contained, and may yet be contained within it” (2001, p.12), has great similarities to Massey, Healey and Bourdieu´s description of place. Both Massey (1994) and Healey (2006) describe place as a product of both physical and social entities in interdependent and constant interaction, and Bourdieu (2014) describes how the experience and actions in the present place are forming the next second place. According to Buchanan (2001), it is in the environment or the system that the space between object and subject occurs. He explains it as únderstanding products from the inside´ (2001, p.13), by understanding how people experience and use ´products´ and thereby, how ´products´ affect the behaviour in social and cultural environments. Placing Buchanan´s explanation of áction´ and énvironment´ in the physical context of public urban places, by comparing them to the description of place by Massey and Healey and the argument on power relations (Foucault et al., 2007; Mouffe, 1993) and territorialisation (Brighenti, 2014; 2012; Kärrholm, 2017), contributes to an understanding of how to design for the social and the physical space simultaneously by contributing to an understanding of the importance of an awareness of how products affect behaviour. Actions are the negotiations going on between different people in a place. The negotiation is influenced by mediating products as objects, experiences, activities and services. When working with actions and environments in the context of public urban places they are, as already formulated by Massey and Healey (Healey, 2006; Massey, 1994), interdepended and in constant interaction. Buchanan has not explained or viewed the terms in relation to designing a physical place, and he does not describe them as interrelated but as two new domains (now 20 years old) within design. Still, I see his elaboration of the two design domains merged with a theory on space, place and power contributing to making design of socially sustainable public urban places operational since it contributes to the explanation of the space between. Buchanan (2001) presents a development in design by the end of the 1990s where it entered the field of intangible design of interaction and services. However, during the past ten years, design has entered yet a new area, where sustainable agendas and social challenges make designers go beyond such fields as service design, which Buchanan at the time labelled a ńew domain´ of design. Designers today address a broad array of problems dealing with large-scale systems and innovation (Friedman, 2016). They make use of design methods to structure the complexity of many different stakeholders towards solving social challenges (Manzini, 2015). Arguing that designers must take a social responsibility is not a new point of view. In 1972 Papanek argued that designers should develop a social awareness into their design by focussing on ecology and inclusion of weaker groups in society. Papanek targeted his critique towards the mass market and mass production, at a time when design was perceived as the development of objects and communication and could not attract attention against the strong market forces. Contemporary design trajectories of the 21st century now enter a cultural movement in society, where sustainability and social cohesion have slowed down the desire for economic growth (Myerson, 2016). The movements away from generalisation and mass production requires a ´scaling down´ approach, according to Myerson, where designers must navigate in

“social, infrastructural, economic and environmental complexity” (Friedman, 2016, p.4). Friedman (2016) argues that because designers now address social challenges, they must work on different scales, both large and small, and points to scaling down as one effective way towards design for social challenges. “As it is in many fields, what we learn by scaling down may help us to solve larger problems—and in the meantime, scaling down to meet specific needs helps to understand and solve local problems in a serious and durable way.” (Friedman, 2016, p 2) Scaling down demands a shift in mindset from seeing the designer as the expert towards a more participatory mindset, where real needs are identified through interactive and democratic design processes. Now ´design-infused´ processes are being applied by merging multi-disciplinary processes with design skills such as visualisation, facilitation and modelling. The goal is to engage with real people and their often messy and contradictory experiences rather than creating fictional personas and trying to enhance people’s physical and psychological assets and build on what the situated individuals or communities have to offer (Myerson, 2016). Myerson further argues that many community-focussed projects contain a level of complexity that defies general standard solutions, and once designers scale down and make specific solutions, the findings and the ingredients can be scaled back up and be useful in other communities or similar social challenges. Both Friedman’s and Myerson´s description of design are recognisable in Social Design and Design for Social Innovation. The scaling down approach also supports one of the main arguments presented by Stender and Bech-Danielsen (2017) pointing to the importance of creating in-depths individual, sitespecific analyses of strengths and weaknesses of a neighbourhood before initiating a development process and never turn to general solutions. I integrate the scaling down approach in this thesis when investigating two specific locations (Skovparken/Skovvejen, Kolding and Superkilen, Copenhagen) through direct engagement, embracing all the complexity and contradictions. In the thesis, I use ‘grounded theory’ as a methodological approach for scaling down and by relating findings in the field to the existing theory, I scale back up, thus contributing to new theory. In the next two sections, I will position the thesis within design research, through a presentation and discussion of: • • •

Social Design Design for Social Innovation Participatory design

All three trajectories influence the theoretical approach of doing design research and also the methodological level by affecting the methods of empirical data collection.

Situating the PhD thesis within the framework of Social Design, Design for Social Innovation and social sustainable design of public urban places Given the overall agenda of the thesis – to contribute with knowledge regarding social sustainable design of public urban places and contribute with knowledge regarding the 76

potential of design to contribute to empower development of places – I find it relevant to present and discuss the two trajectories within design research, Design for Social Innovation and Social Design, and connect them to the PhD thesis’ definition of Social Sustainable Design of public urban places (presented in section 2.2 Situating social sustainability in an urban context and within design) The PhD project investigates public urban places, on the edge between deprived housing neighbourhoods and the surrounding city in Denmark. Taking the point of departure in the local challenges (scaling down) related to segregated neighbourhoods in Kolding and Copenhagen, I argue for a position, where I produce my empirical data within the line of thoughts of Social Design, with the humble aim of contributing with knowledge regarding design of public urban places on the edge between deprived housing neighbourhoods and the surrounding city. The empirical data is produced through a participatory design approach in a microscale of two specific bound locations. Yet, as I position my thesis within the field of Critical Theory and argue for an understanding and thereby also for a ´designerly´ approach towards places as relational, Design for Social Innovation is likewise present in the analysis of pivotal design parameters. The analysis points towards an awareness of structural issues, such as power relations, influencing a place, which points to institutional and governmental challenges such as poor integration. However, since it is not within the aim of the thesis to contribute with knowledge related to governmental challenges, I will still argue for a position in Social Design. Within the present literature on design research, there is an urge for an extended understanding and clarification of Social Design and Design for Social Innovation and, as part of that understanding, an urge to distinguish between the two concepts. Koskinen et al. argue that Social Design is not always using innovative forms, therefore, social innovation is not an accurate term. Manzini argues that Social Design has crossed the limits of traditional Social Design and therefore contains a layer of innovation which makes the notion Design for Social Innovation more accurate (Chen, Cheng, Hummels, Koskinen, 2016). Markussen, (2017) argues that Social Design has become a ´murky concept´ (p.163) which restricts the analysis of the outcome of the diverse approaches of engaging with the social and the public spheres. Contributing to the discussion of this distinction is not within the scope of this PhD thesis. However, regarding the argumentation above, I find it relevant to position the thesis within the two trajectories and therefore also to discuss and account for them. Both Chen et al. (2016) and Markussen (2017) point to Social Design as contributing to challenges which have a concrete project formulation within a near bounded context. Chen et al. (2016) have investigated design projects defining themselves as working in the field of Social Design. They have identified a shared limit of Social Design projects. Their investigation revealed that design projects trying to make larger arguments on design and politics, which relate design to large-scale social structures, or that treat society as a philosophical construct, appeared less convincing than the projects working within a defined framework with a tangible project. Chen et al. (2016) make this observation by referring to the nature of design as revolving around the construction of objects, interactive devices, spaces or intelligent systems, which cannot be activated in the area of abstract social entities and how to work with them.

This means that even though all the presented social challenges contain both a problem and a system, they can be approached very differently: • •

Through an aim to change the system, because there is an identified problem Through a wish to solve the problem and, as part of that problem-solving, push the system

Both projects identified as Social Design and those identified as social Innovation seem to be most successful using the second approach. This identification also emerges in the presentation of social innovation projects by Manzini (2014). Even though Markussen (2017) explains Design for Social Innovation as a resonance happening as a result of a system, institutional or organisational error, both Design for Social Innovation and Social Design seem to work from the same point of departure of a tangible project. In recent years, Design for Social Innovation has emerged as a research field also acknowledged by NGOs and public agencies and as an approach to operating with the complexity of social issues (Hillgren, Seravalli, Emilson, 2011). Social Innovation aims to use design thinking and design knowledge to co-create with local, regional and global partners to obtain social and sustainable goals in new ways. To understand the nature of social innovation, Manzini (2014) presents two trajectories for understanding. The first is radical innovation vs. an incremental change and the second is a bottom-up vs. a top-down approach. He presents four different concepts within social innovation, which often appear as hybrids of two and sometimes three: • • • •

Radical innovation – lies outside the existing ways of thinking and doing Incremental – lies within the existing ways of thinking and doing Bottom-up – is driven mainly by common people and communities Top-down – is driven by strategic design, professionals

Even though projects within all four concepts approach their projects differently, they all work from a common point of departure of a concrete identified challenge. Democratic Psychiatry was founded in the 1970s by Franco Basaglia, who, by changing the approach and the procedures in one specific hospital in Trieste, proposed a more general discourse regarding democracy and civilization. Slow Food, conceived by Carlo Petrini, activated local farmers and enabled them to produce and sell high-quality products, with the overall aim to cultivate food awareness through responsible production and consumption. Manzini (2014) cluster all these as top-down projects, using strategic design to obtain radical social changes. To explain the bottom-up approaches Manzini presents New York City community gardens, where a group of local gardening activist created ´seed bombs´ to cultivate vacant areas as a response to the city´s abandonment of public and private land, which resulted in hundreds of community gardens in NYC. In China a group of citizens developed a farmers’ enterprise association, structuring the distribution of food, because they could not access good, safe food in the ordinary city markets. Manzini refers to such projects as creative communities, who do not wait for “general change in the politics, economy or institutional and infrastructural assets

of the system” (Manzini, 2014, p. 62), but instead initiate local action grown out of everyday problems. According to Manzini, such processes are design-led processes, even though they are not led by designers but common citizens. Also, in projects identified by Manzini as hybrid projects of top-down and bottom-up projects, tangible projects become a promoter of a larger and strategic aim, like the project Feeding Milan, whose final aim was to create a sustainable and innovative metro-agricultural regional model. The project group, who constituted a group of designers/researchers from Politecnico, University of Gastronomic Sciences and Slow Food Italy, worked as facilitators to start a series of concrete local design initiatives, such as bringing farmers to the city to sell their product or supporting production and distribution of local vegetables, or establish a distribution platform for crops to the final consumer. In conclusion, Manzini (2014) compares Design for Social Innovation with participatory design by positioning the designer´s role as a facilitator and as working in co-design team. However, Manzini additionally points to designers taking the role of triggers starting new social conversations or as design activists initiating socially meaningful design initiatives. Such positioning of the designer's role connects Design for Social Innovation to the notion of ‘relational art’ and ‘performative theory’, both working from the point of departure of what things do, and not how they look. Design for Social Innovation does not necessarily contain any tactile objects or visual elements, and the relationship between the designer and the user is rearticulated in such a way that it becomes a mutually dependent design process. The design appears in the relationships, actions, connections and the space between subject and object – as between the farmers and the distribution plan – by connecting them. It is likewise associated with critical design by a framing of projects where societal and future problems are present (Mazé et al., 2011). Celi and Formia (2017) present the term ‘advanced design’, where design is positioned within the production and processing of knowledge itself as a way for designers to influence a collective perception and shape the future through interaction and knowledge production leading to self-reflection. In their article, they refer to futurist Masini (1982) and her description of ‘the third model’. ‘The third model’ refers to projects that will change reality, directed by utopias, social ideals or visions, while at the same time building on the past and presenting knowledge. However, to actually start shaping the future, designers need to immerse the users/citizens in their vision through tangible projects. The critical approach and the immersion of users/citizens in their vision are present in both Social Design and Design for Social Innovation. Koskinen and Hush (2016) position themselves in Social Design in their explanation of different projects. Like Manzini (2014), they use differentiation to explain what they refer to as tendencies (and not categories), in design practice. They divide them into Utopic Social Design, Molecular Social Design, and Sociological Social Design. Koskinen and Hush´s (2016) explanation of Utopic Social Design has similarities to Manzini´s explanation of Design for Social Innovation. The ‘utopic’ in Utopic Social Design stems from the aim of the design projects of wanting to change large global challenges such as climate change,

inequality among humans, or unsustainable consumption. Though their point of departure is concrete, tangible projects, they aim for global structural changes without paying attention to the larger structures which have initially created the challenges. Molecular Social Design is characterized by having humble aims. The objective is to do good design work, to solve a specifically identified problem. This does not mean that Molecular Social Design can never impact larger structures, but it has no aim to do so. The explanation of Molecular Social Design has similarities with Markussen´s (2017) definition of Social Design arguing that the “most essential for the definition of Social Design is to understand that rarely does it have the ability to effect social change on a macrolevel´ (Markussen, 2017, p.166). In his differentiation between ´Social Design´, ´Social Innovation´, and ´Social Entrepreneurship´ he presents his own Social Design project, The Prison Game, to describe the characteristics of Social Design. “The humble aim is to help a limited group of children and inmates build stronger attachments and positive relationships over time. At the same time, the project aims to effect change at an organizational meso-level by providing the Danish Prison and Probation Service with an initiative in their Child Responsible Visiting program that is currently lacking adolescents” (Markussen, 2017, p. 167). Where Design for Social Innovation and Utopian Social Design aim for changes at the meso and the macro levels Molecular Social Design and Markussen´s (2017) position on Social Design aim for changes at the micro and the meso-level. The final tendency presented by Koskinen and Hush (2016) is Sociological Social Design. It differs from the other two tendencies by taking its point of departure in Social Theory. It unites theory and practice and creates a critique through the construction of an artefact by rearticulating the relationships between makers, objects and the audience (Rogoff, 2005). Sociological Social Design has similarities to Frayling (1993) and Archer´s (1995) descriptions of ´Action Research´, and also to Koskinen´s own description of ‘Constructive Design Research’ (Koskinen et al., 2011), where the designer uses tangible artefacts, functioning as interventions, as an approach for investigating the dynamic relationship between people and the physical surroundings. Furthermore, Sociological Social Design focusses on the relationship between people and things and the social interaction taking place, which positions it within ANT (Latour, 2005). “This union of theory and practice, of critique as construction, seeks to move towards a position as both method of investigation and mode of experiencing; an epistemological practice capable of generating a critical understanding of the present moment and its social relations in material/ visual form. These things are designed artifacts that allow the interplay of sociological investigation and the material of everyday life in a manner that allows designer and stakeholder(s) to construct a dialogical critique of the status quo.” (Koskinen and Hush, 2016, pp. 68)

The description of the artefact in Sociological Social Design supports the role of the artefacts in the three empirical studies, The Urban Songline study, A Place Called…, and Words Upon a Place, within this thesis. All three studies were developed through a participatory mindset, where different design artefacts are constructed to empower the knowledge production between either the citizens or the places and me, the design researcher.

Figure 9: Position of ‘social sustainable design of public urban places’ in relation to Social Design and Design for Social Innovation

In conclusion, I wish to relate the discussion of Social Design and Design for Social Innovation in the thesis to the definition of ‘social sustainable design of public urban places’, in order to position the thesis within Design for Social Innovation and Social Design. Referring to Markussen´s (2017) identification of Design for Social Innovation as an ‘action targeted at a system error’, Design for Social Innovation aims to contribute to challenges on Plane 1 in Figure 9. This thesis does not aim to contribute with knowledge on a global or overall structural level, such as poor governmental integration of newcomers, resulting in unequal power relations and hence territorialisation of a place in order to improve challenges regarding societal social equity. Rather my aim is to make a more humble contribution regarding ways to develop ‘social sustainable public urban places’ through a research contribution developing concepts and models to support future research and development projects, thus positioning the thesis within the definition of Social Design. Even though the thesis works from a ‘grounded theory’ approach, where all knowledge construction takes its point of departure in findings in the field, a continuing build-up of theory

happened simultaneously with the analysis of the empirical data, which also connects the thesis to Koskinen and Hush´s (2016) explanation of Sociological Social Design. In the following section, I present lines of thoughts from participatory design. Manzini (2014) concludes that “Design for Social Innovation converges and largely overlaps with the notion of participatory design (at least in the way it is proposed by Pelle Ehn and his colleagues at Malmö university)” (Manzini, 2014, p. 65). Markussen (2017) points out that the characteristics of Social Design projects are that they implement and activate design skills such as developed objects and visual means in order to reach and improve social challenges in participatory processes with relevant stakeholders. Participatory design is thus part of both Social Design and Design for Social Innovation and has been the theoretical as well as the methodological foundation of the empirical data construction of this PhD thesis.

Participatory design in the agonistic space A participatory design approach by the citizens of Kolding has been vital in my collection of empirical data. The most empirical data in Kolding are generated based on participation by the residents of Skovparken/Skovvejen and by citizens of Kolding as a whole. In the following section I introduce to participatory design (PD) and discuss the role it plays in my thesis. PD originated in Scandinavia the 1970s. It was initially used to improve the industry, where designers participated in projects to support workers engaging in the development of new systems for the workplace; thus it also supported a greater democratisation of the workplaces through involvement (Björgvinsson et al., 2012; Sanders, 2013). Today PD is a generally accepted term for the activity of designers and laypersons working together in a design and development process. PD is driven by values such as democracy, heterogeneity and empowerment of people by creating involving design processes for collaboration and co-creation. PD processes see the people who will be served by design not only as users or consumers but also as contributors to the solution (Sanders, 2013). In general, PD builds on the conviction that those being affected by design should have a say in the design process (Ehn, 2008). PD integrates and activates approaches, methods and tools in order to facilitate a collaborative process of knowledge generated across cultural, gender, age or social differences. A central concern in PD is to find ways to stage new shared platforms for collaboration, inquiry and co-creation amongst participants with diverse backgrounds (Aakjær, 2013). The interaction between subjects and objects and the actions between them in a PD process can be integrating into the theoretical context of ANT and the mapping of controversies (Latour, 2005; Yaneva, 2013), where both human and non-human actors impact a situation (Ehn, 2008). Instead of looking at a design process as a chronological series of steps from analysis to implementation, the design process must be perceived as interaction and entanglement between both human and non-human actors, where developments, sometimes controversial, can appears in the encounter. Ehn asks,- “How is the object of design made into a public thing and open to controversies among participants in the project as well as outside?” (Ehn, 2008, p.2).

Creating participatory platforms for collaboration in a design process has been unfolding in multiple concepts (Binder et al., 2011; Binder and Brandt, 2008; Björgvinsson et al., 2012; Ehn, 2008; Ehn et al., 2014; Hillgren, Seravalli, Emilson, 2011; Sanders, 2013). Ehn (2008) compares the ´participatory stage´ with the old ´Thing´ from the pre-Christian Nordic and Germanic societies, where societal disputes were solved in governing assemblies and places. He argues that the ´Thing´ is both social and material, and the central role is to create alignment and consensus. In his explanation of the ´Thing’ Ehn (2008) introduces the concept of ínfrastructuring´ which, he argues, arises in the contextual setting of the `Thing´. He further suggests deferring some of the participation and design until after the design project has been created and thereby opens up for the use as design or, what he calls, ´design after design´ (Ehn, 2008, p. 1). Björgvinsson et al. (2012) and Ehn (2008) call for a movement from ‘projecting’ to ‘infrastructuring’ design activities. According to Björgvinsson et al. (2012), there is a fundamental challenge for designers to move from designing ‘things’ (objects) to designing ‘Things’ (socio-material assemblies) in participatory design. The challenge lies within situations where participants are involved in a project that goes beyond the specific project involving multiple, future stakeholders. Using ínfrastructuring´ as a method for designing for ´social-material assemblies´ contributes with an approach to design into the ´real life´ of both human and non-human actors, by entering the scene of already existing elements and integrating them into a design process with the design aim of targeting future users who are not necessarily the participating group. Björgvinsson (2012) uses projects from Malmö Living Lab (MLL) to explain ‘infrastructuring’ of design activities and move the social innovation beyond being object-centric. MLL explains the design process within the public scene as ínfrastructuring’, where they can design for the complexity inherent in heterogeneity and controversies. Through the use of ´boundary objects´ as grassroots activities with multiple collaborators or smaller idea developing-and network building experiments, the projects in MLL demonstrate how the infrastructure of creating new connections and levels of knowledge becomes the design, a design which is not object-oriented but rather aims at meeting social needs and creating new social relations (Design for Social Innovation). The concept of ínfrastructuring´ is relevant in this PhD thesis, because it has a greater ability to embrace the complexity that is part of the development of the design of public urban places as opposed to the object-oriented side of PD. First ínfrastructuring´ is able to design for social material practices, which means that both human and non-humans actors (Latour, 2005; Yaneva, 2013) are seen as elements that can enter into a design process, by looking at what things do, and not what they are (ANT). Secondly, it contains an ongoing or ´Rhizomatic´ (Deleuze and Guattari, 2004) structure, which opens up ´design after design´, by enabling design in the dynamic, constant interactions and mutual influence between human and nonhuman actors in a place. From this perspective, a place for development can be seen as infrastructure, where changing one actor will affect other actors in the infrastructure, because the structure as a whole is connected. This is supported by Dempsey et al. (2011) who similarly argue that closing a school, opening a café or changing the infrastructure (roads or paths)

influence the ability of a place to be social sustainable because such changes affect many other actors in a place. Within my thesis, ´Things´ appear as ´participatory spaces´. ´Participatory spaces´ use interventions and artefacts to empower the knowledge production across social heterogeneities. It seeks to capture ´the space between´ with all its multiple interrelated entities. There is no objectified aim within this ‘participatory space’. Like ínfrastructuring´ a ´participatory space´ is disconnected from the chronological measurement of time. The description of the ágonistic space´ (Björgvinsson et al., 2012; Hillgren et al., 2011) is yet another pivotal discourse within PD in this thesis, because it frames the context of public urban places with all the controversies they entail. Björgvinsson et al. (2012) present the concept of ágonistic public spaces´ as opposed to the previously mentioned consensual decision-making aim in ‘participatory staging’. They argue that PD meets challenges when moving from working in the context of creating democracy within a workplace with a predefined group of users, towards engaging in the public space and its most often contradictory interest. Designing within the public place will most often mean entering an agonistic space with a multiplicity of opposing interest. Mouffe (Laclau and Mouffe, 2014) does not perceive the agonistic public space as a problem to be solved, but rather as a premise for a vibrant democracy. Entering the public space Björgvinsson et al. (2012) argue in favour of changing the approach from working with design politics for democracy at work towards democratisation as a political design in the context of the agonistic public space. They state: “The goal of democratic politics is to empower a multiplicity of voices in the struggle for hegemony and at the same time find constitutions that help to transform antagonism into agonism, from conflict between enemies to constructive controversies among adversaries who have opposing matters of concern but also accept other views as legitimate.” (Björgvinsson et al., 2012, p. 129) Seen from the perspective that public spaces are always agonistic (Laclau and Mouffe, 2014; Mouffe, 1993), the agonistic public space is seen as a prerequisite for a vibrant democracy, and the objective of design does not to attain a rational consensus, but rather to support the multiplicity of different interests. Within the context of this thesis, the ´boundary object´ (Ehn, 2008) in the last design intervention, Words upon a place creates an ‘opportunity space’ to support the multiplicity of different interests. The ´boundary object´ (the interactive benches) create the opportunity for the contending parties to demonstrate solidarity and tolerance towards each other. As such, the ´boundary object´ can contribute to the ‘opportunity space’ for solidarity, and tolerance can arise through mutual responsibility. The ‘boundary object’ is therefore pivotal when designing in ágonistic public spaces´, since it can support an alignment of existing power relations and also mediate agonistic situations. Both support communication and allow conflicting voices to be ćo-present´.

I will argue in favour of entering the agonistic space with no aim for consensus but instead aiming for constructive controversies, accepting othersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; views, recognising that every relation is a power relation (Foucault et al., 2007) and acknowledging that agonistic public spaces are necessary for a vibrant democracy (Laclau and Mouffe, 2014; Mouffe, 1993). This underscores the potential for â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;opportunity spacesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; for tolerance, acceptance and mutual responsibility to develop (Bauman, 1993).

Summary This final section sums up what has been covered within the theoretical scaffolding for the thesis. Initially, I positioned the PhD thesis within Critical Theory, as a point of departure for studying how things ought to be. Through a thorough presentation of the relational place I described and discussed all the diverse entities influencing the use, the users and the perception of public urban places. By including the social phenomena into the built environment, time, transformation, power relations, place attachment and place identity are added, all elements affecting a public urban place. The presentation of different worlds or value systems and cultural patterns contributes to an extended understanding of potential frictions in public urban places and the understanding of the interrelatedness between subject and object. I have developed the concept Collaborative Urbanism based on the concept Collaborative Consumption. Through a recontextualisation of the concept into public urban places and a transformation of the acts, I seek to develop a concept which links the human and the nonhuman actors and explains how their interrelated behaviour affects the public urban place. The integration of performative theory and relational art contributes with an explanation of the connection between subject and object by looking at what things do and how the space between connects to design. The chapter ends with a discussion on Social Design, Design for Social Innovation and participatory design to explain the positioning of the thesis and the connections to methods for producing empirical data. My engagement in design research continues in the following chapter 4. There is a coherent movement of arguments through the theoretical chapter focusing on the entanglement between subject and object and the space between. The following chapter presents the design methods for staging the space between in the production of empirical data.

4 Research Approach and Method In the previous chapter, I presented the theoretical scaffolding which I use in this thesis to understand and analyse my empirical material. The chapter ends with a theoretical description of Social Design, Design for Social Innovation and participatory design (PD). Positioning this PhD thesis within PD blurs the distinction between theory and research practice. I have approached the job by accounting for the theoretical participatory mindset and positioned my research within my theory chapter, thus moving into a presentation of the research approach of ‘research through design’, ‘Constructive Design Research’ and ‘Action Research’ together with the methodological considerations behind the different empirical studies in the following chapter. The thesis takes its point of departure in ‘grounded theory’ as a methodology to keep an explorative approach, where all empirical data is grounded in the field. I discuss how ‘grounded theory’ and design research has supported each other in the PhD project by bringing structure to an explorative practice-based design research project. The chapter ends with a presentation of the limitations and challenges posed by the thesis.

Design research approaches The following sections account for the different design research approaches I see integrated into my design research and where my research approach changed due to an unplanned incident. It is acknowledged that in ‘research through design’, ‘practice-based research’, ‘Constructive Design Research’ and also in ‘Action Research’ the researcher takes an active role in the production of data (Archer, 1995; Herr and Anderson, 2014; Huang, 2010; Koskinen, 2011). As I have already explained in the theoretical scaffolding, the project is rooted in participatory design research and Social Design. The foundation for producing data is, likewise, positioned in design research integrating my practice-based skills as an architect and a designer into my design practice as a design researcher. I position the thesis in ‘research through design’ (Frayling, 1993). Frayling presents three ways of researching in relation to design and other creative practices and thus includes it in the practice of the artistic researcher. Frayling (1993) divides the three approaches into ‘research into art and design’, ‘research through art and design’ and ‘research for art and design’, as propositions for undertaking research. According to Frayling, ‘research into art and design’ works with the historical and theoretical perspectives in relation to subjects which can be entailed in art and design. ‘Research through art and design’ entails material research, development work and ´Action Research´. This approach is based on the design or art practice, where practice qualifications are put into action as a way of creating real-life scenarios for investigations. In ‘research through design’ the process and documentation of the process (exemplified by Frayling by the creation of a diary or a report) are pivotal parts of the research. In the last approach ‘research for design’, research is used to create a product or an artefact, and this artefact is the result of the research. The specific artefact is, therefore, the goal of the research into art and design. Both ‘research through’ and ‘for design’ are design craft-based approaches, where the use of designerly skills are put into action to create new knowledge 86

about a specific subject matter. Standing on Frayling's definition, I position this PhD thesis within ‘research through design’, where I use my practice-based skills from my architect and design background to generate research. Instead of defining research in relation to art and design, Archer (1995) formulates it as research in relation to practice. He likewise, divides research through practitioners’ actions into three categories, which are similar to Frayling´s (1993). For the last approach, ‘through’, he uses the same term as Frayling´s ‘through’, explaining it as: “through the medium of practitioner activity that the case becomes interesting” (Archer, 1995, p. 11). Archer (1995) focusses on the process of the knowledge gained from the design process. And what the design artefact does to the situation, when using the designed artefact as a medium for gathering information. Archer´s elaboration on the design artefact as a practitioner´s mediator for knowledge production is applied within this research project and leads me to ‘Constructive Design Research’ as a more contemporary trajectory within design research. Koskinen (2011) describes it as the terminology of design concerned with understanding how the constructed world ought to be, by imagining and constructing things. ‘Constructive Design Research’ produces ways of understanding how people interact with the material world and demonstrates how to use the knowledge in design. Koskinen defines’ Constructive Design Research’ as: “Design research in which construction – be a product, space or media- takes center place and becomes the key means in constructing knowledge” (Koskinen, 2011, p.5) Koskinen´s definition has many similarities with Archer´s in its focus on the creation of something “Through the medium of practitioner activity that the case becomes interesting.” (Archer 1995, p. 11) Koskinen et al. (2011) do not juxtapose ’Constructive Design Research’ with ‘Action Research’ as Archer does with ‘practice-based research’. In an appeal for more flexibility regarding methodology and theory, Koskinen presents ‘Action Research’ in the same category as design methods such as ‘cultural probes’ (Mattelmäki, 2006) or ‘make tools’ (Sanders, 2013) which, he argues, have extended the area of design research methodologies. Like ‘research through design’, ‘practice-based research’ and ‘Constructive Design Research’, ‘Action Research’ can utilise design artefacts in the data production. However, what turns it into ‘Action Research’ is the research aim of transformation. Figure 10 Illustrates where I position my different empirical studies. As illustrated in the figure, I position all of my empirical data production within ‘research through design’ and ‘practicebased research’, grounded in Frayling´s and Archer´s definitions, where I create design artefacts as mediators for data production. The first three empirical studies I position in ’Constructive Design Research’, since I construct things to interact with the real world (the field) as a method of understanding what is going on. The final empirical study – Words Upon a Place – likewise starts as ‘Constructive Design Research’, where I construct four interactive benches as ‘mediators’ to create knowledge about the real world. During the design intervention, a shift happens when two of the benches are destroyed. The incident changes my research purpose and thereby also my approach to ‘Action Research’.

Figure 10: Positioning the empirical studies within research approaches

‘Action Research’ is defined as research activity carried out through the medium of the practitioner's activity, where “something is constructed or enacted as a mediator or apparatus to explore or test a specific subject matter” (Brinkmann and Tanggaard, 2010). In ‘Action Research’, the researcher is intentionally taking action in the situation and affecting it as a way of gaining more knowledge about the situation. ‘Action Research’ can, therefore, never be objective, and because ‘Action Research’ is pursued in the real world, it is only reliable for the time, place, persons and circumstances in which the action took place. It is, therefore, dangerous to generalise from’ Action Research’ findings – generalisation is only possible to a very limited degree. This is an important awareness point for the researcher, but it does not mean that the findings are less valuable (Brinkmann and Tanggaard, 2010). ‘Action Research’ originated with Lewin (1946) after the Second World War. Lewin argued for an approach that enables direct engagement with real life (the different practitioners and citizens) in the solution of social problems through a democratic foundation where the people involved in the analysis and the experiments in the field should themselves contribute to a solution of the social problem. Reason and Bradbury (2001) refer to ‘Action Research’ as ´social inquiry’, and explain it as reflective observations to make a change within a local situation. In ‘Action Research’ there is an aim to effect the desired change as a path to generating knowledge. It thus has a transformative orientation towards knowledge creation, where the knowledge production exist among the researcher (Huang, 2010). The fundamental difference between ‘Constructive Design Research’ and ‘Action Research’ within this research project lies within the purpose. The general approach is still the same – the construction of the four interactive benches – however, as an ‘opportunity space’ arises (Bauman, 1993) within the investigation, when the benches are destroyed, my research purpose changes. I switch into having a precise aim for entering a negotiation with the

Faktaboys about the centre square. Based on the theoretical foundation (Bauman, 1993; Foucault et al., 2007), I sought to create a democratic space through a level of tolerance and shared responsibility, and a transformation and knowledge creation is initiated for both me as a researcher and the Faktaboys. As such, I position my PhD thesis within the research tradition of ‘research through design’ (Frayling 1993, Archer 1995) constructing different artefacts or interventions as a means of knowledge production (Koskinen, 2011) and, due to an unplanned incident, concluding my research within the field of ‘Action Research’ (Herr and Anderson, 2014; Huang, 2010; Reason and Bradbury, 2001).

Design research methods for data production In the following section I present the different methods I put into action in my production of data. In all four of my empirical studies I activate my skills and knowledge as an architect and a designer to construct different design artefacts or interventions as a means for producing knowledge from the field. I categorise Superkilen and Skovparken/Skovvejen as case studies. Case studies aim to understand complex social phenomena and real-life events in the specific context, where they appear when the line between the social phenomena and the context are not evident (Yin, 2014). Based on this definition, case study investigations match the purpose of this thesis – investigating the connection between the physical context and certain social phenomena, having identified a lack of research focussing on the underlying social phenomena influencing the physical context of public urban places. The strength of case study research is the opportunity to implement different kinds of approaches for in-depth data production and investigate the same connection between phenomena and context from different angles. There are, however, diverse opinions regarding the extent to which knowledge from case studies are generalizable or can be used in different settings (George et al. 2005). Yin (2014) argues that case studies support reliability and validity by suggesting a transparent ´chain of evidence´ between the research question, the produced data and the conclusion. Flyvbjerg (2004) even argues that it is possible to generalise based on one single case study and emphases that being able to generalize is only one out of several research competencies. Research is about accumulating knowledge, and that knowledge cannot be formally generalized, is not tantamount to not contributing to the shared knowledge in a specific field. Flyvbjerg (2004) divides cases into three different categories: •

Paradigmatic case: focusses on illuminating general features in the concerned society, where the studies seek to develop a prototype or prime examples of behaviour.

•

Extreme case: often provides more information, since it contains many actors. In such a case, it is more important to clarify the deeper circumstances behind a problem and its consequences than describing the symptoms or the frequency of its emergence.

•

Critical case: is strategically chosen, where it is possible to conclude that if something is present in this case, it is most likely present in other cases as well. Such cases allow a logic deduction.

Within the PhD thesis I categorise Superkilen as an extreme case. The place has undergone massive physical transformations, the design is very distinct, and the place has been the subject of much publicity. Additionally, Superkilen borders Mjølnerparken – one of the most deprived housing areas in Denmark – and the area is often presented as very agonistic in the media. (In chapter 5, Superkilen, I will elaborate more thoroughly on the choice of case.) I categorise Skovparken/Skovvejen as a paradigmatic case since the neighbourhood is both physically and socially stereotypical of a deprived social housing neighbourhood in Denmark.

4.2.1

Observations

I have used observations as a method for knowledge production in all of the three locations integrated into the PhD thesis (Superkilen, centre square in Skovparken/Skovvejen and the Library Park in the centre of Kolding). I conduct observations to investigate the use, relationship and interaction between the different actors (Latour, 2005; Yaneva, 2013) within the three different locations. The observations focus on how people act within the surroundings, who is acting and how they are interacting with the physical objects in the place and with other people in the place. I take the point of departure in ethnographic observation methodology and use Spradley’s (1980) matrix for field observations to guide and structure my observations. He writes that “ every social situation can be identified by three primary elements: a place, actors and activities” (Spradley, 1980, p.39). Spradley (1980) developed the matrix to conduct participant observations. Even though he argues that social situations evolve around only three factors, his matrix contains nine elements for observation. Figure 11 presents the matrix developed by Spradley (1980)

Figure 11: Spradley, 1980, pp. 82-83, Matrix for conducting focussed field studies.

During my observations and analysis of the centre square and the Library Park in the last intervention, Words Upon a Place. I developed a new matrix which is a merger between the original matrix developed by Spradley (1980) and the theoretical scaffolding, which I have been building up during the PhD thesis. I have used the development of the new matrix to structure and analyse the interconnectedness and relations between the many different actors affecting the centre square and the Library Park in Kolding. The new matrix is developed from the theoretical scaffolding of the thesis arguing that places are relational and constantly influenced by both human and non-human actors. I name the new matrix the Matrix for Mapping Collaborative Places. As part of the matrix transformation, I point at the heterogeneity in the use and understanding of the word actors. When Spradley (1980) talks about actors, he only refers to them as humans (and maybe animals). However, from an ANT perspective, the term ´actor´ is perceived much more broadly, encompasing both human and non-human actors and focussing on how they influence a place. By integrating terms for observations such as ‘place attachment’ and ‘power relations’ the matrix has been developed to support a mapping of the relational place. I explain the transformation in the table below.

Spradley (1980)

Removed

Space

Space is replaced by ‘place’ since the mapping always is linked to a specific location. ‘Place’ does not exclude all the influencing factors nor is it less abstract, but in the matrix it refers to a location (Massey, 2005, Casey, 1996, Certeau, 1988).

Object

is replaced by non-human actors (Latour, 2005; Yaneva, 2013).

Act

is replaced by human actors (Latour, 2005; Yaneva, 2013).

Event

is replaced by interactions.

Feelings

are left out due to the shift in scale between the original subject matter for Spradley´s participation observation and the observation of urban public places. (I found the category less operational during my own observation, and I find the relevance within the category covered in power relations).

Actor

is divided into human and non-human actors (Latour, 2005; Yaneva, 2013). Kept

Goal

refers to the purpose of using the place, which is essential for ‘levels of interest’ (Stauskis and Eckardt, 2011) and how the place is open to initiatives and contribution (Marcuse, 2012).

Time

is essential, because it contains elements of negotiation (Kärrholm, Brighenti) and it can also cause a shift in ‘place identity’ and ‘place attachment’.

Activity

is important regarding the way the place is used. What activities does the place invite to? Added

Place

gathers all the other elements in the matrix and organises them in relation to each other (Massey, 2005, Casey, 1996, Certeau, 1988, Jacobs, 1977; Pallasmaa, 2005; Sennett, 1993).

Attachment refers to all the different users or people influencing the place (Relph, 1976). Human actors

refers to all the people using the place (Latour, 2005; Yaneva, 2013).

Nonhuman actors

refers to elements influencing the place, it can be objects in the place such as a buildings or paths (Jacobs, 1977; Pallasmaa, 2005; Sennett, 1993) and it can also be the legislation that impacts the place (Latour, 2005; Yaneva, 2013).

Interaction

refers to activities between human and non-human actors (Bauman, 1993; Best, 2016; Schechner, 2013) and how the place is interacting and interrelated with the surroundings (Hillier and Hanson, 1988).

Identity

refers to the place identity. What actors are influencing the place identity (Böhme, 1998; Bourdieu, 2014) What cultural patterns are present and acted out in the place(Healey, 2006)?

Power relations

refers to negotiations and hierarchies (Brighenti, 2010, 2012; Foucault et al., 2007; Kärrholm, 2017; Massey, 1994; Mouffe, 1993).

Table 3: Transformation of Spradley´s matrix for participant observation into the matrix for Collaborative Urban Public Places

The matrix in Figure 12, shows the transformed matrix and how the different categories interact and create shared questions like the matrix developed by Spradley (1980). Spradley (1980) explains the interaction between the observer and the site. He states that when doing participant observations “you will stand somewhere; you will watch actors of one type or another and become involved with them; you will observe and participate in activities” (Spradley, 1980, pp 39-40). The reason for mentioning this description by Spradley is explained by my experience from making site observations in the three different public urban places (Superkilen, the centre square and the Library Park). During my observations it became evident that there are differences regarding how involved and participating the observer becomes with the place. I experienced that in a place like the centre square, where someone feels an existential ‘place attachment’, it is not possible to be an anonymous observer. This is, on the other hand, possible in the Library Park, where no one feels a ‘place attachment’. The matrix for collaborative places is a mapping tool to identify all the influencing actors in a place, and how they impact and are connected to each other. It focusses on both the actors and the network (ANT) appearing between them. It includes a mapping of the connection between ‘place attachment’ and the power relations or how non-human actors are connected to the goals for the use of the place. The development of the matrix appeared in a simultaneous process, where I analysed the centre square and the Library Park using the matrix and developing it at the same time.

Figure 12: Matrix for Mapping Collaborative Places, adapted from Spradley, 1980, pp. 82-83,

4.2.2

Urban Songlines

The method, Urban Songlines, was developed by Professor Marling (2003). She was inspired by the book, The Songlines (Chatwin, 1988) (the title refers to a complex method of navigation in aboriginal mythology in pre-colonial Australia) to describe different territories, places, connections and meanings in the modern city. Marling (2003) transforms the term’ Songline’ into a simpler concept than the Australian aboriginals. “A Songline is thus a line or a track which each of us follows in our daily movement in the city, from one place of meaning to the next (e.g. our home, work, union or cultural place). It is through Songlines that we form attachments to our social being and our city pictures, our experiences of the city and its architecture. Songlines are both specific physical tracks and mental connections.” (Marling 2003, p. 12) Marling (2003) conducted a Songline study in the Danish city of Aalborg. Her study comprised interviews, drawings on orthophotos and pictures which she used to map the way six residents in Aalborg used and related to the city. Marling (2003) produced her data through conversations with her respondents. Based on the conversation she created maps visualising the respondents’ everyday movements and the places in the city that the respondents liked and disliked. She asked the respondents to take pictures of places that were important to them, and she presented the respondent with pictures of different urban squares and different housing options to support a conversation about preferences. In her study, she investigated the connection between the respondents’ habitus (Bourdieu, 2014) and their preferences within their use and perception of the city of Aalborg, referred to by Marling as ´urban preferences´. Marling's main aim was to investigate the connection between the respondents’ lifestyle and their movement patterns and perception and use of the city. Marling’s focus on lifestyle explains her selection of respondents as a broad spectrum of citizens who differed in age, gender and economic income, and her respondents came from all different neighbourhoods in Aalborg. The goal of my investigations was not to reflect on the respondents’ answers regarding their lifestyle, and as a consequence my group of respondents did not comprise assumedly different lifestyles. In contrast to Marling´s investigation of the difference in choice of movement patterns, use and perception of the city, I looked for overlaps in my respondents’ narratives and for shared use, perceptions and relations to places in the city. I searched for patterns in the ´Things´ (Ehn, 2008) that affected the respondents’ use, relation and perceptions of places and not for ´Things´ that divided them. I was inspired by the Urban Songline method as an approach to staging a collaborative platform between me, as a researcher, and the respondent (Binder and Hellström, 2005). I worked from the conviction that the mindset from PD could serve as a means to bringing more perspectives into view than site observations and interviews, and that it could support existing perspectives, perceptions and acts. For this reason, I developed a design artefact – the Urban Songline book – based on the method. I developed an Urban Songline book for each respondent.

By turning it into a tactile object the intention was to create a design artefact that worked as a ‘mediator’ (Archer, 1995) which could embrace both the tangible things the book consists of (the map, photos, drawings) and the process of talking to each other, taking photos and pasting photos into the book together, into one concept – a ‘mediator of knowledge’. The ‘mediator’ is seen as a tool which conveys information from the respondents to me, the design researcher (Corlin, 2016). I experienced that the Urban Songline book empowered the situation between the respondent and myself, because both maps and pictures helped to strengthen the act of connecting the perception of places with a verbal description of places. The book thus strengthened the investigation of the respondents’ relationship, use and experience of their neighbourhood and the city. The Urban Songline book was developed from a participatory mindset, where the respondents had a significant influence on how the book was completed, even though I, as a designer, created the framework for the investigation (Sanders 2008). Picture 3 presents three books. The top spread shows pictures taken by one of the respondents; the spread below shows to the left a drawing made by a respondent and to the right pictures of different urban places chosen by the respondent, brought to the table by me. I argue that the Urban Songline book qualifies as a piece of ‘Molecular Social Design’ (Koskinen and Hush, 2016), approaching the research question through a bottom-up methodology, trying to obtain a deeper understanding of the problem through an explorative approach.

Picture 3: Picture of the Urban Songline book

The Urban Songline study generated a large amount of data. The empirical material consists of 12 books with pictures, keywords, an aerial photograph with drawings, plus 24 interviews varying in length from 30 to 120 minutes. 97

All the interviews and the pertaining photographs and drawings were collected in one assembled matrix, which I initially put on the wall for an overall shared overview, as seen on Picture 4.

Picture 4: Image of the assembled matrix

Like Marling, I produced materials of all the respondents’ movement patterns in the city. In my study, though, the respondents’ own pictures of places in the neighbourhood and in the city of Kolding became the most informative material. This part of the study provided me with insight into the constraints and causes for interaction and for use and relations to different places, both in the city of Kolding and inside the neighbourhood of Skovparken/Skovvejen. However, since my approach was explorative, I did not know beforehand, what part of the Urban Songline method would support my study with the most informative material. Even though I have not analysed the movement patterns in depth, they have still qualified the choice of my comparative place (the Library Park) in the final empirical study.

4.2.3

Interview

An important part of the Urban Songline study is the qualitative interview. The interviews conducted in the Urban Songline study (and also in Superkilen and Words Upon a Place) are phenomenologically oriented, searching for the first-person experience of different places, situations or circumstances. The Urban Songline book and the evolving interview worked as a medium that helped to express the respondent´s spatial and social experiences about places. To compare the method with a ´normal ´ qualitative research interview, where the interview seeks to cover both the factual layer and the opinion layer (Kvale, 1997), I argue that the photographs and the drawings in the book helped to visualise the factual layer and by doing so supported the production of the opinion layer (Corlin, 2016).

4.2.4

Engaging with the site through relational practice and Site-Writing

Both design interventions in the PhD thesis are conducted from the point of view of creating a critique about a place (Rogoff, 2005; Rendell, 2010). I have already accounted for Rogoff´s explanation of ‘criticality’ in section 3.13. Rendell (2010) has developed a method called Site-Writing. The method is influenced by Rogoff´s explanation of ‘criticality’ as an approach to understanding and studying a place (or a piece of art, an art exhibition, a building, etc.). Based on art criticism Site-Writing is a way of creating the critique of a site through an active and inherently spatial role on the site. The SiteWriting engages with the site spatially and critically and focusses on the relationship between the site, the performers and the viewers as a way of analysing and understanding a site through the engagement. Site-Writing uses writing as part of the engagement, which enables the writer to shift positions by changing the preposition, for example by writing ´to,´ ábout,´ or ás´ the site. To understand the concept of studying the physical environment through direct engagement focussing on what things do and not what they look like, I turned to Butterworth and Vardy (2008). They argue in favour of a more creative approach among architects and designers when creating site mappings. Butterworth and Vardy argue that the common site analysis done by architects and designers only map static elements and their effects on the place. But by looking at relational art practice, they offer an alternative `creative survey´ model as a substitute to the common site survey models, which only map the static elements. Butterworth and Vardy (2008) argue that the ćreative survey´ model provokes new and potent relationships between site, user and architect, which will foster what they call a “tool for participatory architectural design” (Butterworth, Vardy, 2008, p.126). Initially, they pointed to the problem that all common architectural site surveys start by drawing a red line around the site. Thus it is defined by its physicality and is separated from what is outside the red line. Inside the red line are all static elements now being mapped and created into drawings, which are an abstract representation of the reality that only describes a limited set of characteristics of the site, primarily the physical features and ignores the contingency, temporality and happenstance. Even as the practice of architecture is shifting towards being more relational, the site surveys are still intact and undisputed. Vardy and Butterworth´s skepticism towards the static perception and mapping of the architecture and the physical context is supported by Yanevas’ (2013) argumentation for mapping controversies. Vardy and Butterworth suggest that architects and designers learn to integrate ´relational art´ techniques to transform their site surveys, where “the architects place themselves in a position of active engagement with the site and its users and, in so doing, also becomes a user." (2008, p. 131). Through direct engagement, the investigation becomes the context for discovery and experimentation for everyone who takes part, and it is possible to capture people´s reaction towards ´the new´. Thus it becomes ´learning by doing’. “By making space for conversation, negotiation and communication, this form of engagement can reveal spatial, economic, social and cultural potentials” (ibid, p. 136). I have used the approach outlined by Vardy and Butterworth in the two design interventions, A Place Called…, and Words Upon a Place, by “rearticulating relationships between makers, objects and audience” (Rogoff, 2005, p.119).

4.2.5

Participatory artefacts as ‘boundary objects’

Muller and Druin (Muller, 2003) describe participatory design (PD) as the creation of a space “in-between” or ‘the third space’, which is neither the domain of the designer nor the user, but shares attributes of both spaces. Ehn (2008) refers to ‘boundary objects’ as elements to align participants in a participatory design game. Design games are the sum of all elements contained in a design process: participation, communication, community, language and artefacts. Within this sum of objects, acts and interaction, Ehn (2008) points to ‘boundary objects’ as the material objects aligning the participant in a process. ‘Boundary objects’ in a design game has similarities with the pedagogical term ‘the shared third’ (Husen, 1996), where a third element or action is used to build relations between two or more people in a group or a tool to level the balance of power (Foucault et al., 2007) among, for instance, a group of young boys and their pedagogue. ‘The shared third’ is central to having an authentic way of being together, since it supports a shared goal and a thing around which to evolve the interaction. ‘The shared third’ can be seen as an object mediating different age, power or cultural differences, and it can thereby cross and embrace different cultural habitus (Bourdieu, 2014) enabling a group to work towards a shared goal. The same capabilities count in a PD process. In such a process a ‘boundary object’ (Ehn, 2008) is always a pivotal ´player´ in the process. In my project, I refer to ‘the shared third’ or ‘boundary object’ as a ‘mediator of knowledge’ (Corlin, 2016). I explain the Urban Songline book as a design object mediating between me, as a researcher, and my respondents by supporting the conveyance of information across cultural and age differences. The mediator empowers the participatory space. Druin and Muller (2003) argue that important attributes in ‘the third space’ include the creation of new ideas and learning reciprocally, which happens through negotiation and co-creation of identities, working languages, understandings, relationships and polyvocal (many-voiced) discussions across and through differences. Beside the social value of democracy that leads to user participation, PD also builds on the value of making participants’ tacit knowledge strengthen the design process (Ehn, 2008). The ‘boundary objects’ (Ehn, 2008) or ‘mediator’ (Corlin, 2016) are important elements in the process of transforming tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge. Making something explicit is also adding it to a language (Wittgenstein, 1999), where it can be shared and thus connected to other languages and turned into actions with a certain aim. The following section describes how I have structured my research by taking the point of departure in ‘grounded theory’ and continuously been building up knowledge by returning to the field.

Research approach – ‘grounded theory’ in design research My PhD project is an explorative study, since I went into the field investigating the places with no hypothesis or theoretical foundation. The methodological approach in the thesis takes its point of departure in my practice background as an architect. All empirical material was produced through a practical approach and served as a foundation for generating knowledge. Schön introduces the concepts of ‘reflection-on-action’ and the ‘reflection-in-action’ (Schön, 2001), which are similar to the process that Downton (2003) depicts of ‘the reflective practitioner’. Downton (2003) argues that to support practitioners research through practice-

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based research, the practitioner uses his or her expertise as a designer to produce an artefact, which is subsequently used in research. Regarding Schön, it is when reflection on own work occurs that it turns into research, and the action of reflection cannot occur without the practitioner's expertise of producing the artefact, which works as a foundation for reflection. It is in the reflection (Schön, 2001) on own work that ‘tacit knowledge’ (Polanyi, 1998) turns into ‘explicit knowledge’ (Friedman, 2008), which can then create the foundation for generating theory by relating findings from empirical field studies (data) to existing theory. A designed artefact itself is not the goal. The goal is the knowledge obtained through the use of producing and using an artefact, and how it enables the researcher to have a dialogue with the situation or the site and learn from it. According to Friedman (2003), design research is a dynamic progression and interaction, where research, theory, critical thinking, systematic inquiry and practice are mutually interdependent and are supporting and requiring each other's existence and usefulness. My methodological approach – employing design artefacts to a dialogue with the field and using my empirical material as a foundation for my research – positions my PhD project in ‘grounded theory’ (GT). GT aims to develop theories that are ´grounded´ in practice, which means that the theory is generated from data, where particular situations create the focus of the study. The data is produced during the study of particular actions, interactions or processes where people are involved (Robson and McCartan, 2016). GT is data-based and has a functional approach to research that seeks to improve practice (it also supports the aim of this thesis: to contribute knowledge to practice about socially sustainable city development). GT is often associated with Glaser and Strauss (2008). It is a strategy for the collection of data and also for analysing the data, hence data collection and the analysis of data often go hand in hand. My work procedure through this project has been a reciprocal action between the development of ‘mediators’ (artefacts or interventions) for investigation, analysis of empirical data and letting the findings from the field qualify my next step back into the field. Each empirical study has contributed to the build-up of the theoretical scaffolding. Thus, the analysis of the empirical data is two-pronged. The initial analysis focussed on the information appearing in the field and which relevant theory the empirical data pointed to. In the second round of analysis, all the empirical studies were analysed in relation to some or several parts of the theoretical scaffolding of existing theory. In the in-depth analysis of relating to existing theory I revisited each empirical study several times. A GT analysis depends on the researcher´s decisions on how to conduct the collection of empirical data and which parts of the whole data set should be analysed (Brinkmann and Tanggaard, 2010). It can be a very subjective approach, where the best way to obtain objectivity is to be aware of one's own situated knowledge (Harraway, 1988) and biases. In GT the researcher does not start with a focussed research question but with a problem statement that focusses on the interaction between different structures and social processes (Brinkmann and Tanggaard, 2010). The problem statement in this PhD thesis evolves around social and physical parameters impacting a place (see Chapter 1, Introduction). Even though the thesis is guided by two research questions I will argue that they are formulated broadly enough to tailor a research project working from a GT approach.

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‘Grounded theory’ is rooted in interactionism, and it is through the interaction, where data collection, data analysis and the inclusion of the participants happen simultaneously that theory is created (Glaser, 2008). This process relates to Schön´s (2001) ‘reflection in practice’. It is a fundamental requirement that research must lead to knowledge generation, which in ‘grounded theory’ arises through a process of inductive research reasoning (Brinkmann and Tanggaard, 2010).

Figure 13: Themes included for analysis in each empirical study

In order to ensure transparency, I have tried to structure the flow through the analysis. The procedure also explains what is visualised in Figure 13, that the empirical studies differ regarding elements for investigation. Since my approach is based on ‘grounded theory’ it would not be realistic to analyse the empirical data in the exact same theoretical order throughout the studies. Each theme in the study is therefore not handled identically, and some themes only appear in one study. The series of empirical studies must, therefore, be understood as one collective study that illustrates the research questions differently.

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4.3.1

‘Grounded theory’ (GT) and ‘thematic coding analysis’ (TCA)

Many analyses of qualitative data are influenced by ‘grounded theory’ (Robson and McCartan, 2016). As already mentioned, I work from a ‘grounded theory’ approach and I also analyse the first two empirical studies through the steps of ‘grounded theory’ (GT). • • •

Open Coding – finding categories Axial Coding – connecting the categories by finding relationships Selective Coding – conceptualising and accounting for relationships

In the Open Coding, I look for categories in the empirical material from quotes, observation notes or photographs. Afterwards I cross analyse (Axial Coding) and divide the categories by finding relationships with the codes. Finally, I account for the relationship and conceptualise them into core categories (Selective Coding). I have named the core categories ‘themes’ in each empirical study. The ‘themes’ are the ones I analyse by relating to existing theory. In the last two empirical studies I change to ‘thematic coding analysis’ (TCA). TCA can be used inductively, where codes and themes emerge directly from the empirical data like in ‘grounded theory’ (Robson and McCartan, 2016). However, TCA can also start with ‘themes’, which is the case in this PhD project. TCA focusses on identifying themes or patterns in the way people live and behave by mapping experiences, meaning and the reality of the respondents. It focusses on elements that relate to the specific research question, where ‘themes’ identified in the material become the categories for analysis, and where it is possible to identify patterns of coherent ‘themes’ across the material. According to Robson (2016), TCA consists of five phases: • • • • •

Familiarising yourself with your data Generating initial codes Identifying themes Constructing thematic networks Integrating and interpreting

(Robson and McCartan, 2016, p. 476) The list above must not be seen as a chronological, linear process, but rather as a movement back and forth when conducting the analysis. The ‘themes’ are used to search for patterns across the data, as the ´construction of thematic networks´ (Robson and McCartan, 2016, p. 476). GT and TCA have many similarities; however, I change the approach when I move from Open Coding in GT and into TCA, when I begin the analysis with predefined ‘themes’.

4.3.2

The role of ‘grounded theory’ in this practice-based design research project

The starting point in GT has played an important role in this PhD project. I use ‘grounded theory’ as a methodology in order to be systematic within an explorative design research project. From the GT approach, I can go into the field from a completely open and explorative point of departure and allow my data to be produced solely from the field experiences. The approach of repeatedly going back into the field after analysing the empirical material provides me with

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an opportunity to use my skills as an architect and a designer to construct design artefacts (mediators), which support my triangulation of data and thereby strengthen my research. The more artistic methods for data production, like A Place Called…. are well supported by ‘grounded theory’, both because it provides the study with needed systematics and because it allows the research to be unrelated to a hypothesis. I argue that GT adds structure to explorative practice-based design research. At the same time the implementation of design artefacts strengthens the field studies and thereby the GT study by reinforcing the investigations in the field.

The four empirical studies This section briefly introduces the four empirical studies and the role they have played in the PhD thesis. All studies will be fully presented each in their own chapter.

4.4.1

Superkilen

The role of this case study, Superkilen, within this PhD project was to generate knowledge about different design parameters and to start building up the theoretical scaffolding. Through a purely explorative approach, I searched for all the different actors (Latour, 2005; Yaneva, 2013) influencing the place. The investigation of Superkilen consisted of desktop research from books and newspapers, field observations, short semi-structured interviews with people I stopped in Superkilen, interviews with residents in Mjølnerparken and people who visited the social housing secretariat (Lejerbo), four longer interviews with key persons in the neighbourhood, and a small design intervention investigating the bicycle lane and the shifting hierachies on the Red square. The entire investigation focussed on how, why and for what the place was used and by whom. How was the citizens’ involvement process conducted? And to what extent does Superkilen have any influence on Mjølnerparken? All shorter interviews were re-written and collected in one document, and all four long interviews were transcribed. The field observations were structured through the use of Spradley's observation scheme (Spradley, 1980), and the design intervention was filmed and described as field notes. The investigation of Superkilen gave me insight into a broad perspective of actors influencing the identity of a place. The investigation of Superkilen resulted in the theoretical trajectory of a fundamental understanding of places as relational and also made me search for pivotal design parameters beyond physical elements.

4.4.2

Urban Songline study

The Urban Songline study was the first in Skovparken/Skovvejen. I used this study to investigate how 15 residents in Skovparken/Skovvejen use, relate to and perceive different places in the social housing neighbourhood and in the city of Kolding, and why.

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The data collection consisted of 12 Urban Songline books containing interviews with 15 respondents all living in Skovparken/Skovvejen. All the books contained drawings on orthophotos, pictures brought by me and also pictures which the respondents themselves took. The Urban Songline study gave me great insight into their life and hence into potentials and constraints for interaction and coherence in Skovparken/Skovvejen. The Urban Songline study further confirmed my investigations from Superkilen on places as relational and that human actors creating power relations and ‘social frictions’ have a great impact on the ability of a place to support interaction among residents and a coherent city.

4.4.3

Safety Day & A Place Called….

The next empirical study contained two separate events which I gathered into one study, since the second event was a response to the first one. Safety Day, as the first event was called, was arranged by Byliv Kolding (the social housing organisation in Skovparken/Skovvejen) for the residents of the neighbourhood as one of the initiatives under the ´Comprehensive Social Plan´ (den boligsociale helhedsplan). The day was aimed at shedding light on issues that made the residents feel unsafe living in the neighbourhood and also how to deal with the problems. Byliv Kolding invited a group of actors, called Forum theatre Prisme, to conduct and facilitate the day. I had the role of a passive observer and was not an active partner in either organising or facilitating the day. I received a phone call from the leading actor in Forum theatre Prisme, Birthe Blåbjerg Jakobsen a week before the scheduled event. She asked for insights about the neighbourhood, and I shared my experiences from the Urban Songline study. Except for that conversation I did not have any influence on the day. I filmed and observed the conversations and role plays conducted by a theatre group together with the residents, and I ended up with seven short video recordings. I also took notes of the spoken words and sketched the participants’ placement in a scheme relating to what they found the most pressing issues at stake. This investigation revealed two main findings: First, the centre square is a huge barrier for interaction and the arena for many conflicts. Second, the event revealed interesting insight into the power of methods in participant involvement. A Place Called… A Place Called… was a direct response to Safety Day, where I used the method of Site-Writing (Rendell, 2010), the creation of ‘criticality’ (Rogoff, 2005) and ‘direct engagement’ (Butterworth & Vardy, 2008) to investigate the power of design in participant involvement. This study was an example of Glaser´s (2008) explanations of data production and data analysis as a simultaneous process in’ grounded theory’. A Place Called… resulted in a newspaper, which was my Site-Writing project (as part of my stay at Bartlett UCL, London). The aim of the newspaper was to create an artistic and critical response to the power of stories about a place (both the many stories I collected during the Urban Songline study, the stories coming from Safety Day and the stories/articles published in

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the local newspaper (which put an end to the negotiation about selling the shopping centre, between Kolding Municipality and PRESAN Real Estate and thus also to a potential development process). In the direct engagement with the site, I searched for new stories through a ‘rearticulation’ of the relationship between the makers, objects and audience (Rogoff, 2005). I investigated which residents became representatives for Skovparken/Skovvejen, whether the approach to participant involvement was different and, as a consequence, whose stories about the neighbourhood and the centre square would be heard. The investigation gave insight into the power of methods of participation and fostered the argumentation for further direct engagement with the site in the final empirical study.

4.4.4

Words Upon a Place

Words Upon a Place was the last empirical study in the PhD project. The intervention was a collaboration between the Alexandra Institute, Kolding Municipality, Kolding Library, Byliv Kolding and me as a researcher. The intervention included the development, production and spatial consequences of four interactive benches located in two specific places in Kolding – the centre square in Skovparken/Skovvejen and the Library Park in the centre of Kolding. Initially, I constructed the benches as a further investigation of the power of stories about a place, the methods, the motivations for participants’ involvement and also as an investigation of constraints for coherence when developing a project across cadastral borders. Both the process of creating the benches and the way the benches interacted with the surroundings once they were put up on each location were research material, based on the approach of constructing the benches as an artefact to create a ‘criticality’ by rearticulating the relationships between makers, objects and audience (Rogoff, 2005). I developed my empirical material through site observations as structured by Spradley (1980). In a simultaneous process of data collection and analysis, I developed the ‘matrix for collaborative places’ (see further explanation and the matrix in section 4.2.1. Observations). I kept a diary, not each day, but when something happened during the process. The mapping of the process through diary writing is put forward by Archer (1995) as an important element in ‘Action Research’ to ensure the level of transparency in the study. Additionally, the design process included two participatory workshops. I also developed an electronic questionnaire with 19 questions as I realised that interviewing people at the site about their experiences with the benches was not a successful approach. The Alexandra Institute created technological retrieval of data about the number of users of the benches which contributed to a quantitative picture of the use of the benches. Finally, I conducted interviews with the participating residents. The workshop and the subsequent interviews, the questionnaire and the technological retrieval were not included in the analysis of the final intervention due to the unexpected turn when the Faktaboys destroyed the benches. This was such an interesting turn, relevant to my PhD project, which I had to follow. It changed the focus of my empirical data production, to focus more on the negotiation on the centre square and less on the narrative and the Library Park in general.

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Limitations and biases In this final section of the chapter, I present the limitations and biases that emerged through the PhD process. A main challenge working with outdoor public urban places in a Nordic country as a subject matter for the production of empirical data is the weather. Limitation may not be the right term, since it is more like a premise, which either can or should be adjustable, since the findings and the theory are inherently part of this reality. Still, it has been a prevailing consideration and indeed a challenge in terms of coordination of fieldwork studies and of participants in outdoor interventions. Nonetheless, this is a condition that applies to everyday life in outdoor places and to researchers working in the field. In Superkilen, during my long interviews, I discovered some underlying conflicts in the citizens’ involvement. The conflicts appeared to be between the involved citizens on one side and the project team (BIG and Copenhagen Municipality) on the other. I therefore tried to make the different actors from the project team participate in interviews about the design process. Both BIG and Superflex declined to participate in interviews. BIG was “unable to support academic work,” and Superflex chose not to allocate time for participating in an interview 10. When I contacted Copenhagen Municipality, nobody wanted to talk to me about the process. Even though I called several times and talked with several people, I did not succeed in finding an employee who felt he/she was part of the project. Hence my study of the process and the citizens’ involvement consists only of written material from books and newspapers and interviews from the citizens’ point of view. The Urban Songline study has one major limitation. The respondents, even though they differ in sex and age, are not fully representative of the residents living in the neighbourhood. Participating in the Urban Songline study is demanding for the respondents, since they must complete two interviews and the independent task of taking pictures of different places. Even though Byliv Kolding connected me with some of the most resourceful residents, the task was a challenge for several of them. This study, therefore, suffers from the same limitations as the ones I critique on Safety Day. Both the Urban Songline study and Safety Day demonstrate the limitations that tend to occur in a development project in deprived housing neighbourhoods, 10

Mail from BIG dated 12.10.15

Dear Anne,Thank you very much for your kind message and interest. As much as we would like to contribute, we are unfortunately unable to support academic work. We simply don’t have the resources to do so, since both of the people who worked with Superkilen have now moved on to new projects and challenges. I do know that there are many studies and data to be found online, both PhD level and other research projects. I really appreciate your understanding and wish you the best of luck with your project. venligst / best regards Aiden Bowman Mail from Superflex dated 19.10.15 Tidsmæssigt er det svært at prioritere din forespørgsel alene. Så jeg foreslår, at jeg kontakter dig næste gang Superflex bliver interviewet omkring Superkilen, så kan du tage dine spørgsmål samtidigt. Der er ingen i studiet i morgen, - da alle er ude og rejse. Bedste hilsener, Malene Natascha Ratcliffe

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and which are a fundamental argumentation for a greater focus on power relations and how to integrate and work with them in future design projects.

Picture 5: Newspaper articles

The direct engagement within the design intervention, A Place Called… was challenged by a deadline, since the project was part of the course I followed in London. It gave me a deadline in mid-April for my intervention, which meant that there was no time to re-do the intervention that took place on a wet and cold day in April. However, as already mentioned, I took the weather as a term. Since the intervention was a one-time event, it suffered from the same weaknesses as I mentioned in the description of ‘Action Research’: It is a small local study, where generalisation could be dangerous. The initial idea for the design study (and the reason why the end-product has the format of a newspaper) was to create a piece of ‘critical design’. It was meant to respond to and challenge the power that the local newspaper wielded on the planned negotiations between Kolding Municipality and Presan Real estate (the owner of the centre) and hence also on the planned development process. In August 2016, the daily Jydske Vestkysten, printed the two articles shown in picture 5 about the shopping centre and a possible design process in the newspaper. The articles upset the PRESAN Real Estate and consequently the negotiations stalled. Originally I wanted my project to be an article in the Jydske Vestkysten, Kolding, as a response to two critical articles about the shopping centre in Skovparken in August 2016. The article was planned as a piece of ‘critical design’, describing the significance of stories. Initially, the editor of the newspaper was open to the idea with the limitation that they wrote the article themselves but with my content. However, the editor decided not to bring the article after all (due to a lack of time or interest and my limited skills in selling the idea well enough). The end product of the project is Appendix 3. One of the huge limitations and weaknesses in the last experiments, Words Upon a Place is the vulnerability of technology that sometimes fails to function. However, once again, it is a

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term and it is part of the real-life setting when working with interactive furniture in an urban city development. A final limitation appeared when I had to conduct the post-interviews with the participants from the two story-telling cafés. One of the participants in Skovparken/Skovvejen was a social worker, who both participated herself and also functioned as my connection to four out of the five children participating in the workshop in Skovparken. When, according to the schedule, it was time to do the follow-up interviews, she was on sick leave indefinitely. I managed to reach three of the four children and conduct follow up interviews, even though the social worker was not there as a middleman, as we had agreed. The last child participating in the workshop was no longer living in Skovparken. He and his family had moved back to Somalia for two years, due to some family crisis. The social worker has never returned to work and therefore did not participate in the follow-up interview either. This again reveals the vulnerability inherent in real-life studies, which might be even more vulnerable when research is conducted in exposed domains. However, it is a learning experience that also contributes knowledge to the research.

Summary and reflections In this chapter I have accounted for the research methods and the different approaches used throughout the PhD thesis. I describe the different methods I have used, how they have been activated in the different empirical studies, and also how data collection and data analysis sometimes went hand in hand. I also present the themes of investigations in the four empirical studies, and argue that data coming from the field have decided the themes for analysis, and therefore do not all empirical studies contain the same themes for analysis. This is also the reason why all four empirical studies must be understood as one coherent study answering to the research question. Furthermore, I explain how I have analysed the empirical data through either a ‘grounded theory’ approach or through ‘thematic coding analysis’ and how I have used ‘grounded theory’ as a way to structure my explorative design research study. I presented a brief introduction to the methods used in the four empirical studies. In the next four chapters I give an in-depth presentation of the four empirical studies. I describe and analyse them individually, as a string of studies each contributing to the research questions. Finally, I presented a number of biases in the thesis. Even though I presented them as biases, I perceive the majority of them as (unavoidable)circumstances when conducting real-world research.

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5 Superkilen The following chapter presents the research I conducted in Superkilen, an urban park in Copenhagen, during the latter half of 2015 and again in August 2016. I initially chose Superkilen as a subject matter for investigation because it was a newly (2012) developed public urban park located on the edge between Mjølnerparken, one of the most deprived housing neighbourhoods in Denmark, and the surrounding city (Copenhagen). The place had undergone a massive physical transformation which made it possible to investigate the before and after situation. Finally, the park was known for its significant design concept, its ‘extreme citizens’ involvement’ (the term ‘extreme citizens’ involvement’ is taken from the book, Superkilen: A Project by BIG, Topotek 1, Superflex), and its striking physical design solutions, which all in all made it an interesting case for investigating a broad spectrum of design parameters. The investigation of Superkilen revealed a high level of complexity and close connection between social life and the physical context. The investigation of Superkilen initiated the buildup of the theoretical foundation and the understanding of places as relational. The investigation of Superkilen includes parameters such as the narrative (the design concept is based on the historical development of the neighbourhood), place identity, place attachment and different kinds of social challenges, such as conflicting interest, that affect the physical park. I initiate this chapter with an overall introduction to the neighbourhood, Ydre Nørrebro (Outer Nørrebro), where Superkilen is located, and to Mjølnerparken, the deprived housing neighborhood, bordering the northern part of Superkilen. Subsequently I shall introduce the aim, the concept, the configuration and the expression of Superkilen. Secondly, I am going to describe my methods for collecting empirical data and the method for analysing them. I have explained the different types of empirical data collection in section 4.4. My analysis is divided into three categories, which I present one after the other. The chapter ends with a conclusion of the case study and a reflection on how it qualified the following investigations. I investigate Superkilen as a case study, leaning on Yin´s (2014) and Flyvbjerg´s (2004) argumentation about the value of case studies as a method for generating scientific knowledge. Using Flyvbjergs´s dichotomy, I categorise Superkilen as an ‘extreme case’ because: • • • • •

The place has undergone massive physical changes The physical design of Superkilen is distinctive, which has turned it into a tourist attraction Ydre Nørrebro and hence also Superkilen suffer from many criminal incidents and a poor image The design process has integrated many different actors The user involvement was agonistic

An ‘extreme case’ provides a lot of information, since it often involves multiple actors. In the case study of Superkilen the many actors involved are: the physical design and how it affects 110

behaviour, the social frictions in the neighbourhood and how this impacts the physical place and finally the user involvement process. I investigate existence, circumstances and consequences of situations where the physical context affects social behaviour, and where social frictions or agendas affect the physical place. The investigation of Superkilen illuminates examples of the entanglement between the social space and the physical place, which makes it a great case for discussing how both physical and social (design) parameters influence the perception, the use, the users, and the identity of a place. The insight from Superkilen has functioned as a solid base for my investigation at Skovparken regarding an extended focus on the entanglement between the social and the physical elements. The investigation of Superkilen started as a pilot study, and the empirical data and the initial analysis qualified the investigation at Skovparken. However, the process has not been as linear as presented in the thesis, and I have reverted to a more in-depth analysis of the empirical data of Superkilen as my theoretical scaffolding expanded during the PhD process because of the production of data at Skovparken/Skovvejen. This process supports the ´grounded theory´ approach of this PhD – that the data produced in the field are the main promoter of knowledge generation. These data define to what existing theory they should be related and hence these data form the theoretical scaffolding of the thesis. The rest of the chapter will exclusively present my investigations and analysis of Superkilen.

Ydre Nørrebro and Mjølnerparken Ydre Nørrebro (Outer Nørrebro) is an district in Copenhagen, Denmark. It covers 2.10 km² and has a population of approximately 42,000 inhabitants. The population density is 20,000 per km², which makes it the most densely populated district in Copenhagen and thereby, in all of Denmark. Ydre Nørrebro is a former working-class district, which over time has transformed into a multicultural district. Approximately 25% of the inhabitants are immigrants, and in some areas the immigrant population is 50%. The area has a split identity. Due to several gangrelated crime episodes covered by the media the neighbourhood is often associated with trouble. Simultaneously the neighbourhood also has an exotic, colourful identity due to the many ethnic shops and events related to the multi-culturality of the neighbourhood. Mjølnerparken is a social housing dwelling located in Ydre Nørrebro. It has approximately 2,000 residents who live in 559 housing units. Mjølnerparken also has a senior commune. The housing was constructed in 1984-87 and is owned by the social housing association, Lejerbo. As explained in the brief exposition of the history of social housing in chapter 2, and in the positioning of this thesis, social housing is built on democratic concepts. All social housing neighbourhoods (both large and small) have ´residents’ democracy’, with a residents’ council, including a chairman, who represents all the residents and who discusses and decides changes in the neighbourhood. In Mjølnerparken, at the time Superkilen was built, the chairman was Muhammed Aslam.

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Almost 98 per cent of the inhabitants are either immigrants or children of immigrants. The residents represent 38 different nationalities, mostly Middle-Eastern and African. The majority of the residents are under 18 years old, and the area is known because of press reports on its crime rates. In 2017, 43.5 per cent of the residents were neither employed nor enrolled in an educational programme, and 2.52 per cent had been convicted of a crime. Roughly 53 per cent had only primary education or less, and the average gross income was 51 per cent of the average for the region. 11 These statistics classified the housing project as a ghetto and placed it on the Danish Government’s ghetto list (Table 1) .

Presentation of Superkilen; aim, concept, configuration, and expression The location of Superkilen and Nørrebrohallen (a community centre), was formerly a tram depot. When the depot closed down, the area gained the character of a wasteland with no specific purpose. With the realisation of Superkilen and the ensuing renewal the area was transformed from a murky, urban desert into a highly promoted public park for the citizens of Ydre Nørrebro.

5.2.1

The objective for creating Superkilen

As already mentioned, the neighbourhood had been facing massive social challenges for a very long time. The renewal project had the specific aim of improving the social life in this part of the city. In 2005 Denmark had faced an international crisis. The Danish newspaper, JyllandsPosten wrote an article about freedom of speech and self- censorship that contained a series of provocative cartoons of the prophet Muhammed. These cartoons spurred outrage and riots in the neighbourhood of Ydre Nørrebro and in Mjølnerparken, where a high number the immigrants are Muslim living, as well as around the globe. Bjarke Ingels, the leading architect in the project group, states in his book about Superkilen; “This project was all about integration; “It was like six months after the riots, after the Muhammed cartoon crisis. “It was so present in this neighbourhood, and people in Denmark were suffering a bit from the ambiguity of being tolerant.” (Bjarke Ingels Group et al., 2013 p. 12). Due to the Muhammed drawings controversy the situation around immigration in the neighbourhood immediately escalated. The neighbourhood, in general, suffered from poor integration of newcomers resulting in a high level of crime within the neighbourhood and hence also an extensive image problem. According to Martin Rein-Cano from Topotek 1, the German landscape architect studio, which was also part of the project team, the brief was simply. - “Deal with the issue of migration in this neighborhood. Can you make this situation better?” (Bjarke Ingels Group et al, 2013 p.12).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mj%C3%B8lnerparken

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Copenhagen Municipality and the Realdania Foundation 12 initiated a partnership project about city development at Ydre Nørrebro. Some 100 million Danish kroners were allocated to the partnership project dispersed on three projects: • • •

Mimersparken – a public urban park with a number of playgrounds and sports facilities. It is located between Mjølnerparken and the rail line. Superkilen – a 1 km-long public urban park with a distinctive design Nørrebrohallen – a former tram depot, now transformed into a community centre with different kinds of sports facilities.

Picture 6: Orthophoto of Ydre Nørrebro showing the three focus areas and Mjølnerparken

In the following presentation, I focus mainly on Superkilen. However, I will also mention and integrate Nørrebrohallen, a pivotal function affecting Superkilen, and Mimersparken, a place for comparison, in my analysis. The team of professionals that developed Superkilen was:

Realdania is a Danish Foundation supporting development project within the built environment. https://realdania.dk/

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• • • • •

BIG architects – Danish architecture firm Topotek 1 – German landscape architects Superflex – Danish artist group Lemming & Eriksson – Danish engineering firm Help Communication – Danish communication consulatants.

The project Superkilen was completed in 2012.

5.2.2

The design concept of Superkilen

The overall concept of Superkilen takes its point of departure in the history of the neighbourhood – a former working-class district, which has now been transformed into a multicultural neighbourhood. The challenges related to immigration in the neighbourhood was a central topic in the project brief, and the project team strongly emphasised the story of the multiple nationalities represented in this neighbourhood.

Picture 7: Superkilen plan site (http://www.archdaily.com/286223/superkilen-topotek-1-big-architects-superflex.)

To tell that story the project team installed 100 objects from 54 different countries in the park. The many objects are placed in a colourful and curved design of the urban context, which is divided into three areas: The Red square, the Black Square and the Green Park as shown in Picture 7. Picture 8 shows three of the 100 objects located at different spots in the park. The first picture shows a bull from Spain, the second a fountain from Morocco and the third is a boxing ring from Thailand.

Picture 8: Three of the objects placed in Superkilen.

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Parallel to the main project, the artist group Superflex travelled with five specially selected groups of residents to their countries of origin in order to collect objects from these countries or objects to which the residents had a particular relationship, to be installed in the park. Picture 9 shows the soils from Palestine. Superflex travelled to Palestine with two palestinian girls to collect holy soil. Together they placed the holy soil on top of the hill at the Black Square.

Picture 9: The Palestinian soil located on top of the hill at the Black square.

5.2.3

Configuration of Superkilen

Superkilen consists of three very different urban places. They are linked by the Super Bicycle Lane, which functions as the spine through the area, connecting a long stretch of area through Copenhagen.

Picture 10:The Red square (Picture below to the left Iwan Baan https://iwan.com/portfolio/superkilen-park-copenhagen-big/)

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5.2.3.1

The Red square

The Red square is a large platform with a distinctive red pavement. The fixture consists of various sitting opportunities, together with playing and exercise facilities. The main entrance of NĂ¸rrebrohallen opens towards the Red square. The Super Bicycle Lane crosses the square and separates the open part from the part with benches and other fixtures.

5.2.3.2

The Black Square

The Black Square is paved with asphalt and decorated with curvy white stripes. This part is equipped with a large black octopus for children to play on; an impressive Moroccan mosaic fountain; a steep hill; round benches and a line of sets of concrete chairs and tables. The Super Bicycle Lane runs at the edge of the Black Square.

Picture 11: The Black Square

5.2.3.3

The Green Park

The Green Park is a landscape of greenery with different elevations and solitary fixtures located in the hilly landscape. The fixture here consists of a training area, a basketball field, a dance pavilion and sets of chairs and round tables. The Super Bicycle Lane and the walking

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path wind through the landscape and become the dominant functions in this section of Superkilen.

Picture 12: The Green Park

Picture 13 illustrates all the elements and functions playing a role in my presentation and analysis of Superkilen. I have listed several elements in the park by numbers with a short description of the role they play in my analysis. 1. The Railway Station – A barrier for coherence and interaction from Mimersparken towards the other part of the city. 2. Mimersparken – A public park, used mainly by the residents of Mjølnerparken 3. Mjølnerparken – a deprived social housing neighborhood 4. Superkilen a. The Green Park, b. The Black Square, c. The Red square 5. Mødestedet– a community centre for the residents of Mjølnerparken hosting different activities organised by Lejerbo, the owner of the neighbourhood. 6. The Super Bicycle Lane, running all the way through Superkilen 7. AAB Social housing 8. Nørrebrohallen

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Picture 13: Orthophoto of Superkilen and the near context, Google maps

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Methods for collection of empirical data and for analysis My data collection was explorative and based on a ´grounded theory´ approach, where I interacted with Superkilen as a method for producing empirical data directly from the field (the ground). The case study was the first in a series of four empirical studies all taking the point of departure in the empirical data, where data collection and data analysis happened simultaneously. The case study is based on the project formulation of the thesis, entering the investigation with an open approach, searching for design parameters by studying how, which and to what extent different design parameters influence the park as a place supporting interaction between people and a coherent city. I integrated four different approaches into the production of empirical data: interviews, siteobservations, desk research of material describing the process and the final result of Superkilen (books, articles and films about the project and the process) and finally a small design intervention. The interview material consists of four different kinds of interviews: • •

• •

Short interviews with 20 users of Superkilen on the site (to learn where people who visit Mjølnerparken live) Five semi-long interviews with nine visitors to Superkilen and 12 semi-long interviews with residents of Mjølnerparken, whom I talked to during my stay at Mødestedet (The Meeting Place – a house for social activities under the ´Comprehensive Social Plan´ (den boligsociale helhedsplan) HPHP 13) Two extended interviews with social workers living in Mjølnerparken Four long interviews with key persons in the area

I conducted all interviews during my stays in Superkilen in the late summer of 2015. I visited the park several times shifting between site observations and doing interviews. Figure 14 illustrates the different actions, the order and the shift between them.

http://hphp.dk/modestedet/

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Figure 14: The different actions and their mutual order

For all short and semi-long interviews conducted in Superkilen, I focussed on mapping where the users of the park lived, the purpose of their stay and how they experienced Superkilen. I conducted the interviews by approaching people sitting in the park. The interviews of visitors at Mødestedet (Picture 14) were all conducted during the three days when I visited Mødestedet and participated in three activities: homework café, the women´s club, Nora, and Ali´s café (a male club that meets every Friday evening). Finally, I talked to people during the opening hours of Lejerbo (the housing association of Mjølnerparken), where I approached residents for interviews when they came to Mødestedet for various practical reasons.

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Picture 14: 1) Nora´s Café, 2) Ali, who invited me to Ali´s café 3) a woman I interviewed at Mødestedet

Mødestedet is a citizens centre facing the Black Square. It is part of Lejerbo´s ´Comprehensive Social Plan´ (boligsociale helhedsplan) and offers activities for the residents of Mjølnerparken aimed at lifting the neighbourhood socially. The interviews conducted at Mødestedet focussed on studying how the residents in Mjølnerparken experienced and used Superkilen; whether they experienced that Superkilen had supported a greater coherence with the city, and whether they experienced that Superkilen improved the social life in Mjølnerparken. Interviewing residents from Mjølnerparken at Mødestedet was not part of my initial plan. My observations and Superkilen site interviews showed that not many residents from Mjølnerparken stayed in Superkilen. Based on that finding, I decided to participate in the activities at Mødestedet as a way of obtaining interviews with residents from Mjølnerparken. I arranged the four long interviews ahead of time. The long interviews lasted between 1 and 1 ½ hours, and they all focussed on user involvement in the design process and the respondents’ use and experience of Superkilen. All field observations were structured in accordance with Spradley ´s scheme (1980, pp. 82-83) for user observation, by following his matrix Figure 12 to map the connection between different actors at Nørrebrohallen and visitors to the bicycle lane and pedestrians. I later found that ANT (Latour, 2005) was a useful theoretical framework to explain the mutual connection and impact between the different actors in Superkilen. Furthermore, books, articles and movies about Superkilen contributed knowledge to both the design process and the final product. None of the professionals developing Superkilen – BIG, Superflex or Copenhagen Municipality – participated with interviews to my study. Both BIG and Superflex decided not to allocate time to participate in my research of the project 14.

Mail from BIG dated 12.10.15

Dear Anne, Thank you very much for your kind message and interest. As much as we would like to contribute, we are unfortunately unable to support academic work. We simply don’t have the resources to do so, since both of the people who worked with Superkilen have now moved on to new projects and challenges. I do know that there are many studies and data to be found online, both PHD level and other research projects. I really appreciate your understanding and wish you the best of luck with your project. venligst / Best regards Aiden Bowman Mail from Superflex dated 19.10.15 Tidsmæssigt er det svært at prioritere din forespørgsel alene. Så jeg foreslår, at jeg kontakter dig næste gang Superflex bliver interviewet omkring Superkilen, så kan du tage dine spørgsmål samtidigt.

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Copenhagen Municipality, as the developer, could not find anyone within the organisation, who was involved in the project, who was willing to talk to me. I therefore only have statements from these stakeholders from already published materials. As a final investigation of Superkilen and as part of a PhD course, two colleagues and I created a design intervention 15, which took place ten months later, in August 2016. The aim of the intervention was to create a ‘criticality’ about one or more actors in Superkilen (Rogoff, 2005) by looking at what things do (Tietjen et al., 2017). We constructed a design artefact as a method (Koskinen, 2011) for analysing and discussing the hierarchy between one physical actor, in this case, the Super Bicycle Lane, and how it affected the movement patterns of people at the Red square. The intervention was also a further exploration of how to integrate design artefacts in order to investigate or illuminate the relationship between the human and the non-human actors in a place. We filmed the intervention, and I analysed the intervention in addition to interviews and site observations as part of the process of collecting data, analysing data and relating to theory in a simultaneous process. The design intervention within this case study is an example where I go back into the field, based on the analysis so far. In Superkilen, I worked from a ´grounded theory´ approach, where all of my empirical data come directly from the field. I gathered all my information into one shared document, which I have subsequently analysed following the steps described in ´grounded theory´: • • •

Open Coding Axial Coding Selective Coding

In the Open Coding, I look for categories in the empirical material which I then cross analyse (Axial Coding) by dividing them into themes. The themes are finally conceptualised by developing relationships, which result in core categories (Selective Coding). The core categories were later related to existing theory.

Der er ingen i studiet i morgen, - da alle er ude og rejse. Bedste hilsener, Malene Natascha Ratcliffe 15

This specific analysis of a part of the Super Bicycle Lane has been conducted as part of a PhD course, Constructing Criticism hosted by KU Science in August 2016. The analysis was conducted with two fellow PhD students, Sidse Martens Gudmand-Høyer and Lærke Sophie Keil.

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In Figure 15 I illustrate one example of the three steps through the analysis. 1. I conducted the initial Open Coding by mapping out key words through the document. I have highlighted essential sentences and also keywords. This example illustrates causes that influence the edge zone and objects or situations that create ‘social frictions’. 2. The next step is Axial Coding. In this step I printed out all the coded documents and I cut up the documents to make a visual map for myself of the cross connections between the open codings. The illustrated example links the different categories from the Open Coding with photographs taken in the field, so it is possible to investigate the connection between statements and photographs from the field.

Picture 15: Examples of working document of Axial Coding

3. In the Selective Coding I choose the final core theme of ‘social frictions and spatial edge zone’. I analyse the core theme by linking different statements about the same issue together, and I also begin discussing the core theme in relation to existing theory. I draw and write on top of the manifold, so that I can see the underlying clustered categories, while analysing.

Picture 16: Process of Selective Coding

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Figure 15: Example of GT analysis in Superkilen

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Design parameters affecting the development and the place, Superkilen The three overall themes all focus on the interconnectedness and mutual dependence between the social and the physical elements when designing public urban places supporting interaction between residents and a coherent city. I list the three themes below and present the analysis one by one ending up with an overlapping discussion and reflection on how the analysis has qualified the subsequent research. • • •

Interactions and negotiations Design supporting ´Collaborative Urbanism ´ Social frictions and spatial edge zones

5.4.1

Interactions, relations and negotiations of place

In the following section, I focus on elements in the park that support the interaction between different groups of citizens, the relation between different actors and the negotiations of place. I present three elements in the park followed by a discussion mainly related to the theoretical concepts of ‘levels of interest’ (Stauskis and Eckardt, 2011) and ‘new public domains’ (Hajer and Reijndorp, 2001). Nørrebrohallen is the first place I illuminate as an actor attracting different types of citizens and supporting interaction between different worlds and value systems (Lefebvre, 1991). Secondly, I created a ‘criticality’ (Rogoff, 2003) of the Super Bicycle Lane to illustrate the negotiation happening at place. Finally, I highlight the swing bench on the Red square as one single object, among the 100 different objects in the park, which I have observed attracts many different urban tribes and supports a frictionless negotiation between users. Nørrebrohallen Nørrebrohallen is the former tram depot and thus represents an important element of the neighbourhood’s history. It is now transformed into an activity and citizens’ centre for Ydre Nørrebro, with a public café, sports and athletic facilities and several publicly available meeting rooms. Nørrebrohallen further hosts events such as community dining and flea markets. The Union 2200 Culture, which initiates many of the social events in Superkilen, is likewise based in Nørrebrohallen.

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Picture 17: When Nørrebrohallen was still a tram depot (picture Gunner W. Christensen, togbilleder.dk)

Picture 17 shows the days when it was still a tram depot. Nørrebrohallen is on the right in the photo. Picture 18 below shows the same corner of Nørrebrohallen, now hosting a flea market stand.

Picture 18: Flee market stand (Picture Jann Ulrich Bech)

Picture 18 illustrates the interaction and co-existence between different worlds and value systems (Lefebvre, 1998) of, e.g. a young ethnic Danish girl and an elderly woman with a

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different ethnic background. The photo illustrates how the events and thereby Nørrebrohallen supports interaction between different citizens. Nørrebrohallen´s support of interaction is further revealed in my interviews in Superkilen. Several respondents are present in the park because they are using the sports facilities in Nørrebrohallen, and others explain how the different events attract a diversity of citizens. The events in Nørrebrohallen and the close physical connection to the Red square in Superkilen make Nørrebrohallen an important promoter of city life in the park. Another important promoter of interaction and also of the coherence with the rest of Copenhagen is the Super Bicycle Lane. The Super Bicycle Lane & the design intervention The focused analysis of the Super Bicycle Lane was conducted one year after the first field studies in Superkilen. The analysis was conducted using Rogoff´s (2003), third category ‘criticality’ as approach for investigating the constant negotiation happening between the cyclists and the pedestrians investigating how the park is a result of many different influencing actors. The conducted ‘criticality’ of the bicycle lane was illustrated through an artistic intervention of the bicycle lane´s impact on the square through a soundscape. The Super Bicycle Lane is a significant element in the design of Superkilen. It curves like a spine through the park having a vital connecting function across the city. Besides supporting the Copenhagen Municipality´s aim of Copenhagen as a ‘Bicycle City’, the Super Bicycle Lane is also a strategic aim to weaken the barriers between Mjølnerparken and the rest of Copenhagen by directing the Super Bicycle Lane along the edge of Mjølnerparken and thus connect it to the urban renewal project. This is part of the formal city planning (Latour, 2005) conducted by the Copenhagen Municipality. However, this formal planning affects social life, which is exemplified in the quote below by a social worker in Mjølnerparken: “The creation of the bicycle lane has made my work as a social worker in this neighbourhood easier. It makes us (the residents of Mjølnerparken) feel safer when the citizens of Copenhagen are not afraid of us …...” Respondent has worked as a social worker in Mjølnerparken for 18 years, 2015

The quote illustrates the interconnectedness between the many different actors influencing a place, from the distant actor of the Municipality, to the Super Bicycle Lane and its users. The intention of the design intervention was to illustrate how the complexity and diversity of the place (Healey, 2006; Massey, 2005, 1994) appear even on a small scale. The intervention accentuates the rhythm of the cyclist on the lane to study how it affects movements and hierarchies in the place. To do so, we implemented a design installation with bells on a small stretch of the lane, which rang every time a bike ran over them. The intervention illustrated the shift in the hierarchy, and how the bicycles dominate the place. The added soundscape from the bells demonstrated the shift between the constant ring of the bells symbolising the linear horisontal dominating movement, which sometimes is replaced by silence and softer, slower and more random movements of pedestrians moving 127

vertically across the lane. The shift in the hierarchy is translated into an urban piece of music, where the rhythm of the place is dictated by remote actors (Latour, 2005), such as the traffic light and time. Picture 19 shows scenes from the intervention.

Picture 19: Pictures from the intervention.

However, the intervention is more than an artistic analysis. The analysis supports the statements from the interviews arguing that the park is a traffic corridor. The sounds of the bell accentuate that wall the bicycles create between the open plain on one side and most of the functional objects on the Red square on the other. It visualises what several of the respondents from MjĂ¸lnerparken state as the reason why they would rather use Mimersparken for longer stays because they are more relaxed about letting their children play there, where there is no danger of being run over by a bike. The intervention illustrates frictionless negotiations between motions on the square, how the hierarchy affects the social life and how the hierarchy is dictated by a physical element, which again is controlled by distant actors. The swing bench The final object I mention is the swing bench, which is one of the 100 objects supporting the overall design concept of the park. The swing bench was originally located in a park in Baghdad in Iraq. Many of the 100 objects, such as the pavilion from St. Louis in the USA or the spiked

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hexagonal pavilion from Kazakhstan, do not contribute to the interaction between citizens, but rather to the conceptual design narrative of the 100 objects from 54 different countries.

Picture 20: Pavilion from St. Louis, USA and Pavilion from Kazakhstan

However, as an independent object, the swing bench does support the co-presence of citizens as well as interaction because it is appealing to many different urban tribes. The physical form of simultaneously being a bench and a swing makes it appealing to both children and grownups. My observations showed that even though not many citizens were in the park, there were often people sitting on the benches.

Picture 21: The swing bench with different urban tribes

In addition to the benches appealing to children and adults, they also fit the park function of being a traffic corridor making it easy to park your bike on the side of the benches and take a small break before continuing the travel. Thus, the swing benches, as a single object, support both the co-presence of different urban tribes and fits the overall park function of being a traffic corridor and thereby further promotes the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interest in making the route an attractive bike route.

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Picture 22: Bicycles parked by the swing bench

In the following section, I discuss the park’s ability to support the interactions and the negotiations of place through the theoretical concepts of ‘levels of interest’ (Stauskis and Eckardt, 2011) and ‘new public domain’ (Hajer and Reijndorp, 2001) as explained in chapter 3. The concept of ´levels of interest´ highlights four different layers of interest when aiming to develop places that support interaction between people. The four levels are visualised in Figure 16. The part to the left illustrates the generic model, which I developed by relating field observations with the literature of Stauskis and Eckardt (2011). In the figure to the right the model is added into the context of Superkilen. Neighbourhood-level is the close context. In this context, it is Mjølnerparken and the rest of the dwellings surrounding Superkilen. Local district is Ydre Nørrebro; the city level is Copenhagen, and the national level is Denmark.

Figure 16: The four ‘levels of interest’, both generic and in the context of Superkilen

The attractiveness of a public place depends on the diversity of accessible services and the interest of citizens from different levels in the city. Stauskis, (2010) refers to it as ‘the social infrastructure’, which plays a key role in empowering contemporary public places to act as facilitators of different social activities. 130

Many residents in Mjølnerparken mention Superkilen as a place for shorter stays in their everyday life, for example going to and from school or work, picking up their children, going grocery shopping, going for a walk and taking a break on a bench. Thus, the park has a neighbourhood interest because the urban place is a transition place linking it to the rest of the city. Superkilen has added something positive for the many people passing through it during their everyday activities. The local district interest, in this case, is Ydre Nørrebro. My site interviews show that the majority of the visitors to Superkilen live in Ydre Nørrebro. The local district of Ydre Nørrebro has gained a new urban park with a large open square and many functional objects attracting people from the whole district. The city interest arises through features such as Nørrebrohallen, the Super Bicycle Lane and the events. They are all elements supporting interactions of the citizens of Copenhagen across city districts and intersecting lifestyles and different worlds and value systems (Bourdieu, 2014; Lefebvre, 1998; Massey, 1994). Finally the concept with the 100 elements from 54 different countries and the very distinctive physical design has resulted in Superkilen becoming a tourist attraction and thereby add a national interest. The distinctive design has caused great public discussion, and tourists from all over the world visit the park. This attracts an increased number of people and positively influences the residents’ perception of their neighbourhood by adding an improved positive self-image. Superkilen supports all four ‘levels of interests’ which, according to Stauskis and Eckardt (2012), is pivotal for making the place empower social interaction. The second theoretical concept I use is ‘new public domains’ (Hajer and Reijndorp, 2001). I apply this term to investigate which design elements in Superkilen support interaction between different types of citizens in a place. In ‘new public domains’ an exchange between different social groups is possible and does occur. It is a place where different social worlds and different lifestyle domains overlap. The dominance of a specific urban tribe does not eliminate a ‘new public domain’, quite the opposite, because it contributes to identity and experience. However, the urban tribe must not develop too strong an attachment to the place (Relph, 1976), because this can prevent other visitors from using the place and thereby hinder interaction and co-presence. A ‘new public domain’ is not measured in relation to spatiality and accessibility, but rather how it impacts the atmosphere in different places (Hajer and Reijndorp, 2001). To investigate whether Superkilen is a ‘new public domain’ I use the explanations of all four domain categories described by Hajer and Reijndorp (2001) to analyse the characteristics and diversities of the different areas within the neighbourhood. The four domains categorised by Hajer and Reijndorp (2001) are; 1. 2. 3. 4.

Public Domains Private Domains Lifestyle Domains New Public Domains

The term ‘private domains’ does not refer to places being privately owned (like a shopping mall or a shop), but refers to places being perceived as private, where you feel that you are entering someone´s private sphere, where children leave their toys on the ground or the residents are decorating the place with plants and private furniture. ‘Lifestyle domains’ are 131

places only used by citizens with the same lifestyle. Healey (2006) describes this as belonging to the same cultural community, with the same cultural patterns and value systems. ‘New public domains’ are places where different lifestyles overlap and where there is interaction across cultural patterns and value systems. Figure 17 visualises my mapping, where I categorise different places in the neighbourhood in terms of the four different domains.

Figure 17: Categorisation of ‘public, private, lifestyle and new public domains’

Mimersparken is categorized as a ‘lifestyle domain’, primarily used by the residents of Mjølnerparken. Mjølnerparken opens up towards Mimersparken, since the parking lot is oriented towards Mimersparken and parents experience that it is safer for the children to play in Mimersparken, which has less traffic. Since there is no interaction between the residents from Mjølnerparken and residents from the rest of the city, the place cannot be categorised as a ‘new public domain’ where the exchange between different lifestyles and different worlds and value systems (Bourdieu, 2014; Lefebvre, 1998; Massey, 1994) and lifestyle domains overlap.

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Inside the courtyards of Mjølnerparken there are smaller playgrounds and sitting areas. These can be categorised as ‘private domains’. As part of my fieldwork, I went into the courtyards to interview people. Entering them as a person coming from the outside, it felt unnatural, and I felt as if I was trespassing into other people’s domain. In Superkilen, on the other hand, different ‘lifestyle domains’ do overlap, which categorises Superkilen as a ‘new public domain’. Picture 23 shows different ´urban tribes´ in Nørrebrohallen and at the Red square. The users of the Red square are a diverse group. They include skaters, young people, families with small children and users of Nørrebrohallen. Many of the interviewees point to the swings as a physical design element they connect with Superkilen, and the swings are objects that appeal to many different urban tribes at the same time. There are always people sitting there irrespective of the weather. The large open plain makes the Red square attractive for skaters and suitable for temporary events. Due to the large size of the square, it offers different sitting opportunities and the possibility of sitting in the sun until late, which appeals to many people, both those who live in the neighbourhood and those who are travelling through. Several objects, such as the boxing ring and the play elephant also contribute to the co-presence of different urban tribes, like families with small children and young school children.

Picture 23: Showing different urban tribes occupying the Red square and Nørrebrohallen.

The Black Square is also a ‘new public domain’. Picture 24 shows different ´urban tribes´ at the Black Square. One design element that appeals to different lifestyles is the hill. A Somali woman from the interviews tells me how she meets with four other Somali women once a week to walk up and down the hill for exercise. Three 12-year-old boys complain that the hill is great fun but a bit too steep since it is easy to do a somersault and get hurt, when they fall off their bike. The black octopus attracts families with children, and many young people choose to linger around the Moroccan fountain, on the round benches, or at the chess tables. Many different urban tribes use barbecues during the summer.

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Picture 24: The Black Square with different urban tribes using the places simultaneously (the first picture above is from the book Superkilen

The last section of the park, the Green Park, on the other hand, does not qualify as a ‘new public domain’. There are several ‘lifestyle domains’, like the basketball court or the exercise area. However, the exchange between the different urban tribes, the overlap of ‘lifestyle domains’ and the shared experience by people from different backgrounds are challenged by differences in elevation and the main function of the park as a traffic corridor. Both are barriers for interaction between ´performers´ and ´spectators´. Figure 18 illustrates the location of the different functions. The design of the landscape, with differences in elevation, creates barriers for a visual relationship between ´performers´ and ´spectators´.

Figure 18: Visual barriers

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In addition, the bicycle lane is the most dominant element in this section of the park, and it impacts the atmosphere in such a way that few people stay there, which is a barrier to a shared experience of the place (Hajer and Reijndorp, 2001).

Picture 25: The Green Park with its constraints for interaction and shared experiences

‘New public domain’ and levels of interest are useful comparative lenses for analysing elements supporting interaction and coherence, since they complement each other by pointing towards the same characteristics, but from two different angles. Whether a place becomes a ‘new public domain’ depends on several things. The place must have a place identity, and someone must feel a place attachment (Relph, 1976) that supports this identity. Both the Red square and the Black Square have this. The many objects and functions, appealing to different urban tribes, are an important design element which creates place attachment. The same elements are important for local districts and city interest. Superkilen could still obtain neighbourhood interest by its mere presence, offering an outdoor place just outside the door. However, it is the configuration, the design and the many functional objects that attract people living further away, and thereby support the interaction between different cultural patterns. The main reason why Mimersparken only has neighbourhood interest and also cannot be categorised as a ‘new public domain’ is the edge zone (R. Sennet, 2015). The railway prevents Mimersparken from becoming a ‘new public domain’. It creates a boundary where no exchange with the other side of the city is possible. Therefore, different ‘lifestyle domains’ do 135

not interact in Mimersparken and ‘new public domains’ emerge, where different ‘lifestyle domains’ overlap (Hajer and Reijndorp, 2001). Where Superkilen becomes a ‘new public domain’ is where the edge zone is porous like a border. Here it supports social interaction between different dwellings, lifestyles, people from all over Copenhagen and tourists. The design concept and the distinctive design is what give Superkilen national interest. The national interest supports increased interaction and co-presence of people and hence support for a ‘new public domain arises’. A ‘new public domain’ cannot evolve through national interest alone, but it supports it.

5.4.2

Design and place supporting Collaborative Urbanism

When arguing that the social and the physical design parameters of a place are mutually interdependent it also means that the physical surroundings affect our behaviour (Pallasmaa, 2005). It is, therefore, relevant to study how design and behaviour impact each other. By analysing Superkilen using the theoretical concept of Collaborative Urbanism, I investigate which acts support sharing of places, and which physical elements support those acts in ways where places support interaction between people and a coherent city. In my theoretical scaffolding, I present a transformation of the concept of Collaborative Consumption. I argue that the behavioural patterns identified in Collaborative Consumption are transferable to the context of public urban places, thus becoming a useful theoretical concept for analysing whether a place supports interaction between citizens and a coherent city. I transform each of the four principles of Collaborative Consumption into an urban setting by relating them to theory from urbanism. I name the new concept Collaborative Urbanism and use it as a theoretical concept to analyse how Superkilen supports Collaborative Urbanism and in which cases design creates barriers for collaboration in the park. The four principles of Collaborative Consumption are: • • • •

Critical Mass Idling Capacity Belief in the Commons Trust between Strangers

Critical Mass is one of the most pivotal factors when urban planners distinguish between an urban area and a suburban area, because it affects how many people who will potentially use a place, and whether the place can then potentially be lively and support interaction. Several studies on urban life show that what attracts people the most is other people (Gehl, 1971; Whyte, 2012). Superkilen is located within the densest populated area in Denmark, and it therefore has a great potential for becoming a much-visited place. Critical respondents from the interviews state that Copenhagen Municipality could have done anything and it would still have been a success, since there was such a huge lack of public outdoor places in the neighbourhood. Before the development of Superkilen the area was described by respondents as:

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” There was an old bunker, and there was a road running through, and an old storehouse which was used by a group of gang members. Some taxi drivers made a stop there. It was that kind of people. There was no social life going on.” Respondent, fall 2015 “It was a wasteland with litter bins and foxes.” Respondent, fall 2015 It was clearly not an inviting place and few citizens used it. Before Superkilen people either stayed in their backyards or they went to other places such as Nørrebro Park if they wanted to be outside. Gehl states (1971) that no public place can either make or break a social life, but it can support social interaction or it can create barriers for it to unfold. My analysis points to several elements that attract people to the place, functioning as an effective generator for life. First, there is Nørrebrohallen, which offers several activities like communal eating and different kinds of sports activities. People from other districts in the city use Nørrebrohallen and thereby contribute to the Critical Mass. Secondly, numerous events are held there which attract people, both from the adjoining neighbourhood and from other districts as well. Most respondents mention the different events as something they participate in now and then and where they experience that citizens from all over Copenhagen participate. Finally, the Super Bicycle Lane is an important element. The lane is an attractive traffic corridor, and people both from the neighbourhood and from other districts use the lane for everyday purposes. The Super Bicycle Lane, therefore, supports the presence of people in the park at most hours during the day and evening. The fact that so many people now spend time in Superkilen and use it until late into the evening means that many respondents experience the place as much safer now, and they dare to bike and walk through it at night and at all times. The high Critical Mass supports the copresence of many people, which is fundamental for interaction. Functions like Nørrebrohallen, the Super Bicycle Lane and the many events that attract citizens from other districts support coherence in Copenhagen and add to the Critical Mass in the park. Idling Capacity, translated into the context of public urban places, refers to the optimisation of leftover places (Nielsen, 2001). The opposite of Idling Capacity in the context of public urban places is ´flexible capacity´, meaning that one function can easily take over from another. One element that greatly supports ‘flexible capacity’ is the Red square. The Red square is the largest intact open space in Copenhagen, which makes it popular among skaters and a great venue for temporary events. ‘Flexible capacity’ can also appear without there being an event or any temporary activity that changes the place temporarily. The flexibility of a place happens when one function or spot changes user or user group or urban tribe (Hajer and Reijndorp, 2001). Such shifts can happen many times during a day or can shift in such a way that one urban tribe is there during the morning and another takes over during the afternoon. In Superkilen, ‘flexible capacities’ are designed in such a way that multiple functions support the opportunity for co-presence of several urban tribes simultaneously.

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Studying the Idling Capacity of Superkilen shows that the many different activities and functions located in the park support the interaction between many different urban tribes. Following Spradley´s (1980) matrix for conducting focussed field studies, I discuss this principle by focussing on how space relates to objects, acts, activities and actors. What objects attract what actors, and what kind of activities do the different functions encourage? (The word ‘actors’, in accordance with Spradley's scheme, refers only to human actors.) Besides, the Red square, which supports ‘flexible capacity’ due to its large size, is the sum of all the functional objects, which results in the interaction of many different urban tribes. Belief in the Commons in the context of Collaborative Consumption means that ‘the common’ – every person utilising the space – will not take more than he or she needs, with the result that there is enough for everyone. Translating this principle into the context of urban public places deals with the ´negotiation of place‘– not taking up more space than is needed – and the domination of places, which results in other people not feeling comfortable using it. The negotiation of the place is an important act in shared places. In most places, negotiations occur all the time and usually without friction. Examples of frictionless negotiation in Superkilen can be people stepping aside when passing each other without bumping into each other on the Red square, or people making room for one more on the bench. The skaters, on the other hand, are an example of negotiations with frictions. Several respondents describe a dislike of skaters because they occupy too much space, they do not pay enough attention to others in the square, and they are too noisy. The skaters’ presence on the Red square was not intended on the part of the designers and the Municipality, and there is a place set aside for them further down towards Nørrebroparken. However, since the Red square is the largest open space in Copenhagen, it is a great place for skating. Domination or territorialization (Kärrholm, 2017; Sack, 1986; Storey, 2012) of a place, can lead to frictions in the negotiation, which weakens the Belief in the Commons, and the experience that co-presence is possible. The analysis of the Belief in the Commons illustrates that Superkilen also contains the category agonistic behaviour in the concept of social frictions as visualised in Figure 20. Another example of the domination of a place leading to frictions in a shared place, and the weakening of the Belief in the Commons are the challenges posed by drug dealers on the Red square. Several respondents told me that their presence and behaviour sometimes affect the atmosphere. I argue that the drug dealers on the Red square belong on plane 1 in the concept of socially sustainable design of public urban places visualised in Figure 4. It relates to societal equity and is too complex to solve in a design project of a public urban place. Another trajectory related to the Belief in the Commons refers to the act of self-organising events with the aim of taking care of resources the users care about, namely the social capital within a neighbourhood. Looking at Superkilen, many human forces are working to improve e.g. safety and non-violence in the neighborhood. In 2010, the association ´We Will Live Here Together´ collaborated with the Danish artist, Bjørn Nørgaard. They created the heart-shaped piece of art with guns impounded by the police in the neighbourhood as a symbol of a neighbourhood without violence.

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Picture 26: ´The Heart of Nørrebro´, picture by Cindy Fonvig

Oström argues that the commons are a process rather than a resource, where a set of social relations creates a shared responsibility for a place (Botsman and Rogers, 2011). An example is the woman organising a party against the actions of people paying protection money to gangs. Superkilen contains both examples of unintended design leading to frictions in the negotiation of place. It shows the frictionless negotiations of the many functions, and it shows social capital fighting for safe, shared places. Trust between Strangers is the final principle of Collaborative Consumption. In an urban setting it refers to the act of creating tolerance and solidarity among people in a shared place. Bauman (1993) argues that tolerance and solidarity are pivotal if people are going to share place and time. He argues that the opportunity for solidarity depends on how different random events create the ´conditions for the opportunity,´ in other words, that conditions are constantly changeable because all the different random conditions – the ´conditions for the opportunity´ for its existence – can change. The opportunity space for solidarity is thus dependent on many other conditions like the one present in a specific location (Healey, 2006; Massey, 2005, 1994). The local events against violence and payments of protection money are concrete examples of random events leading to ‘conditions of opportunity’ within which solidarity can arise. On the other hand, the events can, of course, also lead to riots, which will hinder the possible rise of solidarity. Bauman (1993) further sees tolerance of other people’s perception as pivotal in the sharing of space and time, since he sees truth as a social relation and a need to tolerate other people’s perception of the truth. Besides tolerance, interaction in a shared place must also be based on responsibility, which entails an effort to support and enter into a dialogue with ´the other´ despite the latter’s different perception of the truth. One important element in Superkilen that supports tolerance is the Super Bicycle Lane. The implementation of the Super Bicycle Lane has created a natural traffic connection through the area just on the border of Mjølnerparken. This means that many people from other districts of

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Copenhagen drive by Mjølnerparken on a daily basis and thereby experience the place differently than the picture presented in the media. A social worker, working in Mjølnerparken for 18 years, states in our interview at Mødestedet: “ The bicycle lane has made my work with integration so much easier. Now people can see for themselves that there is no shooting here. Before the lane, people were visiting Mjølnerparken, like it was a zoo. It makes us feel safer that the Danes are not afraid of us” (respondent 2015). The many events also create ´conditions for the opportunity,´ where solidarity and tolerance can take root. And finally Nørrebrohallen functions as a creator of ´conditions for the opportunity.´ The same elements as those supporting a Critical Mass also support opportunity spaces for solidarity and tolerance to arise. At the same time, there are events in Superkilen that decrease Trust between Strangers. Several respondents talked about the drug dealers on the Red square, about being accosted by drug dealers and about experiencing a violent arrest. Such random events decrease the opportunity space for solidarity and tolerance between strangers (Bauman, 1993). They also support the argument of places as being products of multiple entities not physically linked to the specific location (Healey, 2006; Massey, 2005, 1994). The analysis reveals that Superkilen contains elements supporting Collaborative Urbanism. The supporting actors are physical, e.g. the Super Bicycle Lane, and social, e.g. the events. It furthermore reveals that frictions occur when a place becomes dominated by a specific urban tribe (the skaters, drug dealers) who do not follow the same rules of negotiation. The concept of Collaborative Urbanism appears in the case of Superkilen as functional for analysing the potential of a place to support interaction among people in a place and for supporting a coherent city. The concept further supports the analysis of ‘levels of interest’ (Stauskis and Eckardt, 2011), ‘new public domains’ (Hajer and Reijndorp, 2001) and also the final theme of ‘edge zones’ (Sennet, 2015). All four lenses point towards the same design parameters.

5.4.3

Social frictions and spatial edge zones

The final theme analyses how social frictions influence the physical place, both through a description of the several social frictions illuminated through interviews and through the spatial analysis of the edge zone in different parts of Superkilen. The shared analysis illustrates how social frictions impact the physical place in the specific location of Superkilen. The edge zones differ along the three park zones, the Red square, the Black Square and the Green Park. As a starting point for structuring my analysis of the edge zone along Superkilen, I use Spradley´s (1980, pp. 82-83) scheme to focus on the relationship between ´objects and space´ and ´act and space´. Figure 19 illustrates specific different edge zone situations. I categorise the different edge zones through a colour coding, which is categorised based on Sennet´s (2015) argumentation of borders and boundaries within public places.

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The first category – a high level of porosity – is a design that supports interaction and is coded green (colour code links to Figure 17). Within these zones the interaction is free-flowing because there is a connection between the functions: the skater ramp (1), Nørrebrohallen (3), the Shawarma bar (2) and Rådmandsgade School (4) and Superkilen. There is free mobility between the functions and Superkilen, and these functions contribute to the opportunity of extended interaction. The edges, therefore, have a high level of porosity. In the Red square, the park and the context virtually merge.

The second category, a neutral level of porosity and interaction, is coded orange (colour code links to Figure 17). Within this category, there are two trajectories. The first refers to unhindered physical interaction and the second to a physically designed coherence even though there are physical barriers. Pictures (7) and (8) show the edges between the Black

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Square and the context. On both sides the edges are porous to the extent that all movement is unhindered. However, the context does not contribute to the opportunity of an extended interaction. Within this category, I argue that it is possible to support a neutral porosity even though a physical movement across the edge is impossible. In this specific example of Superkilen, the sides are connected through the distinctive red colour paint as seen in pictures (5) and (6). The third category – no porosity and hindered interaction is coded red (colour code links to Figure 17). Within this category there are physical barriers to movements, blocking opportunities for interaction with no attempts of visual or conceptual connections through design. All the red zones are located along the Green Park, which has Mjølnerparken on one side and the AAB social housing project on the other. Picture (9) shows the edge zone between Superkilen and the upper section of Mjølnerparken. There is a shift in the level of the terrain and the parking lot which hinders the connection and the free movement between Mjølnerparken and Superkilen. On picture (10) we observe that the two kindergartens create a boundary between Superkilen and Mjølnerparken. Picture (11) shows a wall with no attempt to make a visual connection as illustrated in picture (6) from the Red square. Pictures (12) and (13) illustrate the fences along AAB which hinder the free movement between that neighbourhood and Superkilen. Picture (14) shows the end of the kindergarten area. Even though there is a physical passage here between Superkilen and Mjølnerparken, the visual perception and the ´designerly´ attempt to create a connection is poor.

Figure 19: The different edge zones along Superkilen

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Sennet (2015) describes the edge zone as the most important place for interaction between citizens in a city. He presents the porous city and distinguishes between borders and boundaries. Borders are porous edges, like the one we see along the Red square and the Black Square, where exchanges happen unhindered. Boundaries, on the other hand, prevent interaction or exchange, as we see with the fences along the Green Park on both sides. Comparing the ´boundary´ (Sennet, 2015) edge zones between Superkilen and the surroundings along the Green Park with the information gained from the different interviews reveals that the reason why the boundary edges exist is different social frictions regarding political and personal priorities and agendas. In the following section, I explain how these social frictions impact the physical place. Several of the interviewees mentioned that Muhammed Aslam, who was the chairman of Mjølnerparken at the time of the development of Superkilen, did not wish Mjølnerparken to be open due to his fear that a more open Mjølnerparken would potentially weaken his position of power within the housing complex. Several respondents said he opposed initiatives working for a more open connection to Superkilen. “The collaboration between Copenhagen Municipality and the chairman of the residents’ council, Muhammed, was difficult, Muhammed was very dissatisfied with the development of the area. There were many conflicts between the Municipality´s representative, Peter Kristensen, who was employed to lead the area development, and Muhammed. They gave each other a hard time. There was mediation, and Muhammed received some money. However, nothing could stop Superkilen.” Respondent 1, 2015 “Aslam´s agenda had been controlling the poor connection between Mjølnerparken and Superkilen. He specifically said no…” Respondent 2, 2015 The Danish newspaper Weekendavisen and several other newspapers published a series of articles describing how Muhammed Aslam 16 was unseated from his position by the women of Mjølnerparken. Due to his ´power´ (Foucault et al., 2007) position as the chairman of Mjølnerparken’s residents’ council he tried to prevent events that were meant to create coherence between Mjølnerparken and Superkilen from happening. Copenhagen Municipality´s priority not to allocate money to move the two kindergartens located between Mjølnerparken and Superkilen is yet another actor (Latour, 2005) impacting the poor connection between Mjølnerparken and Superkilen. The two kindergartens create a massive barrier, and after 4 p.m. and during the weekends, they are empty buildings contributing no lively activities.

Several newspaper articles write about Muhammed Aslam’s abuse of power and how after 10 years as chairman he was unseated, primarily by female residents in Mjølnerparken. https://www.information.dk/moti/2013/08/kvinderne-rejser-mjoelnerparken

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A third actor in the category of social frictions is the fence along AAB, which is the result of the social challenges within Mjølnerparken. During the development of Superkilen and even today there are discussions about removing the fence. But AAB refuses to move the fence since the development struggles with break-ins which the AAB leadership believes are committed by residents from Mjølnerparken. A social worker from Lejerbo states in the interview: “The day they (AAB social housing, 7. Picture 12 and 13 in Figure 17) remove the fence is the day that our job is done.” Respondent 2, 2015 The fence is proof that places are the results of many interrelated social actors (Latour, 2005) and that social frictions do manifest themselves in the physical space (Bourdieu, 2014). The analysis of Superkilen adds yet another category to the model of social frictions first presented in chapter 2, developed on the analysis of the reference cases of contemporary development projects in Denmark. The new category is personal priorities or agendas, which is illustrated in the analysis of Muhammed Aslam and his behaviour. The integration of Mjølnerparken and its connection to Superkilen are, therefore, beside the new category, a result of social frictions, such as unresolved conflicts (the fence), and political priorities (Copenhagen Municipality). The causes of the poor connection between Mjølnerparken and Superkilen can be found in three out of the four categories in Figure 20 that illustrates social frictions. The final category of social frictions, which is a constraint for interaction among citizens is agonistic behaviour. Agonistic behaviour is illustrated by the skater´s and the drug dealers lack to support ´belief in the commons´

Figure 20: Social frictions identified in Superkilen

Based on my investigation of Superkilen, I argue that by not identifying and acknowledging such power relations (Mouffe, 1993) and integrate them into the design approach they become ´ghost designers´ who end up affecting the final physical outcome. I name them ´ghost designers´ because they are invisible, like a conflict, a priority or an agenda. However, their

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consequences are not invisible; they become visible and physical in the public place in the form of a fence or a boundary edge zone. Yaneva (Yaneva and Heaphy, 2012) introduces the process of ´Mapping Controversies´, which means mapping all the actors, both human and non-human, and looking at what these actors do. She refers to them as producing a ´social explanation´ of its design, as a way of understanding and perceiving the material world and the social world as interlinked and simultaneously interacting. In her research into the London Olympic Stadium (2012) Yaneva and her colleagues mapped all actors involved in a design process (architects, clients, communities, costs, design precedents, existing buildings, legacies, diagrams, sketches or models), revealing how many invisible actors are actually influencing the final design product. Yaneva argues that “The heterogeneous connections of all actors who disagree and join the controversy is precisely what gives strength to the social at the end.” (Yaneva and Heaphy, 2012, p.35) My mapping of Superkilen is less comprehensive than the cases presented in ´Mapping Controversies´ (Yaneva and Heaphy, 2012). I have only interviewed four persons involved in the design process and conducted desk research on the writing and the movies made about Superkilen. However, my investigation shows that several human actors (Latour, 2005; Yaneva, 2013; Yaneva and Heaphy, 2012) impact the physical place and the opportunities of Superkilen to promote coherence and interaction between Mjølnerparken and the surrounding city. The investigation of Superkilen can add to Yaneva´s statement above by arguing that the actors within the neighbourhood and the design process, whose controversies have not been addressed in the project, are now weakening the social phenomena. Therefore, by mapping, acknowledging and connecting the controversies, the design of Superkilen could have become a more successful project. The user involvement process is yet another example where social friction (in this situation unsolved conflicts and political agendas) weakens the project. The design process of Superkilen suffered from a failed citizen involvement. Both Topotek 1 and BIG expressed their scepticism towards citizen participation. Topotek refers to it as an impediment to ambitious design, and BIG refers to public participation as something sometimes seen as a disease, used as a retroactive justification of the project (Bjarke Ingels Group et al., 2013). Bjarke Ingels categorises the different identities of participation within the project from íneffectual´ and índirect´ to ´democratic´ and éxtreme´ participation. The methods used in íneffectual´, índirect´ and ´democratic ´ citizen participation suffered from the challenge that the participating citizens were not representative of the residents of this neighbourhood of Ydre Nørrebro. My long interviews with some of the participating residents and also the movie, Shish Kebab, by Kragh Jakobsen 17, reveal a process where the participating residents feel neglected and overlooked. Two other architectural firms were invited to develop a proposal for the place in 17

https://vimeo.com/81501467

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the initial part of the development process of Superkilen. The participating residents actually preferred one of the other projects because it was greener and less controversial. “The story is as follows… The residents did not want Superkilen, but no one listened to them. It was pre-determined…. (I am an employee, so I have to be careful what I say). However, the residents thought that if they kept saying No they would gain nothing at all…. The residents wanted NørreWood.” Respondent 3, 2015 “Well… It did not turn out as we wanted it to… We wanted something greener… You (me) can find an article where the Municipality threatened to withhold the money allocated to the project... They said… You can also have nothing at all…. In retrospect, we had probably won that battle. The ´Culture´ manager in Copenhagen Municipality threatened to withhold the money. And it was a bit difficult to say no to 100 Mio. kr., but we should have said no because she was bluffing. They could not have withheld the money; we would have won that battle. I think… It is pure imagination. Several of the Municipality’s public servants told me afterwards… They (the Municipality) would have been in big trouble if you had said no.” Respondent 2, 2015 The respondents reveal a conflict of power relations, where the citizens felt neglected by Copenhagen Municipality. The disagreement between the residents’ wish for NørreWood and the Municipality´s wish for BIG´s project meant that the participating residents felt threatened and intimidated by Copenhagen Municipality. These people felt that they were forced to vote in favour of BIG’s project. As a result of this social friction (political agendas) the participating residents and key persons in the neighbourhood involved in the project have dissociated themselves from the project. The feeling of lack of ownership may end up weakening the project because a lack of local support makes it more vulnerable to future conflicts (Gauntlett, 2011). Bech-Danielsen and Stender (2017) state that the place analysis is the most important element when starting a project in a deprived social housing neighbourhood, since there are no fixed sets of rules to follow and the answers are site-specific. Their statement and the investigation of social frictions in Superkilen call for methods for mapping the social frictions prior to initiating a development process. It calls for methods to map both human and non-human actors and for a design approach where social parameters are integrated into the design process on equal terms with the physical parameters. The investigation of Superkilen reveals that the social frictions seriously impact the physical place and that failing to acknowledge the social frictions and different power agendas (Laclau and Mouffe, 2014) and integrating them into the design approach can end up weakening the physical outcome. According to Sennet (1993), the edges are the most important place to create coherence; if the edges fail the place will fail. In the Green Park the edges have failed due to social frictions.

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Summary and reflections The case study of Superkilen reveals several examples of the close connection and mutual interdependences between the physical place and the social life, and thereby that places are relational (Healey, 2006; Massey, 2005, 1994; Pallasmaa, 2005). The first theme focusses on Interactions, relationships and negotiations of place. It analyses Superkilen in relation to ‘levels of interest’ and ‘new public domains’, discussing the park´s ability to support frictionless negotiations and interactions between different urban tribes. The second theme merges social behaviour and the physical objects by analysing Superkilen´s potential to support Collaborative Urbanism. The analysis of the Super Bicycle Lane illustrates that this bicycle lane constitutes design on a strategic level, making residents from across the city pass Mjølnerparken on their everyday routes, thus affecting the story created in the media. At the same time the analysis of the Super Bicycle Lane reveals that the human and the non-human actors in a place are constantly affecting each other on a micro level. This is illustrated by the shifts in hierarchies between the bicycle lane and the other users in The Red square. The final theme on social frictions and spatial edge zones reveals that conflicts between the two housing estates on either side of Superkilen and the personal agendas of chairman Muhammed Aslam affected the edge zone and hence the coherence between Superkilen and both Mjølnerparken and the other housing complex. Such frictions end up having a huge impact on Superkilen´s ability to establish a closer connection and a more open Mjølnerparken, which was one of the aims of the project. The investigation of Superkilen revealed a series of concrete examples of the interconnectedness between the social space and the actual physical place. In the following empirical study, I create 12 Urban Song Line interviews with 14 residents in the deprived social housing neighborhood Skovparken in Kolding. The Urban Song Line study aims to investigate the inhabitants’ use, perception and relation to different places in the city and in their neighbourhood. Based on the case study of Superkilen, my Urban Song Line study includes an increased focus on the perception of place, narration of place, the interrelations between human and nonhuman actors that affect the places, and what actors impact the residents’ use, perception and relation to the different places.

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6 The Urban Songline Study The Urban Songline study is the first of three empirical studies I conducted at Skovparken/Skovvejen in Kolding. I based the study on my empirical findings from the Superkilen study, where I started to build up the theoretical scaffolding concurrently with the initial analysis of Superkilen. The Superkilen study points to an understanding of places as relational and a result of different controversies and hence provides an extended focus on the perception of place and the entanglement of human and non-human actors (Latour, 2005; Yaneva, 2013). In the Urban Songline study, I interviewed 15 residents all living in the neighbourhood Skovparken/Skovvejen. I interviewed them regarding their use, relation and perception of places both in the city (Kolding) and in their neighbourhood (Skovparken/Skovvejen). In chapter 4, Method and Approach, I have accounted for the origin of the method and how my use of the Urban Songline method differs from Marling´s (2003 ). I therefore open this chapter with a description of the Urban Songline book within this PhD thesis and a presentation of each coherent step through the study. Subsequently, I shall explain my experience of the Urban Songline book as a ‘mediator of knowledge’ between myself as a researcher and my respondents. The explanation of the mediating role is followed by a presentation of how I analyse the data through the steps in ´grounded theory´ going from an Open Coding ending with the four core categories: • • • •

Interactions, relations and negotiations of place Design and place supporting Collaborative Urbanism Social frictions and different worlds and value systems Relations to place

Description of the Urban Songline book and the process of an interview The following section is a presentation of the content of the Urban Songline book and of each step through an Urban Songline interview. Each book (12 in all) contains 18 pages: • • • • •

Two aerial photos in a scale of 1:10.000 and 1:2000 of the city and the neighbourhood Eight photographs of different dwellings 20 photographs of different urban collective places Seven pages to glue in the respondents’ own pictures A task card with the seven questions the respondents must answer by taking photos.

When the book is completed, it will contain aerial maps with drawings and pages with photographs, sometimes combined with keywords or drawings.

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Picture 27 shows examples of spreads in four different Urban Songline books.

Picture 27: Four different Urban Songline books

I completed 12 books in total, one for each interview. Since the young people wished to do the interviews in groups, two books represent two and three stories, respectively. The social association Byliv Kolding 18 initially provided me with the indispensable help of finding 15 residents in Skovparken/Skovvejen who were willing and able to participate in my study. Due to its long-lasting social work inside the neighbourhood Byliv Kolding has a thorough knowledge of the residents, which enabled them to connect me to a group of respondent representatives for Skovparken/Skovvejen. The respondents all lived in the neighbourhood, and they were selected based on difference in gender, age, ethnic background, relationship to the labour market and which specific area of the housing project they lived in. Picture 28 shows the 15 residents in Skovparken/Skovvejen who participated in my Urban Songline study:

Byliv Kolding is a collaboration between Kolding Municipality and the housing association. The organisation is financed by Landsbyggefonden (the National Building Fund) with the purpose supporting the social work in the neighbourhood. Therefore it is closely affiliated with the residents and helped me to assemble a representative group of respondents.

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Picture 28: The participating respondents in the Urban Songline study

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I created one Urban Songline book for each respondent (except for the young people). Each book contains a songline drawn on a map and all the pictures the respondents chose or took themselves. The implementation of the method consisted of several steps which are visualised in Figure 21

Figure 21: Steps through a collection of data in the Urban Songline study

During the first interview, we (the respondents and I together) drew the respondentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; movements and use of the city on an aerial map. While drawing, the conversation focused on the reasons for different acts and movements. Both everyday movements and spare-time

Picture 29: Drawing on aerial map

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movements were mapped while discussing relations, use and perception of the different places within their movement patterns. After the process of drawing lines on the aerial map, I presented the respondent with eight different types of dwellings. The respondent chose one or two preferred types of homes from the selection of eight types of dwellings shown on Picture 30. The assignment had two objectives, first to support a conversation about the respondents’ relation to their own home and neighbourhood by showing other options. Second, to prepare the respondents for their own ´photo safari’. The chosen pictures were glued into the Urban Songline book while we had a conversation about the different types of dwellings.

Picture 30: 8 pictures of different dwellings presented by me

The final task in the first interview involved preferences of public urban places. I presented the respondents with the 20 different pictures shown on Picture 31. The respondents chose 4-6 pictures of public urban places which they preferred and told me why. This task was aimed at supporting a discussion about values and preferences in terms of public urban places and prepared the respondent for their own ´photo safari´. The pictures were all glued into the Urban Songline book during our discussion.

Picture 31: 20 pictures of different kinds of Urban Places presented by me

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In the meantime, between the two interviews, the respondents were given the task to go on a `Photo Safari´, where they were asked to take photos that answered seven questions written on a ´task card´: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Take pictures of places in Kolding you like Take pictures of places in Kolding you dislike Take pictures of places in your neighbourhood you like Take pictures of places in your neighbourhood you dislike Take pictures of the places in your neighbourhood you use the most Take pictures of places you think best describe your neighbourhood Take pictures of the people you primarily spend time with in Kolding and your neighbourhood.

Picture 32: The ´Task card.´

The respondents emailed the photographs to me, and I printed them and brought them to the second interview. The photographs were the foundation for the second interview, and the conversation concerned the respondents’ reasons and thoughts behind the taken photos. The aim of the ´photo safari´ task was to support a conversation of relations and perceptions of different places in the city and in Skovparken/Skovvejen. I used the study to investigate the reasons for the respondents’ relations, use and perception of the different places. The photos were pasted into the book during the conversation.

Picture 33: Respondent looking at his photographs during the second interview

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Both interviews were recorded on a smartphone and in the meantime, between the two interviews, the first interview was transcribed, and possible questions were written down for clarification during the second interview. All the interviews and the related photographs were collected in one document which, together with the transcribed interviews, constituted the produced empirical data for this study. The material consists of a total of 12 books with pictures, keywords and aerial photos with drawings, plus 24 recorded interviews varying in length from 30 minutes to 120 minutes. Picture 34 shows all the printed interviews on a wall.

Picture 34: All data gathered into one matrix

Urban Songline book as a mediator for an empowered situation During the second interview it occurred to me that the Urban Songline book was an efficient and strong tool for this study, because it strengthened the respondentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; capability to describe their relations to places. The photographs and the drawings contributed to a preciseness in the relationship between a physical place and experiences, perceptions and relations to places that was valuable for this study. To compare the method with a traditional qualitative research interview, where the interview seeks to cover both the factual layer and the opinion layer (Kvale, 1997), the photographs and the drawings visualised the factual layer and by doing so supported the production of the opinion layer presented by the respondents. To explain how the Urban Songline book empowered the situation between myself as the researcher and the respondent I shall present three different examples from the second interviews to illustrate three different ways in which the Urban Songline book enhanced the situation between the researcher and the respondents. The first example is the three young girls I interviewed, Safaa, Salma, and Sofiya. Doing the homework of a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;photo safariâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in between the two interviews was too demanding for them. They completed the first two tasks (pictures from Kolding) with pictures they found on the Internet. The last five questions, concerning places in their neighborhood, could not be 155

answered since they could not find pictures on the Internet. This resulted in an unsolved task regarding pictures of places within their own neighborhood, and as a result they brought no pictures from their neighbourhood to the second interview. I started the interview without pictures, just asking them to recall different places and explain their relation, perception and use. They were unable to recall places in the neighborhood they either liked or disliked. As a result I suggested that we stopped the interview inside and instead took a walk in the neighbourhood taking the pictures together. Picture 35 shows the three girls on our shared walk in the neighborhood.

Picture 35: Respondent 6,7 and 8 on our walk together in Skovparken/Skovvejen

Walking into the neighbourhood searching for places to photograph immediately triggered the opinion layer (Kvale, 1997) for the girls and enabled them to identify and show places in the neighbourhood which they felt related with. The two illustrations on Picture 36 show that the girls could relate to places and explain this relationship, as they were looking at the place. Illustration A describes one of the places they thought best described their neighbourhood (question no. 6 on the task brief). Illustration B describes a place in their neighborhood they liked (question no. 3 on the task brief)

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Picture 36: Safaa and I are talking about Toboggan run and the playground

The second example is Anna describing her process of finding a picture she thought best described her neighbourhood. Picture 37 shows the photograph of the neighbourhood from the inside and her statement from the interview. Her son Mathias stands in the left-hand corner with his scooter.

Picture 37: Respondent 1. Picture of a place that best describes the neighbourhood

This is yet another example of the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;photo safariâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; supporting a qualified conversation, which could not have taken place if I had asked her the question, while we were sitting in her living room. The final example is the drawing on the map. The situation is presented in Picture 38 where respondent 11 used the aerial photo to communicated his experience of the place by drawing on a map.

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Picture 38: Respondent 11 drawing a line down by the centre square.

The three examples illustrate how the Urban Songline book functions as a ‘mediator for knowledge’ by communicating through different mediums (words, drawings, photographs). Thus it contributes to a more nuanced survey, which provides me with a deeper insight into the different influencing actors affecting their use, relationships and experiences of different places. The merger between the drawing, the photographs and the spoken words contributes to a greater precision in the answers. It points very specifically to the problem, and the photos help to visualise and thus strengthen the point the respondents wished to make. I was thus able to merge the experienced place with the actual, physical place, which is of great value in this study. When these different ´molecules´ of experiences of daily life are brought together, they enable an understanding of the connection between and the affection for this specific physical place and the daily life; they also underscore the gap between use and design (Pedersen, 2007). The second task in the first interview, where the respondents were asked to pick a preferred home and preferred collective public places, was likewise valuable for gathering additional information. The photographs seemed to help the respondents to create opinions because they were not limited to selecting from a repertoire of their own imaginary library, but the photographs brought them expanded possibilities and thereby supported and strengthened where the respondents positioned themselves. The reason for pronouncing the Urban Songline book a Mediator is to embrace the tangible things the book consists of – the map, the photos and the drawings – as well as the process of talking to each other, taking photos and pasting photos in the book together into one concept, a ‘mediator for knowledge’ (Corlin, 2016). The Urban Songline study builds on Healey´s (2006) description of how people live their lives in a manifold of relational webs, which create our ´lifeworlds.´ It is through our ´lifeworlds‘ that we define ourselves in relation to others and where we live with others. Our values and attachments towards our local environment, our movement patterns, wishes, needs and demands are all defined in the context of our relational world.

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This is important for the Urban Songline study in Skovparken/Skovvejen because it is in places where different ‘lifeworlds’ overlap that interactions between citizens from different social layers in a city can happen. It is here opportunity spaces for solidarity and tolerance can arise (Bauman, 1993), through an overlap of different worlds and value systems (Healey, 2006; Lefebvre, 1991; Massey, 1994), which is fundamental for a coherent city. Even though the study provides me with 15 independent narratives about Kolding and the neighbourhood of Skovparken/Skovvejen, I use this study to look for overlaps in the narratives and experiences of places. I use the respondents’ individual webs as scaffolding for a conversation about the different places. My Songline study therefore has an increased focus on the specific places that my respondents chose to talk about and less on the movements between them. Since the subject matter for this PhD thesis is public urban places, I focus on the parts of the narratives that relate to the different places my respondents relate to, how they use the different places in the city and their neighbourhood, and what impacts their perception of these different places.

Urban Songline analysis As already mentioned this thesis takes a ´grounded theory´ approach, where all analysis is based on insights from the field (Glaser, 2008). The empirical data in the Urban Songline study is analysed through the following three steps for analysing data in´ grounded theory´: • • •

Open Coding Axial Coding Selective Coding

Picture on page 159: Photograph of a place in Skovparken/ Skovvejen the respondent dislike

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In Figure 22 I illustrate one example of these processes in the analysis of the material related to the Urban Songline study. 1. In the Open Coding, I have marked interesting passages in the transcript interviews and interesting photographs. The illustrated example shows statements regarding things that separate the residents in different ways and for different reasons. The example is an excerpt from other statements. I highlight whole sentences and point out the central words. 2. In the Axial Coding I cluster quotes and coded words that are similar. I cut the coded document up into pieces and combine it with the coding statements as a method of finding cross categories in the material. I cluster different reasons for frictions and create connections. In addition to cutting up the coded document I add a layer of my own comments and connections I have drawn.

Picture 39: Axial Coding, the document is cut into pieces and supplemented with notes and sketched connections

3. In my final phase, the Selective Coding, I have chosen the final core theme of social frictions and different worlds and value systems. I analyse the core theme by combining the different categories, and I also begin discussing the core theme in relation to existing theory. I draw and write on top of the manifold, and I write longer passages of text analysis which I combine with drawings.

Picture 40: Selective Coding, drawing of centre square together with notes

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Figure 22: Example of GT analysis of the Urban Songline study

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The final analysis is divided into four core categories: • • • •

Interactions, relations and negotiations of place Design and place supporting Collaborative Urbanism Social frictions and different worlds and value systems Relations to place

6.3.1

Interactions, relations and negotiations of place

In the first theme, I focus on the centre area, since that is a fundamental place within the neighbourhood. The centre area is located in the middle of the neighbourhood and appears as the physical arena for many social frictions both within the neighbourhood and in relation to the rest of the city (Kolding).

Picture 41: The centre and the square in front of it

I start with a presentation of the place followed by respondents’ statements, which lead to an analysis of the centre area regarding ‘levels of interest’ (Stauskis and Eckardt, 2011), ‘new public domains’ (Hajer and Reijndorp, 2001), and the ‘power and territorialisation of a place’ (Brighenti, 2010, 2012; Kärrholm, 2017; Mouffe, 1993). Figure 23 illustrates the different functions within the centre and also the nearby surroundings. The centre is located centrally in the neighbourhood. It is privately owned by the company Presan Real Estate, who has shown no interest in maintaining the building. The centre formerly contained a supermarket named FAKTA (the name the Faktaboys – which I shall return to later, refers to a gang of young men hanging out in front of the centre). The supermarket closed down due to heavy shoplifting and vandalism. Now there is an ethnic supermarket at that location. At the time of my field studies, Kolding Municipality rented two locations to host a local job centre, which is also closed now. One of the two mosques in Kolding is located inside the centre. Women enter from the side entrance and the men from the entrance at the back. Each Friday, the parking lot is full of cars and people rushing in for Friday prayer. Next to the mosque is the Faxe Bodega, a local pub, with a bad reputation. There are two kindergartens behind the centre. The housing complex Skovvejen is located west of the centre and the complex Skovparken dep. 22 sits to the east. South of the centre is a large parking lot and the main road, Lærkevej.

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Figure 23: The centre area functions and surroundings

I initiate the analysis of the first theme â&#x20AC;&#x201C; interactions, relations and negotiations of place â&#x20AC;&#x201C; by referring to the mechanisms of the power relations and the territorialisation and the consequences of the Faktaboys dominating the centre area. All respondents mentioned the centre and the square in front of it during the Urban Songline interviews, and they all somehow referred to it as a problematic place, representing conflicts and a reason for the neighbourhoodâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s image problem. Picture 42 contains three quotes from the Songline interviews, where the respondents describe their relationship and their experience of the centre.

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Picture 42: Statements about the centre

The Faktaboys are the primary urban tribe who territorialises the place, both in terms of time and their acts. Their many hours of appropriating the place leads to territorialisation (Kärrholm, 2017) further combined with their way of acting in a threating manner as a way to manifest power. Territorialisation refers to the understanding of a place as being the result of a multitude of influencing entities – though always linked to a specific location or physical arena. The territorialisation of the centre square by the Faktaboys is a result of the boys’ habitus; they are, according to Bourdieu´s explanation on habitus (2014), products of the environment in which they are growing up. Mouffe (Laclau and Mouffe, 2014; Mouffe, 1993) defines places like arenas, where identities and interrelations are constituted together, and negotiation is only possible through recognition and acceptance of power relations. If the place is going to develop frictionless negotiations and have a future potential of turning into a public domain, it is crucial to recognise, accept and integrate the act of power the boys have and the inherent reasons behind it. (In the final chapter, Words Upon a Place, an example of such a situation will be presented.) Brighenti (2014) argues that mobility is an important element in territorialisation. Besides supporting the connection between places and flows it also has the power to sustain certain associations and thereby also create new ones. Such an argumentation relates to the importance of a place supporting different ‘levels of interest’. Thus, if citizens from other districts in the city experience positive visits to the centre area, new associations can be 165

developed and new stories about a territory (the centre area) be created. On the other hand, it can also sustain old stories, if the new events reinforce the old story. Mobility, though, contains an opportunity space to change the next second's stories about a place. However, at its current state, the centre area is a physical representation of the barriers and frictions within the neighbourhood, to a point where it becomes a physical manifestation of the social problems in the neighbourhood (Bourdieu, 2014). Instead of supporting the community within the neighbourhood and create coherence to the surrounding area, it is today the arena for social frictions and a physical representation of the neighbourhood’s poor image. Even though the centre area today appears as an arena for many social frictions it is a pivotal place in the neighbourhood, because it has the potential to become a great supporter of interaction and coherence both within the community of Skovparken/Skovvejen and in relation to the surrounding city. The place has potentials for interaction between different urban tribes (Hajer and Reijndorp, 2001) and different worlds and value systems (Healey, 2006; Lefebvre, 1991; Massey, 1994). In the following section, I analyse the centre area in terms of the ability of the place and its potential to attract the four different ‘levels of interest’, as well as the centre area´s potential to become a ‘new public domain’ (Hajer and Reijndorp, 2001). The analysis is similar to the one I conducted in Superkilen.

Figure 24: ´Levels of interest´

Unlike Superkilen, the centre area, as illustrated in Figure 24, does not support all four ‘levels of interest’. From my analysis of the Urban Songline study, I find interests on the neighbourhood and at the city level. Respondent 11 said that he once in a while visits the Faxe Bodega to have a beer and play darts, and Respondent 13 explains that he sometimes stands in front of the centre, somewhat like the Faktaboys. Besides these two respondents, none of 166

the other respondents stay in the centre area. However, the Faktaboys use the place as a meeting point, which further supports the argument that the square furthers the interests on the neighbourhood level. All respondents explain that they once in a while use the different functions and that the close location to home is the reason they utilise the centre’s functions. Due to the functions of the halal butcher, the Mosque and the ethnic grocery store, the centre area embodies city interest. All shops and other functions inside the centre are related to the ethnic minority except for the local bar. The majority of visitors on the city level, therefore, belong to the ethnic minority. Even though the place supports the interest on a city level, exchanges between different worlds and value systems (Healey, 2006; Lefebvre, 1991; Massey, 1994) are absent because of the kinds of functions they fulfil (they are mainly targeted to the Muslim minority). The centre area has no functions that attract on a national level. This would demand some kind of tourist attractions as seen in the case of Superkilen. Additionally, the centre area has no interest on the local community level. It cannot attract inhabitants from the neighbouring residential areas. Therefore it does not support coherence between the neighbourhood of Skovparken/Skovvejen and the immediate surroundings, and furthermore it does not support an interaction between different worlds and value systems (Healey, 2006; Lefebvre, 1991; Massey, 1994). An overall conclusion regarding the ‘levels of interest’ is that the centre area offers scant support for a greater coherence with the rest of the city and interaction between citizens. The ‘levels of interest’ on a neighbourhood level (apart from the Faktaboys) are mainly related to nearby shopping opportunities, and even though the centre area does have an interest on the city level it does not support interaction across different worlds and value systems (Healey, 2006; Lefebvre, 1991; Massey, 1994). The centre area has such a low level of attraction and lacks elements, such as functions and identity, which could attract different urban tribes and citizens from different cultural communities and value systems. Therefore, it cannot be referred to as a ‘public domain’. A ‘public domain’ must have more than one urban tribe that feels a place attachment, which is fundamental for interaction to happen. ” We define public domains as those places where an exchange between different social groups is possible and also actually occurs.” (Hajer & Reijndorp, 2001 s. 11) To become a public domain, according to Hajer and Reijndorp (2001), the place must be positively valued as a place of shared experience, which is achieved through acquaintance with a place and place attachment (Relph, 1976). The centre area lacks elements which attract citizens from other parts of Kolding. In the dichotomy of place attachment (see chapter 3), Relph (1976) defines seven levels of relations to places, where he argues that place attachment only arises if people can somehow identify with the place and find the place meaningful. A place attachment will not develop based solely on functions. The two urban tribes who feel place attachment towards the centre area are the Faktaboys and the alcoholics, because the place also frames a community. In order for a public domain to evolve, at least one urban tribe must feel a place attachment, so that negotiations of the place´s unwritten rules emerge. However, these negotiations must 167

not result in frictions. In the centre area the negotiations result in frictions, since the place is dominated primarily by the Faktaboys. They feel, what Relph (1976) explains as ‘existential place attachment’, where they identify the centre area with home and see this place as part of their identity (of living in a ghetto). The dominating urban tribes are also the primary influencers on the identity of a place. This means that the Faktaboys and the alcoholics create the place identity, which, echoing Bourdieu (2014), is an example of how the social constraints manifest themselves in the physical place, as Respondent 3 explains in the quote in Picture 43 on the neighbourhood image.

Picture 43: Quote regarding the centre area

The final parameters for a public domain to arise are that many different social groups are present. That is not happening at the centre mainly for the reasons already described above. The centre area lacks functions which can foster place attachment from citizens from different cultural communities and value systems. Most of the visitors to the centre come solely for the functions which, according to Relph´s dichotomy, puts them in the category of ‘behavioural insideless´. This category does not develop place attachment and therefore does not give the centre area a place in the shared consciousness (Hajer and Reijndorp, 2001). Furthermore, the urban tribe, who actually feels a place attachment, experiences an existential place attachment which makes them dominate the place and thereby creates an even bigger barrier for the place to turn into a ‘new public domain’.

6.3.2

Places in Skovparken supporting Collaborative Urbanism

The following section analyses the potentials for interaction and coherence in Skovparken/Skovvejen by relating the Urban Songline data to the concept of Collaborative Urbanism. The analysis also refers to the constraints of Collaborative Urbanism, when it is needed in order to promote the understanding. The concept of Collaborative Urbanism is fully elaborated in Chapter 3, where I account for the transformation of Collaborative Consumption into an urban context. The concept consists of four categories: • • • •

Critical Mass Idling Capacity Belief in the Commons Trust between Strangers

I will analyse each category one by one. Critical Mass is the first category in Collaborative Urbanism. It focusses on the ability of a place to attract enough people to one place for interaction to occur. Several respondents describe 168

events arranged by Byliv Kolding which attract a lot of the residents. Ambassaden is a place which attracts a lot of children. The challenge is the lack of locations that promote the copresence of cultural and social diversities (Hajer and Reijndorp, 2001). Ambassaden attracts children and young people living in Skovparken/Skovvejen. However, the many events (which are very important for the community of Skovparken/Skovvejen), do not have the capacity or the aim to attract inhabitants from the surrounding city. Skovparken/ Skovvejen therefore has no places with the capacity to attract a Critical Mass of citizens from Kolding across different urban tribes (Hajer and Reijndorp, 2001), where different worlds and value systems (Healey, 2006; Lefebvre, 1991; Massey, 1994) overlap and thereby support interaction between different citizens and a coherent city. As already mentioned, the centre and the area around it could have that potential. The Idling Capacity refers to the sharing of a place through a shift in function or a shift in user groups during a day. It means that one function can take over after another, and different urban tribes can negotiate the place. Most respondents mention the word ´community´ while describing their neighbourhood. They mention it as something important and something affecting their ´joy of dwelling.´ The respondents mention several places, where they experience community. Figure 25 illustrates the places where interaction among the residents of Skovparken/Skovvejen happens now.

Figure 25: The different places inside Skovparken/Skovvejen supporting the feeling of community

There are all the small communities, Meeting Place type 1, close to their homes, where they meet to have a cup of coffee or to barbecue during the summer. Such communities evolve because people are living close to each other. Meeting Place type 2 consists of several different ´community centres.´ The main driver is Ambassaden, which was mentioned by the following respondents: children, young people and grown-ups with children, as a fundamental place in the neighbourhood supporting the community. The elderly respondents tended to accentuate the different community centres as places they think support the community.

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Interactions at Meeting Place type 2 often evolve around arranged activities such as club activities, gymnastics, ´Wednesday Coffee´ or handicrafts. The different community centres like ´Skovhuset´ and ´Skovparken 43´ host activities targeted to the inhabitants in the associated department. Ambassaden intersects the different social housing departments within the neighbourhood by reaching out to all the neighbourhood children. The communities in both type 1 and 2 rarely support interactions across worlds and value systems (Healey, 2006; Lefebvre, 1991; Massey, 1994), and none of the type 2 places or any events are targeted residents living outside the neighbourhood of Skovparken/Skovvejen. This further means that the negotiation of place or the co-presence of different urban tribes rarely occurs. Thus Skovparken lacks places supporting Idling Capacity. Belief in the Commons has two trajectories. First, it refers to the belief that people should not take up more space than they need, which supports the frictionless negotiation of place. Secondly, Belief in the Commons refers to the belief in people self-organising events. The domination of the square in front of the shopping centre is an example of a lack of Beliefs in the Commons. The Faktaboys take up more space than they need; they dominate the place to a point, where it prevents other residents both from inside the neighbourhood and from the surrounding areas to enter and use the centre. Ambassaden, seen in Picture 44, on the other hand, is an example of a place which only exists because of local initiatives, and it reveals how important it is for both a place and for the residents involved to have the opportunity to influence, co-create and/or self-manage their neighbourhood.

Picture 44: Ambassaden photographed by Respondent 10, showing a place he likes in Skovparken.

Picture 45 contains a quote from the second interview in the Urban Songline study, where Respondent 10 tells me the reason behind the picture above, which is his picture of a place in Skovparken that he likes.

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Picture 45: Quote expressing the importance of social capital

Ambassaden is a very important meeting place for the children of Skovparken/Skovvejen and hence for the neighbourhood as a whole. It is a great supporter of interaction and coherence. However, it does not support coherence and interaction outside the neighbourhood. The feelings expressed by Respondent 10 about this place many years later and the meaning he puts into it support the argumentation of the importance of shared experiences (Gauntlett, 2011) and also the importance of being able to contribute and make an impact on oneÂ´s own neighbourhood (Asplund, 1983; Gauntlett, 2011; Woodcraft, 2012). Shared experiences and the opportunity to make an impact increases social capital both on the individual level and also on a community level, by providing places for interaction. Trust between Strangers represents one of the main constraints for interaction and coherence within the neighbourhood of Skovparken/Skovvejen due to collisions between worlds and value systems (Healey, 2006; Lefebvre, 1991; Massey, 1994), a topic which will be fully elaborated in the next theme. There are potentials, though, to create Trust between Strangers. In Picture 46 respondents 9 and 10 talk about events arranged by ByLiv Kolding. Both events reveal methods to create Trust between Strangers, which have helped. Those events show that there are potentials within the neighbourhood to create Trust between Strangers.

Picture 46: Quotes describing methods to create trust between stranger

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The analysis shows that Skovparken/Skovvejen today does not support Collaborative Urbanism. There are no places supporting the co-presence of citizensâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; worlds and value systems (Healey, 2006; Lefebvre, 1991; Massey, 1994), no places supporting a frictionless negotiations of place over time, where one function takes over after another and thereby allows different worlds and value systems to overlap. The neighbourhood furthermore suffers from a lack of Trust between Strangers. However, there are also findings in the study that reveal the potentials for the neighbourhood to support Collaborative Urbanism in the future. The events arranged by Byliv Kolding to create trust between the young and the elderly people and also between the different departments within the neighbourhood have helped according to the respondents. This means that it is indeed possible to create Trust between Strangers within the neighbourhood through events and by creating opportunities for interaction. Another example of potentials to support Collaborative Urbanism is the establishment of Ambassaden, which demonstrates the importance of encouraging the residents to participate in neighbourhood development.

6.3.3

Social frictions and different worlds and value systems

The first core category arises from a high number of statements in the empirical material revealing clashes between residents within the neighbourhood, due to different lifestyles, values or understandings or due to prejudice. As also revealed in the case study of Superkilen, the reasons why a place either supports or counteracts interaction and coherence are often related to influencing actors which expand beyond the specific boundaries of the place. Skovparken/Skovvejen likewise exemplify how places are relational and affected by both human and non-human actors. I consider places in Skovparken/Skovvejen as relational based on LefebvreÂ´s (1996) argumentation of the city as a social resource, where the quality of urban places lies in the potential for a co-presence of different worlds and value systems, of different ethnic, cultural and social groups and of different activities and knowledge. Both Brenner and Lefebvre argue that urban places have the potential to bring the above-mentioned elements together, but also the potential to separate them (Brenner et al., 2012; Lefebvre et al., 1996). Within this discussion, I relate to the theories on solidarity and tolerance (Bauman, 1993), territorialisation (Brighenti, 2010; KĂ¤rrholm, 2017), and cultural patterns and different value systems (Healey, 2006; Massey, 1994). In the empirical data of the Urban Songline books there are several examples of frictions between the co-presence of the different worlds and value systems (Lefebvre et al., 1996), which cause a great amount of constraints for interaction and coherence in Skovparken/Skovvejen. The three quotes in Picture 47 reveal examples of such frictions.

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Picture 47: Examples of different worlds and value systems

The quotes reveal a lack of understanding of either different ethnic groups or between different urban tribes (Hajer and Reijndorp, 2001), as seen in the second quote, where the respondent expresses difficulties in finding shared interest as a promoter for interaction. The first and the third quotes reveal examples of a direct collision between different urban tribes (Hajer and Reijndorp, 2001), such as the children, the alcoholics, and the Faktaboys. The constraints for interaction arise due to differences within the represented Â´cultural communitiesÂ´ (Healey, 2006), which in some situations results in astonishment, and more agonistic examples result in a lack of tolerance and solidarity, as seen between the Faktaboys, the alcoholics and the children. Picture 48 includes quotes revealing a high degree of prejudice. The discovered existence of prejudices is also evident in the relation to the rest of the city (Kolding), where Skovparken/Skovvejen has a bad reputation among other citizens in Kolding. However, prejudices likewise exist inside the neighbourhood, both among the different social housing departments and across different ethnic groups or different cultural communities (Healey, 2006).

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The prejudice within the neighbourhood has resulted in the formation of different zones, where territory building becomes a matter of act (KĂ¤rrholm, 2017), the act of participating in a different event or of behaving in such and such a way. This is yet another example where the different cultural communities (Healey, 2006) function as mental territories creating constraints for interaction and coherence.

Picture 48: Prejudice both inside the neighbourhood and from the surroundings

This analysis highlights yet another element within the concept of social frictions, which is prejudice. In Skovparken, prejudice prevails in many of the interviews and exists as a constraint for interaction and coherence. Based on the Urban Songline study I add prejudice to the concept of social frictions and thus an attention point and potential pivotal design parameter to be integrated into the design approach of a development process of a place.

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Figure 26 visualises the extended version of the concept of social frictions. Prejudice did not appear as an element preventing interaction in the earlier studies of this thesis neither in the study of reference projects nor in the case study of Superkilen. However, in the Urban Songline study social frictions resulting from prejudice appear in several interviews.

Figure 26: The concept of Social Frictions

The constraints for interaction and coherence are linked to a lack of tolerance (Bauman, 1993), which arises from a clash between different citizens’ worlds and value systems (Healey, 2006; Lefebvre, 1991; Massey, 1994). There is a lack of solidarity because the neighbourhood lacks several elements that have the potential of creating the ‘conditions for opportunities’ for tolerance of others’ perceptions to arise (Bauman, 1993). Instead, the residents experience a lot of events which, over time, have fostered the opposite: lack of trust and solidarity. This furthermore leads to unhealthy power relations (Foucault et al., 2007), where the residents identify themselves by creating distance to ´the others´ or they manifest power in the shared space by intimidating or yelling at each other. The Urban Songline study shows that many barriers and constraints for coherence and interaction are distanced from any physical places or objects but arise from collisions between different cultural patterns (Healey, 2006) leading to a lack of tolerance and solidarity and unhealthy power relations. The final theme (prejudice) contains insights into the causes of the respondents´ relationship to the different places they mentioned and photographed.

6.3.4

Relations to place

As already accounted for, the places within this thesis are interpreted and analysed as relational, historical and affected by identity (Augé, 1995). The photographs taken by the respondents are thus analysed from such a point of view. This means that places are products of multiple entities continuously influencing each other (Healey, 2006; Massey, 1994), and that places and experiences of places become products of cultural diversities (Brenner et al., 2012; Healey, 2006) or different habitus (Bourdieu, 2014) and of power relations (Brighenti, 2010; Foucault et al., 2007; Kärrholm, 2017; Laclau and Mouffe, 2014).

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The experience of a place is affected by both human and non-human actors (Latour, 2005). It thus develops in the co-presence of object and subject, as a place atmosphere (Böhme and Borch, 2014; Böhme Gernot, 1998). Figure 27 is the result of the data coding of the photographs from the ‘photo safari’, where the respondents take photographs of places in Kolding and in their neighbourhood that they like and dislike. As part of the second interview, I asked the respondents for the reason behind each photograph in order to investigate the underlying causes of why the respondents relate to different places. I could afterwards divide the many photographs into six categories representing the reasons why the respondents relate to the different places they have photographed.

Figure 27: The six categorie, on which the respondents have based their choice of places

The Illustration shows a predominance of photographs where the relation to the place is based on either the atmosphere (Albertsen, 1999; Böhme and Borch, 2014; Böhme, 1998) of the place or a specific memory (or set of memories) the respondents have from this place. Very few places are chosen based on the historical narrative of the place, and also very few places are chosen based on pure aesthetic preferences. The reasons related to the atmosphere or the memories of a place support the perception of places as relational, where places become products of the co-presence of subject and object 176

influenced by actors as memories, imaginations, cultures, values, physical surroundings and time. All these elements affect how we use and behave in a place and are therefore relevant to consider in a design process creating an awareness that we do not just design for functionality and aesthetics. Picture 49 is an extraction of Figure 27 to give five examples of relational causes affecting how the respondents use, relate to or experience the place they have chosen to photograph.

Picture 49: Relations to places based on memories and atmosphere

The interconnectedness between subject and object influenced by both human and nonhuman actors is an important finding to take into consideration in a design approach of a place. Even though it is obviously impossible to integrate all relational entities of a place into a development process, the investigation does reveal the relevance of integrating the atmosphere Albertsen (1999) and of designing for Â´the space betweenÂ´ (Schechner, 2017), â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;the

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space between’ being the space where power relations, negotiations, solidarity and tolerance exist. The ‘space between’ is the relational place between numerous human and non-human actors. Atmosphere and memories exist in the ‘space between’ subject and object. Within this category there are several other themes which could be interesting to investigate further in future research.

Summary and reflections From the Urban Songline study, I can conclude that most of the constraints for interactions between citizens both inside the neighbourhood and citizens from across the city are linked to social frictions, such as prejudice and agonistic behaviour. The social frictions are caused by different citizens’ worlds and value systems (Healey, 2006; Lefebvre, 1991; Massey, 1994), different ethnic, cultural and social groups, which lead to a lack of tolerance and solidarity. Skovparken/Skovvejen has no shared places today which support the interaction of citizens across the cadastral borders of the neighbourhood and the surrounding areas and it has no places that qualify as a public domain (Hajer and Reijndorp, 2001), where different ‘lifeworlds’ overlap. The centre square has the potential to develop into a public domain, since it can potentially incorporate a multiplicity of functions, which could lead to place attachment and collective awareness. Today the centre area is dominated by the Faktaboys. They feel an existential place attachment, which means that they are not willing to negotiate the place, and they have turned it into their territory and thereby created a barrier for interaction among other citizens on the centre square. The ‘photo safari’ shows that the respondents mainly relate to places based on memories and atmosphere. Atmosphere and memories both point towards places as being relational and thus contain multiple entities impacting the space between subject and object. Both human and non-human actors are thus important in a design process of developing a public urban place. Finally, the study shows that a design artefact can empower knowledge productions about a place. The design artefact in this study does not interact with the social frictions, since the study is the first of three studies of Skovparken/Skovvejen, and the social frictions are merely identified through this study. The following studies, A Place Called… and Words upon a Place, use design intervention and artefacts to investigate and interfere with the social frictions in the neighbourhood and on the centre square.

Picture on page 178: A Place Called….

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7 Safety Day and A Place Called… The following chapter describes the second and third empirical studies of my investigation in Skovparken/Skovvejen. I have named the two studies Safety Day and A Place Called… I present Safety Day and A Place Called… in the same chapter because the two studies are closely interlinked and constitute one study within the thesis. Both studies build on findings from the Urban Songline study. However, A Place Called… is a direct response to the observations and findings from Safety Day. I initiate the chapter by describing Safety Day, and in conclusion I describe the findings that motivated the concept and the development of A Place Called…

Safety Day Safety Day was an event to which all the residents of Skovparken/Skovvejen were invited to participate. The event was arranged by Byliv Kolding, to focus on why the residents are feeling unsafe in the neighbourhood. Byliv Kolding invited the Forum theatre group, Prisme, to facilitate the day. I chose to make Safety Day a part of my data collection for two reasons: first to expand the study of potential barriers for interaction, which have not been revealed in the Songline study. All 2,500 residents of Skovparken/Skovvejen were invited, and 40 participated on Safety Day. This allowed me to listen to more stories from the neighbourhood and thus obtain a greater insight into the places and the causes that are creating barriers for interaction and coherence. The focus on the lack of safety caused the second argumentation for integrating Safety Day in my empirical data. Both my Superkilen study and my Urban Songline study established that experiencing a lack of safety in certain places prevents the residents from using a place, which thus becomes a direct barrier for interaction and coherence. In the study of Superkilen interviews with inhabitants of Ydre Nørrebro established that when a place is experienced as unsafe (as the area of Superkilen was before the city development) the respondents choose other routes through an area and avoid staying in the given place, which is consequently a barrier for interaction. The Urban Songline study establishes that the centre square is a place which the respondents experience is creating insecurity among many residents in Skovparken/Skovvejen. However, several of the respondents also said that they themselves did not feel unsafe, even though some of them explained that they choose not to go there. This created an uncertainty regarding the proportions of the problem, which I found relevant to investigate further. Safety Day was an obvious event for doing so.

7.1.1

My role and method for data collection

My role at Safety Day was as an observer. I did not influence the approach, the process or the development of the day. Prior to the day, I had a conversation with the head of the theatre group, Birthe Blåbjerg. As part of her preparation for the day, she researched prior knowledge about the neighbourhood

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and the causes creating a feeling of unsafety among the residents. I shared with her my knowledge from the Urban Songline study on the centre square and the Faktaboys. As an observer of the day, I filmed and observed the conversations and role plays conducted by the theatre group together with the participating residents. My data consists of: • • •

Seven short video recordings Notes of the day A sketch of the participants´ choice of what they experienced as the greatest causes leading to the experience of unsafety in the neighbourhood.

7.1.2

The course of Safety Day

Safety Day was conducted in January, 2017, as a five-hour workshop. The concept of Forum theatres is developed by Augusto Boal in Brazil (Boal, 2000). The concept is that actors and non-actors play out scenarios all containing challenges in terms of power relations. The conflicts can be within all different kinds of settings such as a workplace or, as in this case, a neighbourhood. Boal calls this and other types of participatory theatre, the Theatre of the Oppressed. The aim of Safety Day was thus to use the method of participatory role plays to both identify the causes creating the experience of unsafety, and also to discuss methods for solutions to the problems. The day consisted of conversations and role plays, where the residents themselves chose the subjects to be discussed or played out, either by the invited actor from Prisme or by the actor in co-creation with the participating residents. The participants on Safety Day were the actors from Prisme, residents living in Skovparken/Skovvejen and pedagogues or social workers working in the neighbourhood. The day was facilitated by the head of the theatre group, Prisme, Birthe Blåbjerg. Initially, the residents discussed the causes for the lack of safety in smaller groups, and Birthe Blåbjerg initiated small theatre exercises to gain extended insight into the events that create experiences of unsafety and also to generate a safe atmosphere for the later role plays. Based on the conversations during the morning and the prior knowledge of the neighbourhood, Birthe Blåbjerg made the participating residents choose between the four subjects that she prepared regarding to what they experienced as the greatest cause for the feeling of unsafety in the neighbourhood. Figure 28 shows the process of placement between the four themes. The drawing to the right shows the four subjects and where the participating residents chose to place themselves. (Not all the participants took part in this segment due to other obligations on the day such as cooking lunch for all.)

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Figure 28: The grouping of participating residents regarding causes for the experience of unsafety.

During a shared conversation, it appeared that most ´Open corner´ topics and ´Groupings´ topics were related to either ´Prejudice´ or to the ´The centre´. It was hence decided that ´The centre´ and ´Prejudice´ were the two main subjects, and the subjects to be addressed in the subsequent role plays. Within these subjects, the residents decided on three scenarios which were played out and discussed. Referring back to my uncertainty about to what extent the centre area was a problem, the grouping illuminated that the centre square is indeed an arena for many frictions within the neighbourhood.

Observations and analysis In my observations and analysis of Safety Day, I focussed on both the specific content of the day, expressed through spoken words and acts, and also on what was absent on the day. In my analysis of the day, I divided my observations into two themes. The themes were developed directly from the material through observations and by relating the observations to the earlier studies of Superkilen and the Urban Songline. The analysis of Safety Day comprises the two themes below: • •

Influencing actors creating the experience of unsafety in Skovparken/Skovvejen The power of participating residents

7.2.1

Influencing actors creating the experience of unsafety in Skovparken/ Skovvejen

The first theme analyses the two causes which the participants decided created the greatest experiences of being unsafe living in Skovparken/Skovvejen. The two main causes are the centre square/the Faktaboys and the experience of Prejudice from the surroundings. As shown in Figure 28, the centre square and the Faktaboys are the most pronounced reasons for feeling unsafe within the neighbourhood. Picture 50 shows a scene from one of the two performed role plays about a conflict between the Faktaboys and an elderly female resident at the centre square. The resident plays herself and the Faktaboys are represented by the actors from Prisme (the woman in front is Birthe Blåbjerg interfering in the role play).

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Picture 50: One resident and actors from Prisme conducting a role play about the Faktaboys

The performed conflict contains two main elements: a threatening behaviour by the Faktaboys and their sense of ownership of the physical domain. Both issues are closely related to power and power relations. Seen in the context of Safety Day, the Faktaboys are the oppressors, and the participating residents are the ones being oppressed. The Faktaboys occupy the centre square; they turn the place into their territory through their threatening and intimidating behaviour and the massive amount of time they occupy the square. During the role play, it is articulated that the boys feel that they are not wanted or allowed at any other outdoor/shared places in the neighbourhood. As a result of feeling unwanted everywhere, the Faktaboys occupy the centre square as their place. They identify the place with living in a ghetto and thereby with home, which makes them develop an Â´existential place attachmentÂ´ (Relph, 1976). They are defending their place and their right to be somewhere, by turning the place into their territory (KĂ¤rrholm, 2017). The frictions at the centre square again supports the argumentation of places as relational and products of a host of influencing entities (Healey, 2006; Massey, 1994). The Faktaboys have experienced a lot of adversity in life. Among other things, they feel oppressing power relations in their interaction with Kolding Municipality which, I will argue, is one underlying cause for their intimidating behaviour. The incidents of social frictions between the Faktaboys and other residents are hence the result of societal and political challenges. I explain the situation at the centre square by referring to Figure 29, first presented in chapter 2, as part of my definition in this thesis of social sustainable design of public urban places. I use the diagram as scaffolding for explaining the situation at the centre square and to discuss what measures can be taken and integrated into a design process.

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Figure 29: The concept of socially sustainable design of public urban places. How plane 1 affects plane 2 at the centre square

The underlying causes of behaviour by the Faktaboys operate on plane 1 as a result of societal and social equity. This level is too complex to solve in a design development project of the centre square. However, it is still important to be aware of plane 1, since plane 1 influences the social frictions, as we see on the centre square, where the FaktaboysÂ´ agonistic behaviour causes social frictions. One way to address plane 1 in the development work, which integrates the elements on plane 2, is by acknowledging the power relations (Laclau and Mouffe, 2014) and integrate them into the design approach. In this specific situation, plane 1 influences the Faktaboysâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; place attachment (Relph, 1976), which makes them important actors to integrate into the design process. Safety Day further supports the argumentation from the study of Superkilen that social frictions have a great impact on the experience of the physical context. In this specific situation the Faktaboys and the frictions between them and the other residents in Skovparken/Skovvejen turn the centre square into a place which the participants on Safety Day describe as unsafe. On Safety Day prejudice was the second most important subject the participating residents identified as a cause for creating an experience of unsafety, and hence as a theme for the role play. The neighbourhoodâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s image is an important subject which the participating residents relate to the experience of being safe/unsafe living in Skovparken/Skovvejen. In Picture 51, the theatre group plays a scenario where one resident is shopping for flagstones. He wishes to have the flagstones delivered to his address in Skovparken. When the shop employee finds out that her customer lives in Skovparken she becomes distrustful and will not deliver the flagstones without receiving the payment ahead of time.

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Picture 51: Role play about prejudice, resident buys flagstones

In my study of Superkilen I describe how the Super Bicycle Lane has contributed to an increased experience of being safe living in Mjølnerparken. Because of the Super Bicycle Lane, a large number of citizens from other districts of Copenhagen pass Mjølnerparken during their everyday movements. The citizens experience that Mjølnerparken is not as dangerous as the image presented by the media. A social worker from Mjølnerparken says in an interview that the residents in Mjølnerparken experience a greater level of safety when other Copenhageners are not afraid of them. Both examples establish that the neighbourhood image and other citizens’ perception of the neighbourhood affect the residents’ experience of being safe living in the neighbourhood, in both Skovparken/Skovvejen and in Mjølnerparken. The lack of trust, based on prejudices, is also part of the concept of Collaborative Urbanism. Prejudice issues are involved in the fourth principle: Trust between Strangers. It builds on Bauman’s (1993) argumentation regarding tolerance of others and an acceptance of others’ right to be different, by accepting that one’s own perception of truth can never be the universal truth. Prejudice issues are relevant regarding social sustainable design of public urban places, because shared places are important arenas to build Trust between Strangers and to create opportunity spaces for tolerance and solidarity to emerge.

7.2.2

The power of participating residents

The participating residents and the involved actors on Safety Day are the second theme which emerged from my observations on Safety Day. Many participatory design methods are originally inspired by the concept of Forum theatres (Simonsen and Robertson, 2012), where the participants are asked to suggest changes to create more preferable situations. The objectives in both participatory design and in Forum theatres are that the people involved in the present situation or those being influenced by the future situation actually have a voice. The participants take an active role, and they keep changing the play until they are satisfying with the outcome. The Forum theatre technique was introduced into participatory design by Brandt and Grunnet (2000) and Ehn and Sjögren,

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(1991.) They elaborated on the Forum theatre techniques and introduced the concept of Â´the frozen imageÂ´, which was used by the Forum theatre Prisme on Safety Day. The participating residents caught my attention since they were not representative of all the residents living in Skovparken/Skovvejen. Additionally, none of the actors who were actually identified as the causes for creating the experience of unsafety within the neighbourhood (the centre square, the Faktaboys, or the actors furthering the prejudice) were present on Safety Day. The Faktaboys were played by actors, and all performances of the day took place in the sports arena rather than in the specific location. Approaching the situation from an ANT perspective, only a few of the actual actors involved in the played situations were, in fact, taking part in the play acting. Safety Day and the approach used by Byliv Kolding to discuss the experience of safety in the neighbourhood are relevant when discussing Foucault (Foucault et al., 2007) and his perception of power. Foucault, like Bauman (1993), searches for ways of operating with truth and argues that we can only obtain truth through the language, i.e. through language that we and others define ourselves. When only one part of an agonistic situation is present, there is a danger of ending up with a narrow version of the truth. It is therefore problematic that the language of the Faktaboys is expressed through actors. There is a possibility that the voice of the Faktaboys becomes the voice of the other residents, a stereotypical perception of young ethnic boys or biased assumptions presented by the actors. The day revealed two challenges in terms of the power relation. First, the residents present on Safety Day are not representative of the residents of the entire neighbourhood. The day thus only illuminates the experience of one cultural community within the neighbourhood (the middle-aged ethnic Danish residents, as seen on Picture 52) and thereby only gives voice to one cultural community. Secondly, the voices of the Faktaboys were invented and were hence possibly incorrect, not representing the whole truth.

Picture 52: The participants on Safety Day

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Motivation for A Place Called… There are three main findings from Safety Day: 1.The centre square and the Faktaboys are the main location and the reason why the participating residents claim they feel unsafe in the neighbourhood. This finding further supports the finding from the Urban Songline study. The centre square is the subject matter of many conflicts and separations within the neighbourhood. 2. The Safety Day study shows that a place´s image and the narratives about a place have such a great influence on the residents that they even relate to it as affecting their experience of safety living in the neighbourhood. This finding is supported by my study of Superkilen. Both the centre square and prejudice are subjects which have been brought to the fore in my earlier studies of Superkilen and in the Urban Songline study. Nothing new has thus been revealed in this study. However, it further illustrates that the centre square presents a huge challenge within the neighbourhood and that a place’s image reduces the residents’ joy of living there to the point where they connect it to experiencing a lack of safety. The 3rd finding from this study is revealed by looking at what is not there: The Faktaboys and the centre square. Both the human and the non-human actors that are the underlying causes and the main reasons for the feeling of unsafety by the participating residents are not represented/present on this day. This fosters a discussion about the participatory approach and how to use design for working with the different actors and the controversies (Latour, 2005; Yaneva, 2013) in order to make an impact on a place through democratic processes. This finding fostered the second iteration of this study – A Place Called…. It is a design intervention at the centre square, investigating who will be the representative residents of Skovparken/Skovvejen if you approach the framing for communication differently and also what the articulated identity of the centre square would be if a different approach was adopted.

A Place Called....... This chapter presents the third empirical study in Skovparken. I named the design intervention A Place Called…. and it is a direct response to the findings from Safety Day. The design intervention was conducted as part of the course Theorising Practice, Practice Theory, at Bartlett UCL in London taught by Professor Jane Rendell. A Place Called… uses direct engagement (Butterworth, Vardy, 2008) and Site-Writing (Rendell, 2010) as methods for creating ´criticality´ (Rogoff, 2005) of the centre square in Skovparken/Skovvejen. The aim of this iteration is to investigate and analyse the centre square focussing on Rogoff´s (2005) third category – criticality, which is concerned with what, in the context of this thesis, the place does (and not what it looks like), by “rearticulating relationships between makers, objects and audience” (Rogoff, 2005, p.119).

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As part of the course Theorising Practice, Practice Theory at Bartlett UCL all course members created their own piece of Site-Writing. My Site-Writing is the newspaper (Appendix 3, of this thesis). I first describe the causes, then how I conducted the intervention. Secondly, I present my method for analysing as well as my analysis, ending with a description of how the intervention has qualified the fourth and final intervention in this thesis. The objective for the design intervention took the point of departure in the analysis of both the Urban Songline study and Safety Day. Both studies show that the narratives about Skovparken/Skovvejen affect the residents’ joy of living in the neighbourhood, to the extent that the residents relate it to the experience of feeling unsafe in the neighbourhood. Both the Urban Songline study and Safety Day further show that the centre square is the location for many frictions within Skovparken/Skovvejen. When the participants on Safety Day focus on the centre as a place they associate with experiencing unsafety, they do not refer to the poor physical condition, although the centre has a dark and gloomy appearance and insufficient lightning. It is the presence and behaviour of the Faktaboys which is the cause of the feeling of unsafety. (In the Urban Songline study the alcoholics and the ´black children´ (an expression used by the respondents) are also mentioned as actors creating an experience of unsafety.) The intervention, therefore, aims at analysing the centre square by creating a re-articulation between the centre square (object), the residents visiting the centre square the day of the intervention (makers) and the stories about the place (audience). To conduct my intervention, I decorated the spot in front of the centre square, where the Faktaboys normally gather, like a living room. I decorated the spot with chairs and tables, a carpet and plants, as shown on Picture 53, as a method of creating direct engagement with the site (Butterworth, Vardy, 2008).

Picture 53: Decoration of the intervention

The decoration of the living room was my method of directly engaging with the site and creating a setting for the game I invited the residents to participate in. The living room supported an alignment between me and the participants (Ehn, 2008), because they agreed to participate in my ´game´. The setting for the game was very visual, which made it easy to both

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enter and leave. From my living room, I asked the inhabitants passing by to participate in naming the place. In this intervention, the concept of ‘naming the place’ and the decoration of the living room is my method of creating a situation which supports an unbiased conversation, across differences in age, culture or power relations. Ehn (2008) refers to such elements as a ‘Boundary Object´ in a participatory design process. Husen (1996) calls it ´The Shared Third´ from a pedagogical perspective, and I am referred to as a ‘mediator of knowledge’ (Corlin, 2016) within my research approach. As already explained in the Urban Songline chapter, I argue that the Urban Songline book functioned as a mediator supporting the conveyance of knowledge between the respondent and myself. Likewise, I understand the intervention as a performance which supports the conveyance of knowledge between the participating residents and myself. As part of my planning of the design intervention, I studied the concept of naming things and discovered that there is something fundamental about naming. Names have a great influence on how we experience and talk about places. The American artist Graham Coreil-Allen 19 studies what he calls ´new public places´. These are all the places that we do not notice, which we walk through in our daily life, such as vacant or unused places, or leftovers after buildings have come up. Graham argues that the places have no identity and that it is almost impossible to talk about them because they have no name and no content. Graham argues in favour of noticing these places, and by naming them with descriptive, poetic or amusing names, we can start a new direction for how we can imagine them in the future. Today the centre square at Skovparken/Skovvejen appears as a nameless place, where the name mostly used, about the place, Fakta, refers to the past. When naming a place we have one ear towards the past and another towards the future, while also looking at the content. Naming can be compared to Aristotle's structure of a story – a beginning, a middle and an end. The beginning is the history of a place – the past events and forces; the middle is the meaning and the content, and the end is what we wish for in the future, the direction we want to point towards. The concept of naming the centre square is, therefore, an approach to assembling the past, the present and the future in one story – the history of the place, the meaning and the content of the place and the future wishes for the place. During my conversations with the participants, I talked about naming a place, and how a name relates to the past, the present and the future. Unfortunately, even though it was a day in April, as the pictures of the day reveal, the day of the intervention was grey and cold, and not as many residents as I had imagined and hoped for participated. However, even this small study provided me with valuable insight into participatory methods and other stories about the place. The following nine pictures show who participated in my intervention and what they named the place

19 Graham Coreil-Allen: http://grahamprojects.com/projects/npst/ + http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/episode-60-names-vsthe-nothing/,

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Picture 54: The participants on A place called

Site-Writing as a method for analysis Site-Writing is a method developed by Professor Jane Rendell (Rendell, 2010). The line of thought behind Site-Writing is already explained in chapter 4. In the following section, I describe how I have used Site-Writing as a method for investigating a site (the centre square). I initiated the process through the concept of naming the place. Initially, I collected all the stories I have been told about the centre square (from the Urban Songline study, from Safety Day and from an interview with a resident from the neighbouring housing area). Through the concept of naming things, I created a visual representation, which I call ´the new map.´ ‘The new map’ is a map of all the stories about this place. Just like a normal map, where all elements, like roads and houses, are represented as simplistic forms of the real objects, e.g. a road is represented as two lines ||. In ‘the new map’ all the stories are indicated with the name of the story. I give each story about the centre area a name related to the essence of the story. In this way ‘the new map’ becomes a representation of the experienced place. ‘The new map’, seen on Picture 55, is a map of the relational place, where the place is comprehended from an ANT perspective, where both human and non-human actors affect the perception of the place by looking at what things do, and not what they look like.

Picture 55: ‘the new map’

I used the method of Site-Writing to analyse how much people´s experiences and stories about a place impacts the identity of a place. To explain the connection between experiences and stories about a place and a place’s identity I turned to Brighenti´s (2014) argumentation on 199

territories and mobility. He argues that when we link territory to acts and events, we set them in motion. When acts and events at a place are set in motion, they move through experiences and stories from a place. Brighenti also argues that mobility is a pivotal element in territoriality, not only because it supports the connection between places and flows, but also because it has the power to sustain certain associations of places and thereby also create new ones. Places are conditional in terms of their content and the content is being expressed through narratives, discussions or descriptions, the emergence of a place is, therefore, a coming together of embodied perceptions and actions, which means that Places not only are, they happen (Casey, 1996; Feld and Basso, 1996) The centre square thus becomes the product of all the stories such as: There is an invisible border, and it runs here by the centre. The black people live on one side, and the white people live on the other side.. There are a few Somali families on this side. I know them very well, and I talk to them, and also with the rest of the residents of Skovparken: I am a respected man, I would say. Borderland There used to be a hairdresser, but the women living here did not want to have their hair done there. They could not take off their head scarves because the window was facing the entrance to Faxe Pub. The closed hairdresser Once I argued with some of the young boys because they were disturbing us while we were playing Krolf up at the greenery. The next day I was passing them in front of the centre, and then they were blocking my way, and they yelled at me, which I found very unsettling. The Faktaboys

(Stories about a place from the newspaper, Appendix 3) The concept of naming as an approach to studying the essence of a place, continued into the intervention – A Place Called…. The names that were given by the participating residents of the intervention are all placed in the tree on ‘the new map’. The creation of ‘the new map’ is part of the Site-Writing project, which has a greater level of artistic liberty than a transparent and structured process of conducted research. It is a method for analysing data and visually understanding the many formulated experiences of the centre square. ´The new map’ is, therefore, presented as an artistic translation, which supports the design research.

Analysis of the intervention A Place Called…. The following analysis of A Place Called…., contains both the Site-Writing of the centre square and also the result of the design intervention about naming the place. They are contained in the re-articulation between the centre square (object), the inhabitants visiting the centre square on the day of the intervention (makers) and the stories of the place (audience) (Rogoff, 2003). The Site-Writing and the intervention establish four main findings: • •

The centre square is dominated by the Faktaboys. The centre square is an arena for several disputes within the neighbourhood

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•

The intervention (approach, time, location) has a significant impact on which residents are participating and thus who are representing the neighbourhood, whose voices are being heard. The intervention (approach, time, location) has a significant impact on which stories are being told about the place.

The collection of all the stories about the centre square contained in the Site-Writing of the place and the visual representation on ‘the new map’ accentuate that the Faktaboys play an extremely dominating role in the other residents’ experience of the place. The Faktaboys are mentioned by all respondents when talking about the centre. The analysis of the Faktaboys, their behaviour and how it affects the centre square has already been analysed and discussed in the Urban Songline study and further in the analysis of Safety Day. A Place Called… does not add to the findings and I have therefore not conducted any further analysis on that specific topic. Besides the massive influence of the Faktaboys on the centre square, the collection of stories about the centre square further reveals that the centre square is an arena for many of the disputes in the neighbourhood. It is a border zone (Sennet, 2015), where many cultural patterns collide. The many stories about the centre square reveal a place which suffers from a lack of tolerance and understanding among its users, which leads to social frictions and agonistic situations. The intervention reveals that the residents participating in Safety Day and those participating in A Place Called… are very different. None of the participating residents (besides Jytte, (´name giver´ number 6) who participated in both) were the same or even belonging to the same urban tribe (Hajer and Reijndorp, 2001) or cultural community (Healey, 2006). The residents (except Jytte) who participated in the intervention in A Place Called… were the Faktaboys, ‘the black children’ (again I use the term as it is used by the respondents) and the unemployed immigrants. All represented the actors (Latour, 2005; Yaneva, 2013) that we talked ABOUT on Safety Day and whose role was played by the performers from the Forum theatre. Thus, the intervention shows that by approaching the conversation about the centre square from an entirely different angle a completely different group of residents is now representing the neighbourhood. This is, on one hand, obvious. However, it is also important when integrating residents into development projects about their city or their neighbourhood. It is no surprise that when asking a question differently you receive a different answer. However, if the aim is to involve a group of residents that is representative of the neighbourhood and to create a dialogue across different worlds and value systems or cultural communities (Healey, 2006; Lefebvre, 1991; Massey, 1994) it is important to pay attention to the methods used for resident involvement. Furthermore, it is important to notice that other experiences about the centre square appear when the conversation is approached from a different perspective. The names from A Place Called…reveal a pride in the multi-cultural neighbourhood – such as POW (power of worldwide) or Muhasharin – meaning immigrants. The names also show a happiness with the physical context (not the centre building, but the outdoor context), `Beauty Park´, Lovely 201

Street´, ´Oasis´, and ´Forest Passage´. Finally, the naming further reveals a wish to maintain the ´shopping function´, which is likewise enhanced by the Urban Songline respondents. Comparing Safety Day and A Place Called… reveals a shift in power. Who is representing the neighbourhood and whose voices and stories are being heard can have a huge impact on the trajectory of a development project. It is, therefore, of the utmost importance what methods are being used because it decides who has the power to speak and to be heard. The rearticulation (Rogoff, 2005) show that when we change the object – in this case we change a place by moving the location from a sport hall to the centre square – and we change the makers from one group of residents living in Skovparken/Skovvejen to another group of residents (makers), we open up for other experiences and stories about the centre square. Rearticulating the different actors who create a place can, therefore as in this case, reveal hidden potentials, but most likely also hidden frictions.

Summary and reflections A place called... shows that stories from a place affect the identity of a place. It shows that the centre square is dominated by the Faktaboys. However, it is also possible to involve other cultural communities within the neighbourhood by using other methods and approaches than the one used on Safety Day. The case study of Superkilen likewise reveals a frustration among the project group that the participating residents were ónly´ white, middle-aged, ethnic Danish residents and thus not representative of the neighbourhood (Bjarke Ingels Group et al., 2013). The design intervention of A Place Called... reveals that how you design and approach a participatory process also decides who will participate, and hence who becomes representative of the neighbourhood. This makes the process of planning, designing and conducting participatory processes involving residents a powerful tool in a development process. A broad resident involvement helps to secure the representation of all cultural communities or urban tribes (Hajer and Reijndorp, 2001; Healey, 2006). The residents who participated in Safety Day, those who participated in A Place Called… (And those who would have participated if we had decided on a third approach) exemplify that how we conduct an intervention impacts who becomes representative of the neighbourhood. A thorough analysis of a place must, therefore, contain rearticulation in order to ensure that most stories and hence most voices are being heard. The final design intervention, which is presented in the next chapter, is yet another rearticulation of the centre square (Rogoff, 2003). I rearticulate the óbject´ by adding a comparative place, (the Library Park in the centre of Kolding), the ‘makers’ by adding four interactive storytelling benches and the áudience´ by adding a new element into the two places.

Picture on page 202: The benches in use

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8 Words upon a Place Words upon a Place is the last design intervention in this thesis and the last investigation at Skovparken/Skovvejen in Kolding. To conduct this investigation, I developed four interactive benches together with the Alexandra Institute 20, which functioned as the ‘mediator of knowledge’ within this study. I also expanded the physical domain to involve the public Library Park located centrally in Kolding. The final study aimed to investigate: • • •

What social frictions appear when working across cadastral borders? To what extent is it feasible to push the image of Skovparken through the storytelling benches? Could the benches affect the territorialisation of the centre square?

The data collection gained from this intervention was very rich, and the investigation changed direction when the Faktaboys destroyed the benches. Regarding the change in focus, a large amount of empirical data has, therefore, been put aside for later research. The analysis of the intervention is structured into four themes: • • • •

Interactions, relations and negotiations of place Design and place supporting Collaborative Urbanism Social frictions and different worlds and value systems Power and the negotiation of place

I initiate this chapter by presenting my choice of method and how it changed throughout the study, due to the destruction of the benches. Secondly, I present the process of the intervention, followed by a description of the method for analysing the empirical data. Subsequently, I move to the comparative analysis of the centre square and the Library Park and my analysis of the intervention. I end the chapter with a summary and a reflection.

Motivation and method My choice of storytelling benches as a mediating tool for the investigation is based on the theoretical foundation of critical theory as pushing towards how things ought to be. The investigation is motivated by earlier findings about social frictions (agonistic behaviour) on the centre square and on power relations regarding who is representative of the residents of Skovparken /Skovvejen. The benches were meant to function as constructed ‘mediators of knowledge’ that could cross the cadastral borders of the neighbourhood (Skovparken/Skovvejen) and integrate the Library Park into an investigation of stories about places. The stories told by residents from Skovparken were meant to give voice to people who normally have less of a voice in the shared society, and the benches were meant to investigate whether stories from a place could push the perception and prejudice about the place. Simultaneously, the benches were meant to investigate the possibilities of changing the power relations happening at the centre square.

Alexandra Institute: https://www.alexandra.dk/dk

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All three previous empirical studies have illustrated how powerful stories of places are in the perception and experience of a place. The power of stories about a place is embedded in Brighenti´s (2014) explanation of the connection between mobility and territory. When we link territory to acts and events we set them in motion. Thus, mobility is a pivotal element in territoriality, not only because it supports the connection between places and flows, but also because it has the power to sustain certain associations about places and thereby also create new ones. Brighenti (2014) explains the relation between territory and mobility as something that creates coherence in a city. This makes it relevant to think across cadastral borders and also integrate mobile territorialisation as a segregating parameter. Bech-Danielsen and Stender (2017) state that changing deprived neighbourhoods will not succeed as long as people who actually have a choice in where to live do not voluntarily choose to live in these neighbourhoods. One important element in such a change is the stories about the place, which makes mobility in territories relevant, because it can set associations of a place in motion. The final motivation for choosing benches is because benches, as a general urban design feature – a public bench – is an effective tool to investigate public urban places across cadastral borders. It creates the possibility to conduct a comparative study, where the knowledge is generated in the space between the benches and the place of location, by asking, what knowledge does the placement of the benches reveal about the two places? The design intervention contains the design process and the production of four interactive benches, placed on two locations in the city of Kolding. The first location is inside the Library Park and the second is at the centre square in Skovparken/Skovvejen. The way the benches work is that, when someone sits down, the bench plays a story from one of the two places. When the person sitting on the bench stands up, the sound of the story will fade. Each location has two benches – one bench (on each location) contains stories from Skovparken/Skovvejen, and the other one contains stories from the Library Park. Picture 56 shows the final drawings made by the Alexandra Institute illustrating the different elements and how to sit on the bench.

Picture 56: Drawings and visualisation of the benches made by the Alexandra Institute

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Picture 57: The Library Park

Picture 58: The centre square

The creation of the benches is based on a participatory approach, where the benches function as boundary objects (Ehn, 2008). They support the action of telling stories among the participating residents, and the benches are objects of communication both inside and outside the project. Inside the project refers to actions among the participating residents and outside is when the benches are located in the physical environment of the centre square and the Library Park. The benches create a participatory space, or a ´Thing´ (Ehn, 2008), to bring societal disputes to the fore. Conducting the intervention further builds on thoughts from ´Constructive Design Research´ (Koskinen, 2011), where the knowledge production is obtained through the construction of an object. However, the intervention shifts to ´Action Research´ (Herr and Anderson, 2014; Huang, 2010; Reason and Bradbury, 2001), when the benches were destroyed by the Faktaboy As a foundation for the comparative analysis of the centre square and the Library Park I conducted observations of the number of people in the two locations by using schematic drawings of movements and stays inspired by Gehl and Svarre (2013). I also considered the relationship between the different actors (Latour, 2005), which I structured through Spradley´s

Picture 59: Countings at the centre square and the Library Park

(1980) matrix for user observation. The observation days were structured in such a way that I shifted between half an hour counting visitors at the location and half an hour making

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observations based on Spradley´s matrix. Picture 59 illustrates examples of the drawing of movements for the counting.

The centre square and the Library Park I chose the centre area and the Library Park as the two locations for my final study of this thesis. Picture 60 shows the distance and locations of the two places. The centre area in Skovparken/Skovvejen is part of the final study, since all the previous studies point towards this place as the physical location within the neighbourhood that creates the greatest barrier for interaction and coherence. However, the centre area also contains potentials to support a greater coherence with the surrounding city and extended interaction between citizens. Today the place is a boundary zone (Sennet, 2015), which makes it a constraint for interaction and coherence due to the many social frictions and unhealthy power relations. The analysis discusses the possibilities of expanding the centre area´s ‘levels of interest’ by adding functions and by managing the place attachment and the domination of the place, which can further support the Collaborative Urbanism and turn the area into a ‘new public domain’. This could transform the centre square from a boundary into a border zone (Sennet, 2015), supporting interaction and coherence.

Picture 60: Arial photo of the two locations

Picture 61 presents the centre and the area around it. The two pictures above show an empty parking lot and a square in front of the centre with potentials for an addition of functions and activities. Lower left shows the condition of the centre, which contributes to the poor image. The lower right-hand picture is an example of the co-existence of different worlds and value systems or cultural communities (Healey, 2006; Lefebvre, 1991; Massey, 1994), which contribute to the cause of social frictions.

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Picture 61: The centre and surrounding area

The Library Park is the second location that is part of the intervention. I chose this location based on the Urban Songline study, where most of the respondents mentioned the library as a place they visit regularly and also a place they enjoy visiting. In the Library Park I thus identified the strongest relational connection between the residents of Skovparken/Skovvejen and a physical location somewhere else in Kolding. The Library Park has the role of being a border zone (Sennet, 2015) for two different reasons. As a geographical, physical location it borders the train station, the library, two hotels, the lake and the Castle. Sennet (2015) describes the border zone as the places that best support the interaction and refers to the porous city, where the exchange is free-flowing. The library as function and thereby potentially the Library Park, support porosity between Skovparken/Skovvejen and the rest of the city, because the library represents an equal public arena, which the majority of my respondents in the Urban Songline study visit and hence interact with other citizens in Kolding. In addition to the relational connection of being a porous border zone between Skovparken/Skovvejen and other parts of Kolding, I further argue that the Library Park is suitable for this study because the park is dynamic with a high flow of citizens passing through, due to the train station and several cultural institutions. I find it relevant to address the stark difference in the typology of the two locations. Even though they are both public places, the Library Park is more public, since it is located in the middle of the city and is surrounded by public institutions. Centre square, on the other hand, is at the outskirts of the city and is surrounded by dwellings. That there is difference in power relations and place attachment is therefore not surprising; however, it does not make the discussion less interesting. 208

Picture 62 below shows the Library Park. The upper left-hand picture shows the library and citizens biking through. The picture below shows the other surrounding buildings of the train station and the Saxildhus Hotel. It likewise shows an empty park, with few functions or activities.

Picture 62: The Library Park

The Library Park differs from the centre square regarding place attachment and ‘levels of interest’, which makes the comparative analysis relevant. Finally, the conceptual take on the intervention, using storytelling – a concept well connected to the library – gave the library an important incentive to enter into and support the design intervention.

8.2.1

Method and process for data collection

The design intervention was a collaboration with several stakeholders and participants, all fulfilling different roles. I, as a researcher, took the role as project leader, formulating the intervention, aim, and process. The Alexandra Institute was responsible for developing both hardware and software for the benches. The physical design of the benches and the materiality was decided in collaboration between the Alexandra Institute and myself. The Alexandra institute developed the final drawings and was responsible for communicating with Kant Design, the producer of the benches.

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The citizens contributed with the stories at two storytelling cafes. They could tell their story in whatever way they felt safe, entertained or wished to expose themselves. The role of the citizens was to tell their stories from one of the two places. The ´rules´ of the workshop were not negotiable, but the message to the participants was quite broad- “We just want your stories from the place.” Nine participants at each place contributed with stories. I took the stories as they were and used them directly in the benches. It was an important factor that it was the residents’ own stories and voices that were being played out. The collected stories were afterwards incorporated into the software and into the benches by the Alexandra Institute. Kolding Municipality served as my close ´discussion partner´ during the whole process. Byliv Kolding supported the contact to the participating residents and the location of the storytelling café in Skovparken/ Skovvejen. Kolding Library provided the needed practical and financial support on their location. Figure 30 shows the different stakeholders and their role in the intervention.

Figure 30 The role of the different stakeholders involved in the intervention

Picture 63 was taken at the two storytelling cafes. The pictures above are from Skovparken,the left is from the warm-up session, and the right is from one of the recordings. The two pictures below are from the storytelling café at the library.

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Picture 63: From the two story telling cafes

The method for data production and the process of the design intervention can be divided into three stages; before, during and after. In Table 4 I present all the steps through the intervention.

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Table 4: Steps through the design intervention

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The destruction of the benches resulted in a shift in focus from the narrative towards an extended focus on power, social frictions and negotiation. The research method changed from ´Constructive Design Research´ (Koskinen, 2011) into ´Action Research´ (Huang, 2010; Reason and Bradbury, 2001) and contained conversations and negotiations with the Faktaboys in order to understand their motives for destroying the benches. In the negotiation, I approached the investigation with a clear intention and from a specific theoretical position on Bauman´s (1992) argumentation about tolerance and Foucault’s reflections on power (Foucault et al., 2007). I wanted to investigate the possibility of creating a shared tolerance and solidarity by levelling our power relation. Due to the shift in focus, a large amount of the produced empirical data became less interesting than the negotiation with the Faktaboys. The empirical data collected from the electronic surveys and the interviews with the participating residents has therefore been saved for later research. The following section describes the method for analysing data within the final design intervention.

Thematic analysis of Words upon a Place I use thematic analysis as a method of analysing the final design intervention, Words upon a Place. In Words upon a Place, I began the analysis with pre-determined themes which, according to Robson and McCartan (2016), is an accepted method for conducting thematic analysis. I based my analysis on findings from my previous investigations, and when my fieldwork changed from ´Constructive Design Research´ into ´Action Research´ I further based my data production on a theoretical strategy. This transformed the final production of empirical data away from the ´grounded theory´ approach, which had been the leading force throughout this thesis. The analysis of the intervention is structured in accordance with the following four themes: • • • •

Interactions, relations and negotiations of place Design and place supporting Collaborative Urbanism Social frictions and different worlds and value systems Power and the negotiation of place

The first two themes contain a comparative analysis involving both locations in a shared discussion. The final two themes solely analyse the incident of the destruction and therefore do not include the Library Park.

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Figure 31 visualises the steps through my analysis from the pre-defined themes to the analysis of the benches as mediator for negotiation. The analysis consists of three steps as illustrated below. 1. Initially I sketch the series of events from the very beginning of the development of the benches to the end. I visualise the three fundamental steps through photographs and I combine them with quotes from my diary. 2. In the construction of a thematic network I divide the events into several more steps and I analyse what is happening in every step along the way, what feelings, experiences and interactions are behind the different acts. What role the benches has played and how. 3. In the final step – Integration and Interpretation – I analyse the space between me, the benches and the Faktaboys. By relating the data to existing theory I discuss how the benches contribute to a shared level of tolerance, solidarity and responsibility. In the final step there are also drawn sketches of the ‘space between’.

Picture 64: process of integration and intepretation

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Figure 31: Example of Thematic analysis in Words upon a place

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8.3.1

Interactions, relations and negotiations of place

Table 5 presents the result of three days of counting at each place The counting of visitors at both locations demonstrates that the Library Park is a busier urban place than the centre square. This is no surprise, since the Library Park is surrounded by several public functions, and it is located in the city centre, whereas Skovparken/Skovvejen is on the outskirts. Library Park

centre square

Weekday/

Walking

717

291

10.45-18.30

Biking

145

Staying

Weekday/

Walking

674

395

11.30-20.30

Biking

139

Staying

Saturday/

Walking

468

409

12.30- 19.00

Biking

Staying

Table 5: Counting of citizens at the two locations

However, the table further illustrates that even though not many people stay in either location, more people stay at the centre square. The table also illustrates that on a Saturday the centre square is just as busy as the Library Park. The explanation for both can be found in the analysis of ‘first levels of interest’ (Stauskis and Eckardt, 2011) and is further supported by the analysis of place attachment (Relph, 1976). Figure 32 illustrates the two different locations. On top, I show the generic model of ´levels of interest´. Below I illustrate the analysed situation in the centre square and the Library Park.

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Figure 32: Levels of Interest

In chapter 6, I have already accounted for the situation in the centre square. To summarise, the centre square reveals a lack of interest on a national and a district level. The place supports the ‘level of interest’ on the neighbourhood and the city level due to the functions inside the centre. The square is furthermore the meeting point for the Faktaboys, which supports the ‘level of interest’ on the neighbourhood level. In the Library Park the situation is reversed. Due to the functions such as the, the Museum of Koldinghus and the two hotels, Berg and Saxildhus, the place contains interest on a national level. It also supports the interest on a city level, since citizens from all over Kolding visit the library, they use the train station and they use the parking lot. None of the observations reveal an increased use of the place by residents from either the district or the neighbourhood level, and the observations reveal no sign of returning or regular visitors like the Faktaboys in the centre square. The park does not contain any objects or functions which could potentially support the local community on either the neighbourhood or the district level. Figure 33 shows the context of the two locations, which impacts the levels of interest being supported within the two locations. Due to all the public institutions surrounding the Library Park it supports the levels of interest on the city and the national level. In the centre square the functions of the different shops inside the shopping centre makes the place support ‘levels of interest’ on a neighbourhood and on a city level. All shops and other functions inside the centre are related to the ethnic minority except for the local bar. The majority of visitors on the city level, therefore, belong to the ethnic minority. Even though the place supports the ‘level of interest’ on a city level, there is an absence of exchange between different cultural communities and worlds and value systems (Healey, 2006; Lefebvre, 1991; Massey, 1994) and hence a lack of support for a growing tolerance between different value systems. I will elaborate further on this in the section on Collaborative Urbanism, but it is important to note that even though a place does attract citizens on a city level according to geography, it is just 218

as important that the place attracts people on a city level due to its different cultural communities and worlds and value systems (Healey, 2006; Lefebvre, 1991; Massey, 1994).

Figure 33: Relations to context

In the final discussion, chapter 9, I conduct a shared analysis of all three locations integrated into this thesis: Superkilen, The centre square and the Library Park, to discuss and compare the different elements affecting the ability of a place to support the four different ‘levels of interest’. The next section analyses and discusses place attachment and ‘new public domains’. In this analysis, I begin with the concept of ‘place attachment’ (Relph, 1976). I have developed the dichotomy illustrated in the matrix in Figure 34 based on Relph´s (1976) description of ‘insideness’ and ‘outsideness’. I argue that the dichotomy can be usefully combined with an ANT approach for locating what actors influence a place and thus as a means to highlight pivotal actors that need to be integrated into a design process.

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Figure 34: Levels of ‘insideness’ and ‘outsideness’

In chapter 6, I describe how the Faktaboys experience what Relph (1976) categorises as ‘existential place attachment’ (chapter 3, Theoretical Scaffolding). The result of feeling an existential ‘insideness’ signifies that the Faktaboys see the place as part of their home; they identify with this place, to the point where it becomes part of their shared identity of living in a ghetto – an identity they find attractive and therefore have the interest in maintaining. The Faktaboys´ feelings of existential ‘insideness’ results in a domination of the square, further leading to social frictions between them and other residents due to the Faktaboys’ agonistic behaviour. The situation in Skovparken shows how ‘existential place attachment’ (1976) can create constraints for interaction due to the close identification with the place, which additionally supports Sennet´s argumentation that we have to live more impersonally in the city (1992). Analysing the Library Park by relating it to this dichotomy reveals that no users feel an existential or even an empathetic ‘insideness’ towards the place. The counting and observations of citizens reveal that most of those observed in the Library Park are present due to functional reasons, which are related to the surrounding functions such as the library, the train station or one of the hotels. Very few actually stay in the park, and I have not observed any returning citizens regularly staying in the Library Park, like the Faktaboys at the centre square. Most of the citizens present in the Library Park belong in the category of behavioural ‘insideness’. The citizens visit the place due to the functions and the experiences. Figure 35 shows the main movement patterns at the two locations and the relational number of citizens between the two places. The analysis further illustrate that only the centre square has regular and returning users who feel a place attachment and contribute to the identity of the place.

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Figure 35: Movement patterns in the two locations

The amount and type of ‘insideness’ and ‘outsideness’ (place attachment) (Relph, 1976) impacts the ability of the places to turn into a ‘new public domains’ (Hajer and Reijndorp, 2001). ‘New public domains’ are, as already described in the Theoretical Scaffolding, and again in the Urban Songline study, places where an exchange between different social groups is possible and actually occurs. For such exchanges to occur at least one urban tribe must feel a place attachment but not so strong that it will not allow negotiations of the place to happen. In the centre square, the Faktaboys’ feelings of existential place attachment are a barrier for the place to turn into a ‘new public domain’ because the Faktaboys do not allow any negotiation. Another pivotal parameter is the lack of functions or objects which could invite citizens to stay. The centre square has no objects or functions, unlike Superkilen, which could potentially attract other urban tribes to stay. In the Library Park, no one feels a place attachment and the park contains few elements (various sitting opportunities) or objects, which could attract any urban tribes. The place making of the Library Park is conducted by professionals like architects and urban planners from the Municipality. They all belong to the category of feeling an objective ‘outsideness’ relating to the place on a logical level. Comparing the two places and relating the level of ‘insideness’ and ‘outsideness’ with the theoretical concept of ANT (Latour, 2005) can provide future developers of the two places with valuable insights regarding who are the pivotal actors influencing a place and thereby who and what are the pivotal design parameters in a design and development process. This argument is further supported by my investigation into the motivations for participating in the two storytelling workshops. In Skovparken the residents were in general motivated to participate due to a wish to improve the neighbourhood image. In the Library Park, the participating citizens were not motivated by the place but rather by the event. Here, the participants were all interested in the storytelling aspect of the project since they were either writers, politicians or

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interested in literature and storytelling. This indicates a link between levels of interest and place attachment and thus also the position influencing the actors. In the centre square, the Faktaboys are the main actors influencing the place identity and the experience of the place. They are therefore a pivotal design parameter to integrate into a design process (the following section on power will further elaborate on what happens when they are not integrated). The participants in the story-telling workshop are feeling an empathetic ‘insideness’ with Skovparken/Skovvejen, and their participation is motivated by improving the place. The participants in the story-telling workshop in the Library Park all feel a behavioural ‘insideness’, which means that they are here for the functions. They are interested in the content of the event, and not as much in the place. In the Library Park the main actors impacting the place are non-human actors – the library, the hotels and the train station. The human actors (the citizens of Kolding) are present in this place because of the surrounding functions. The actors influencing the place making are feeling an objective ‘outsideness’. Like the centre square, the Library Park also lacks objects and functions which could invite different urban tribes to stay and hence for interaction to occur. The adding of functions and objects could attract urban tribes who will provide the place with identity, allow negotiations to take place and a ‘new public domain’ to arise. Even though the average number of citizens passing through the Library Park is twice as high as the centre square, the benches in the park are not vandalised. One explanation of this situation, when comparing it to the incident in the centre square, is that no one feels a place attachment In the Library Park, and the benches have, therefore, not pushed any power relations or trespassed on anyone´s domain. The high level of transition through the park and functions such as the library and the hotels, contribute to the place as an ´experience´ place. This also explains why we had to make the benches more visible in the Library Park in order to make them suitable for the expectations and dynamics of the park. In the centre square, on the other hand, we had to make them less visible as part of the negotiation. In sections 8.3.3 and 8.3.4 I analyse the intervention regarding social frictions and the negotiation of place. In the following section, I analyse the two places in terms of Collaborative Urbanism.

8.3.2

Design and place supporting Collaborative Urbanism

As part of the theoretical scaffolding in this thesis I developed the theoretical concept of Collaborating Urbanism. It is, as already accounted for in chapter 3, a transformation of the concept of Collaborative Consumption (Botsman and Rogers, 2011) into the concept of urban design by translating each of the four categories into an urban context by relating them to urban theory. I have already analysed Superkilen and Skovparken/Skovvejen as a neighbourhood regarding Collaborative Urbanism. In the following section, I will look specifically at the centre square and the Library Park and analyse both places in terms of how they support Collaborative Urbanism. The four categories within Collaborative Urbanism are: 222

• • • •

Critical Mass Idling Capacity Belief in the Commons Trust between Strangers

Below I analyse them one by one. Critical Mass in the context of Collaborative Urbanism refers to the number of people needed to keep a place liveable. As already illustrated through the counting of citizens in the two places, more or less twice as many people pass through the Library Park as the centre square on weekdays. On Saturdays, on the other hand, the counting reveals an equal number of inhabitants passing through the two locations during the day. The equal number is the result of a small increase in residents on the centre square and a drop of inhabitants by one third in the Library Park. Even though it is a very small study, it still indicates that the Critical Mass in both locations is dependent on the context and on the time. When fewer go to work, because it is Saturday, and the library and shops are closed, then the number of people in the Library Park drops. On the other hand, the number increases in Skovparken/ Skovvejen when the residents are home from work. Since both locations lack functions that could attract visitors, the number of visitors is entirely dependent on the present functions and of time. The counting also reveals that more or less the same number of people stay in the two places. It does not directly appear from the counting that the Faktaboys contribute to the counting several times because they return to the square several times during the day. Combining the Critical Mass with the dichotomy developed by Relph (1976) reveals that even though the Critical Mass of residents who stay seems operational, their level of ‘insideness’ or ´outsideness´ is a barrier for interaction. An observation on a Friday, when there is Friday prayer in the mosque, also reveals that an event such as Friday prayer attracts many inhabitants both from the neighbourhood level and from the city level. See Picture 65 for comparison. I conclude that the ‘level attraction’ is based on the assumption that the majority of participants arriving on foot live in the neighbourhood whereas most of the participants arriving by car live in other parts of the city. The two pictures below show the impact that the Friday prayer has on the number of residents visiting the square.

Picture 65: Showing the parking lot at a regular hour and during Friday prayer

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The picture to the left shows a ´normal´ day, and the picture to the right shows the parking lot during Friday prayer. The observation reveals that there is a Critical Mass when the event is appealing; however, again an event such as Friday prayer does not support interactions across different worlds and value systems and cultural communities (Healey, 2006; Lefebvre, 1991; Massey, 1994). However, there is a potential for supporting such interactions by adding functions appealing to other worlds and value systems and to cultural communities at the same time and location. Idling Capacity in Collaborative Urbanism refers to one function taking over after another. This category is fundamental for a place to turn into a ‘new public domain’ (Hajer and Reijndorp, 2001), because it has the ability to attract different urban tribes, which is fundamental for different worlds and value systems or cultural communities to interact (Healey, 2006; Lefebvre, 1991; Massey, 1994). Since both of the two places (the Library Park and the centre square) contain too few functions or objects within the park/square which could attract any urban tribe or make inhabitants want to stay in either place. Neither of the places has an exchange in use or users and thus does not support interaction between citizens of Kolding. Both places, however, have the potential, due to the surrounding physical actors and potential events (such as Friday prayer) taking place there. The library, the train station and the two hotels provide the Library Park with a Critical Mass large enough to activate functions and objects in the park and thereby add a place identity and opportunities for interaction. The centre square has the shopping centre with empty tenancies and a large number of housing units. Adding activities and functions within the centre, with a focus on exchange across worlds and value systems or cultural communities (Healey, 2006; Lefebvre, 1991; Massey, 1994), could likewise support the Idling Capacity. Belief in the Commons refers to the belief that no one should take up more of the shared space than they actually need – that people put aside their own needs to own or to have in favour of the needs for having enough for everybody. (This category, as mentioned in the development of the concept, contains a second trajectory, referring to the belief in communities to self-organise and self-co-create developments within their neighbourhood. Such a situation is absent in both places.) The Faktaboys, as already described several times, take up more space than they need on the centre square. Their loud and threatening behaviour prevents other residents from staying there. Their domination of the place could be more difficult to maintain if the square contained functions or objects which attracted other urban tribes. The lack of functions makes it easier for the Faktaboys to dominate the square, since there are no other urban tribes to negotiate the place. In the Library Park, no one takes up more space than they need, because almost no one stays in the place at all. The lack of functions and opportunities to stay makes the place a transitory place with a lack of place identity and no support for interaction or coherence. Trust between Strangers refers to the trust and tolerance between residents present in a public urban place.

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At the centre square there is a lack of Trust between Strangers. None of the residents trust or feel tolerance towards the Faktaboys. In addition, there is a lack of trust and tolerance among other different cultural communities at the square, such as towards the alcoholics or the ‘black children’ (expression used by respondents). Trust between Strangers relates to social frictions, which I will elaborate on in the following section. The social frictions between PRESAN Real Estate and the housing association and frictions in the collision between different worlds and value systems or cultural communities (Healey, 2006; Lefebvre, 1991; Massey, 1994), such as the Faktaboys and the other residents or the alcoholics and the Muslim community, (both prevalent in Skovparken/Skovvejen) all prevent Trust between Strangers from developing. In the Library Park the observations, the countings or the placement of the benches show no acts revealing either an existing trust and tolerance or a lack of same. Embedded in Trust between Strangers, there are connections to Bauman (1993) and his presentation of ‘opportunity spaces’. According to Bauman (1993) solidarity and tolerance among citizens are dependent on how different random events create the ´conditions for the opportunity.´ If a place contains no functions and objects leading to activities, the ‘opportunity spaces’ have low chances of occurring. The Library Park lacks functions and activities to create situations which will support Trust between Strangers. The following two sections solely analyse the incident of the destruction of the benches and therefore do not include the Library Park.

8.3.3

Social frictions and different worlds and value systems

This section presents the social frictions, discovered through observation and analysis of the centre square and also during the design process of the benches where I took on the role of project leader. In chapter 2, I initially introduced the concept of social frictions. Through the analysis of Superkilen I added the category, ‘personal priorities or agendas’, and again during the Urban Songline study, I added yet another category, ‘prejudice’. In the analysis of Superkilen, I presented how unsolved social frictions manifest themselves in the public place, which leads to the argumentation that social frictions must be mapped and integrated into a design development approach. Simultaneously with my initial fieldwork in Superkilen, I experienced how newspaper articles about the shopping centre in Skovparken/Skovvejen put a stop to the planned development process of the centre area (and thereby also changed my planned investigations). Both the investigation of Superkilen and the effect of the newspaper articles about Skovparken/Skovvejen initiated the basis of the theoretical foundation and the understanding of the places as relational. Additionally, I entered into a research process to integrate and make the social forces operational in a design development approach. Regarding the centre square in Skovparken/Skovvejen, I point to three different social frictions as constraints for developing the place into a place supporting a coherent city and interaction between citizens across Kolding.

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Figure 36: Social frictions identified in Words Upon a Place

The first category is ‘agonistic behaviour’. In the centre square it refers to the Faktaboys’ behaviour, which is a barrier to both interaction and coherence inside the neighbourhood and with the neighbouring housing area. The second category present in the centre square is ‘unsolved conflicts’. There are several underlying ‘unsolved conflicts’ as illustrated in the many small stories in the newspaper in A Place Called… They are all grounded in a collision between different worlds and value systems or cultural communities (Healey, 2006; Lefebvre, 1991; Massey, 1994), such as the alcoholics and the Muslim community, the foreigners and the ethnic Danish residents and again between the Faktaboys and the other residents. The conflict between PRESAN Real Estate and Bovia (the social housing association) is also an unsolved conflict which affected Bovia´s (represented by the area committee) willingness to support the creation of the benches. The benches would be located on the property of PRESAN Real Estate, and there is an ongoing conflict since PRESAN allegedly does not maintain the centre. Additionally, the conflict between PRESAN Real Estate and Kolding Municipality has affected the process of this thesis. As described several times, when I started this thesis, the original intention was for Kolding Municipality to buy the centre area and initiate a transformation period which would shape the foundation for production of empirical data. This did not happen. The third constraint for interaction and coherence regarding social frictions belongs in the category of ‘political priorities and agendas’. Within this category, I refer to rules and approaches by Byliv Kolding (the association in control of all social initiatives and actions within Skovparken/Skovvejen). Within the same period of the two story-telling workshops related to the benches, Byliv Kolding likewise planned to arrange an event about storytelling. Byliv Kolding and I, therefore, discussed the benefit of merging the two events into one. However, both events were conducted individually, since Byliv Kolding did not want to invite people from outside the neighbourhood to their event, and I wanted to invite everybody who had a story from Skovparken that they wished to share. It is unknown to me whether the reason for Byliv Kolding´s decision is due to the rules of the Land Building Fund (who finances Byliv Kolding) or

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whether it is related to Byliv Kolding´s own working strategies (see chapter 2, for a description of Byliv Kolding´s long tradition of working according to a specific method). All three categories contain constraints for developing places supporting interaction between citizens and a coherent city, and they all support the argumentation of mapping and integrating the social frictions into the design approach.

8.3.4

Power and the negotiation of place

The following section contains the analysis of the power relations and the negotiating process with the Faktaboys about the centre square. I divide this section into three themes: • • •

The power relations resulting in the action by the boys The negotiation phase with the boys The benches as mediator for the negotiation.

I position myself in an active engagement with the site and its users, and in so doing I also become a user. Through the direct engagement, the investigation becomes the context for discovery and experimentation for everyone who takes part, and it is possible to capture people´s reaction to ´the new,´ thus it is ´learning by doing.´ “By making space for conversation, negotiation and communication, this form of engagement can reveal spatial, economic, social and cultural potentials” (Butterworth, Vardy, 2008, p. 136).

8.3.4.1

The power relations resulting in the action by the boys

After just one week, the Faktaboys destroyed the benches. The boys all live in Skovparken/Skovvejen and they use the square as a place to meet and hang out. Most of the Faktaboys visit the centre square several times every day. Picture 66 shows the Faktaboys sitting on the benches during the first week, before they were destroyed.

Picture 66: The Faktaboys sitting on the benches

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Even before the design intervention, I was fully aware of the great impact the Faktaboys had on the place (due to the earlier studies). And one of the aims of the intervention was to study whether the position of the benches could affect their heavy domination of the place. During the process of planning the project, I tried to integrate the boys into the project through a social worker in the neighbourhood. I did not succeed. However, I still conducted the intervention. Mouffe (1993) argues that we cannot ignore the power relations in a place. The Faktaboys, who meet every day in the centre square, turn the place into an agonistic arena. Through the boys’ loud and threatening behaviour, they claim the area as their territory and exclude other residents. My interference with their territory thus released a reaction. When I placed story-telling benches in the boys’ domain, I entered a sphere where the boys are in control. At first, the benches, when they were soundless, did not interfere with the function of a meeting place; they even supported it by offering a place to sit. When the sound was added, however, the benches interfered, and the boys reacted. Even though I was fully aware of the dominance of the Faktaboys, the design intervention shows how influential the social parameters as power relations can be on a potential development process. By placing the story-telling benches at the centre square, without the integration of the Faktaboys into the design process, and believing that the benches would ´survive´ I underestimated the power in power relations and social frictions. I explain the Faktaboys’ behaviour by analysing the reasons for their manifestation of power. Foucault (1977; 2007) argues that every relation is a power relation, that power exists in every relation, not as something negative but as an embedded premise. Before we entered into the negotiation phase about the place, the boys believed the benches were initiated by the Municipality. The Municipality represents an institution where the power relation between the boys and the institution is unequal, and the Faktaboys feel oppressed. They therefore reacted on the feeling of being oppressed, when the Municipality supposedly entered their domain. When it became apparent that the benches were a part of my research project and they understood my ´mission´ the power relation changed and the conditions occurred to create the space of tolerance and solidarity (Baumann, 1991). I will elaborate more on the change in the next section about the negotiation. Territorialisation is not a matter of a geographical place but rather of patterns of relations (Kärrholm, 2017; Massey, 2005). It is linked to human actions and interactions (Sack, 1986), which, according to Foucault and Baumann (Bauman, 1993; Foucault et al., 2007) are rooted in culture; they are also expressed and acted on based on the levels of tolerance towards a diversity of cultures gathered at the same geographical location. The Faktaboys have a low tolerance towards Kolding Municipality, which made them act defensibly towards the benches. Bourdieu (2014) describes cultural habitus as the body that is both being adapted and is the

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adaptor, which means that the body and the behaviour is a product of the place and at the same time the body is part of the construction of the next second's place. It is an ongoing mutual process of being a product of something and contributing to the next second of it. Our cultural setting is just as embedded in our behaviour as natural instincts (Casey, 2009), which means that the boys’ act of destroying the benches is an act embedded in their cultural habitus. Their act is a product of the place identity, and it fits the expectations of the context. The event of destroying the benches is an example of Bourdieu´s (2014) further argumentation that ´the cultural space becomes the physical space´, meaning that the cultural habitus becomes visible in the physical surroundings, in this case through the act of destroying the benches. Both before and after the incident of destroying the benches, I was confronted with heavy, negative expectations about Skovparken and the Faktaboys’ behaviour. After the incident in Skovparken one of the participating residents in the workshop named Musse 21 created a post on Facebook, asking for answers behind the act. The two quotes below are answers to his post, which illustrates the perception of Skovparken from the surroundings: “Skovparken is not like the rest of Kolding; it is something different. You know that, Musse, a lot of people hang around here, and she (referring to me) should know that too.” Respondent 1 “What did you expect, Musse   Respondent 2 Places not only are; they happen. (And it is because they happen that they lend themselves so well to narration, whether as history or as a story) (Feld and Basso, 1996), and also why stories about places are so powerful. The act of destroying the benches also became a way of maintaining the image of living in the ghetto and of Skovparken/Skovvejen being a ghetto. The boys acted as the surroundings expected, which means that the boys maintain the story and thereby also maintain their territory. When the Faktaboys agreed to enter into negotiations, they accepted a change in their story and hence also a change in the next second’s place.

8.3.4.2

The negotiation with the boys about the place

The negotiations between me and the Faktaboys supports Mouffe (1993), who argues that the traces of power are brought to the fore, and only through the recognition and acceptance of power relations is it possible to enter into negotiations and obtain a social place. The investigation does not reveal whether the Faktaboys would have entered into negotiations with the Municipality and accepted a power relation with the Municipality on one hand and them on the other. However, it reveals that it was in the meeting with me, and not with the social workers (whom I first sent to talk to them) that could create a visible and equal power relation, which could further foster tolerance and solidarity. 21

Musse - at the Library (Musse), who himself lived in Skovparken as a child and a young man

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By entering into and participating in the process, and by negotiating about the place, I argue that the boys move from an existential place attachment towards an empathetic place attachment. The boys show an understanding of other social relations to the place, and they are willing to ´make room´ for other social relations at the square and the benches as objects and experience. There are two interesting questions contained in the negotiations. 1. Why are the Faktaboys willing to enter into negotiations? 2. Why have the Faktaboys not destroyed the benches again afterwards? In Figure 37, I sketch the five steps through the negotiation.

Figure 37: Steps through the negotiation

Baumann (1993) argues that tolerance and solidarity depend on random events that create ´conditions for the opportunity´ to arise. The conditions for the opportunity of tolerance and solidarity to arise are changeable because all the different random conditions can change. I argue that the benches are a random event that changed the conditions and made the opportunity for tolerance and solidarity possible. The level of tolerance and solidarity was built up slowly through the conversation and the negotiations. In Touchpoint 1 the Faktaboys initially recognised and understood that the project was not initiated by the Municipality. Touchpoint 2, where the social worker and the participating resident (Musse) talked to the Faktaboys, counteracted the build-up of solidarity and tolerance. In Touchpoint 3 a willingness to negotiate arises through an explanation of the project and me reaching out to them. Touchpoint 4 contains several small conversations, 230

where I listened to the situation and the demands. In the final Touchpoint 5, the Faktaboys experience that I had listened and acknowledged their needs and demands. When I tell the boys that I will not to look at the surveillance cameras to find out who did it and thereby turn to punishment, but I instead approach the boys with tolerance and kindness (Baumann 1993) by acknowledging their right to their own opinions, a ´space´ for solidarity and tolerance arises. The Faktaboys´ willingness to enter into a dialogue with me shows responsibility, which is underscored by the fact that they did not destroy the benches again after they were fixed. Responsibility, in accordance with Baumann (1993), is another important element because it prevents tolerance from turning into ignorance. The act of ´negotiation´ is, therefore, important, since in a phase of negotiation both sides hold each other responsible, due to the fact that tolerance is based on equal power relations.

8.3.4.3

The benches as a mediator for the negotiation

The design intervention illustrates that territorialisation and power are present at the centre square. The power relations and the disputes in the centre square are caused by the Faktaboys´ behaviour due to their existential place attachment. The reason for their existential place attachment and hence their behaviour can be explained by causes operating on plane 1 as illustrated in Figure 38.

Figure 38: The level of place attachment is grounded in causes on plane 1. Place attachment can be addressed and pushed through a design approach.

As already accounted for in chapter 2 and again in chapter 7, plane 1 is too complex to solve in a design project about development of a public urban place. However, it is possible to 231

incorporate design interventions and artefacts as boundary objects (Björgvinsson et al., 2012a; Ehn et al., 2014) or mediators (Corlin, 2016) and through the design approach on plane 2 address challenges on plane 1. The benches can support the emergence of a democratic space, by initiating an act which the Faktaboys respond to. Through that act, the benches support a situation where both the involved parties give and take and thereby experience both solidarity and responsibility. Finally, the benches are a clear and quick évidence´ that, in this specific situation, I have to listen to the Faktaboys’ demands. However, for the ópportunity place´ to happen the power relation must be equal, and shared responsibility through tolerance must arise. In the case of this intervention, the negotiation has pushed an éxistential place attachment´ towards a more émpathetic place attachment´. A move towards émpathetic place attachment´ opens up for the opportunity to work with ńegotiating sharing´ places (Belk, 2009), and thereby places where we can be together.

Summary and reflections Words upon a Place is the last empirical study within the thesis and builds on the three previous studies. The intervention took a turn when the Faktaboys destroyed the benches at the centre square and through that act illustrated how powerful social frictions and power are in a public urban place like the centre square and how to design in the agonistic space. The study presents a comparative analysis of the Library Park and the centre square regarding interactions and relations to place by relating the findings from both places to theory on ´levels of interest´ (Stauskis and Eckardt, 2011), ‘insideness’ and ‘outsideness’ (Relph, 1976) and the ability of the places to turn into ‘new public domains’ (Hajer and Reijndorp, 2001). The analysis reveals an interconnection between ‘insideness’ and ‘outsideness’, whether anyone feels a place attachment towards the places, and the ‘levels of interest’ that the two places support. The Library Park lacks supportive ‘levels of interest’ on both the neighbourhood and the district level, and no one feels a place attachment towards the place. As a result, the place fails to attract any urban tribes who could contribute to the place identity. The centre square, on the other hand, supports the interest on a neighbourhood level to the extent that it results in existential place attachment by the Faktaboys, which prevents other citizens from using the place creating constraints for interaction and coherence. Both concepts, when compared, reveal insights into the ability of a place to support interaction and coherence and the identity of a place. Neither of the two places qualify as a ‘new public domain’ due to a lack of interest, because both places lack attractive objects and functions and – in the case of the centre square – strong place attachments resulting in social frictions. Both places thus lack support for interaction among citizens representing different worlds and value systems or cultural communities (Healey, 2006; Lefebvre, 1991; Massey, 1994).

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In the centre square the study reveals social frictions regarding agonistic behaviour, unsolved conflicts and political priorities or agendas. They are all potential constraints in a future development process and must, therefore, be brought to the fore in a design approach of the centre square. The last category, political priorities or agendas, refers to rules within social housing associations. Bech-Danielsen and Stender (2017, p. 213) point to the same challenge which I experienced in the study, i.e. that the Social housing associations are not prepared to work beyond their own cadastral borders partly due to the organisation of the funding from the Land Building Fund (LBF). The unsolved conflicts between PRESAN Real Estate and the social housing association is likewise a constraint for a collaborative project such as the benches, and finally the Faktaboysâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC; feeling of existential place attachment and the ensuing behaviour is a pivotal friction to include in future development. The negotiation with the Faktaboys, however, reveals one example on how design can enter into social friction and create anâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; opportunity spaceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; for tolerance, solidarity and shared responsibility. Through the use of the benches as a mediator, I could level the unequal power relations and open up for the possibility of a future shared place. Tolerance, solidarity and shared responsibility have a great impact on the ability of a place to support Collaborative Urbanism since it is fundamental to creating Trust between Strangers. It is important to add that the benches have not transformed the place from being agonistic to fostering interaction across the city, but the intervention has contributed with knowledge on how to work with design in development of shared public places. In the final chapter 9, Discussion, Conclusions and Reflections I gather the four empirical studies into one shared discussion and develop it into one new theoretical concept for the development of socially sustainable public urban places.

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9 Discussions, Conclusions and Reflections In this chapter, I synthesise the previous chapters and bind together the analysis from the four empirical studies in order to answer the main research questions and also to emphasise the contribution of this research to the field of Social Design and the design and planning practice of ‘social sustainable urban development’. The main contributions of this PhD thesis consist of: •

Knowledge of the underlying social phenomena influencing the physical context of public urban places, through an investigation and discussion on the mutual interaction between social phenomena and the physical environment.

•

A discussion of how ‘social sustainable design of public urban places’ is positioned within the field between Social Design and Design for Social Innovation and how the design approach can help master the complexity.

•

A discussion of power in public urban places, how it appears in different contexts, and how design as interventions and artefacts can strengthen an investigation of powerrelated social phenomena and thereby contribute to the creation of ‘opportunity spaces’.

•

The development of the Matrix for Mapping Collaborative Places and the concept of Collaborative Urbanism, which can function as a theoretical and conceptual framework for analysing public urban places.

Initially, I review the purpose of the study and present the core findings; subsequently I contextualise the findings in the empirical studies and present the research contributions. Finally, I reflect on potentials for future research. The incentive for this PhD thesis comes from a shared motivation between Kolding Municipality and Design School Kolding. Kolding Municipality experienced a lack of knowledge regarding how to work with social sustainable city development, with a specific concern in regard to the city´s deprived housing neighbourhoods. I recognised the gap in practice from my own experience of a lack of knowledge and tools while working as an urban architect in development projects in deprived housing neighbourhoods (from 2006–2012). I was therefore highly motivated for entering into this problematic where I could combine my background in architecture and urban planning with my more recent practice in Social Design and participatory design at Design School Kolding (DSKD). DSKD´s motivations and support in this study are linked to the strategic constellation of the school, where one out of three research and education trajectories focusses on Social Design. The school has a Lab for Social Design and a newly established Master’s programme – Design for People, where this thesis contributes to the theoretical strengthening of the Lab and the teaching at the Master’s programme.

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The specific subject matter of public urban places on the edge between deprived housing neighbourhoods and the surrounding city was based both on the theoretical argumentation by Sennet (2015, 1993, 1992), presenting edge zones as the place with the greatest potential for interaction between citizens and a coherent city. It further builds on the argumentation by Bech-Danielsen and Stender (2017) , who conclude that developing a coherent city is not feasible if working only with actions inside the deprived housing neighbourhoods; we need to integrate other places and priorities in the mixed city as well. The development of the thesis towards an increased focus on the social phenomena in a place has evolved through the four empirical studies and was further supported by the investigation of the reference projects, which revealed situations where ‘social frictions’ resulted in unachieved goals or ended up weakening the aims of the project. This PhD thesis has investigated public urban places approaching both physical and social parameters as mutually dependent and interrelated. It has explored how different actors, their behaviour, their perceptions or their configuration influence a place, and how design could be integrated into the development of public urban places. The aim of the thesis has been directed by two core research questions: •

What design parameters are pivotal in the development of social sustainable public urban places, bordering deprived housing neighbourhoods and the surrounding city, with the aim to support interaction between citizens and a coherent city?

•

How can design contribute to empowering the involvement of citizens and to the development of places?

The empirical data is produced through four empirical studies, one in Superkilen, an urban public park in Copenhagen, and three in Skovparken/Skovvejen, the deprived housing neighbourhood in Kolding. • • • •

The case study of Superkilen Urban Songline study Safety Day / A Place Called… Words upon a place

Discussion and contributions In my positioning of the thesis I presented a definition of ‘social sustainable design of public urban places’. The definition contains a useful conceptual distinction between two planes. I argued that plane 1 – societal social equity – is too complex to solve through a geographically bounded development project such as a public urban place. However, plane 1 can be addressed through the development on plane 2, by acknowledging the power relations and the relations to place through an understanding of ‘place attachment’ (Relph, 1976). The understanding enables the two planes integration through the design approach, a participatory design process and the correct configuration and decoration of a place. One example of such a situation appears in the final empirical study, Words Upon A Place, where the development of the benches as a solitary design intervention pushes the underlying challenges of power relations.

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As part of my theoretical scaffolding, I position my definition of ‘social sustainable design of public urban places’ into my discussion on Social Design and Design for Social Innovation. I use the model in Figure 39 to illustrate the distinction in scale between the two design trajectories, and I argue that it is through the design approach that it is possible to enter the space between the many different actors influencing a place. The ‘space between’ is the space between subject and object including social phenomena such as power relations, perceptions of place and relations to place. Within the centre space, the physical form & configuration is interconnected with the social phenomena, and it is in the centre space that the design approach can operate with implementation of all. Figure 39 also illustrates how a change in the design approach changes the relationship between the four categories. The design approach is inevitable destined by the specific situation. The model is therefore a dynamic model shifting dependent on the character and challenges in each specific place.

Figure 39: Exemplification of how a change in the research approach changes the relationship between the four categories

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Thus, the thesis contributes with a discussion of how ‘social sustainable design of public urban places’ is positioned within the field between Social Design and Design for Social Innovation, and how the design approach, by being positioned in the centre, can master the complexity by integrating all four categories into a design process of public urban places, by allowing it to be a dynamic concept. As presented in chapter 4, and again through each of the chapters of my empirical studies (chapter 5,6,7 and 8), the thesis is based on ´research through design´ (Archer, 1995; Frayling, 1993), where different design artefacts or interventions are used as ‘mediators’ (Corlin, 2016) which convey knowledge from respondents or places to me through either a performance (Schechner, 2013) or through the construction of an artefact (Koskinen, 2011). The empirical studies are further supported by observations focussing on the interaction between people and places (J. Gehl, 1971; Gehl and Svarre, 2013; Spradley, 1980; Studio, 2017). During the last empirical study, Words Upon a Place, the incident changed the focus of the planned investigation and likewise changed the research method from ‘Constructive Design Research’ (Koskinen, 2011) into ‘Action Research’ (Huang, 2010; Reason and Bradbury, 2001.). The change entailed conversations and negotiations with the Faktaboys about the centre square in Skovparken/Skovvejen as an approach to creating an ‘opportunity space’ of tolerance and solidarity (Bauman, 1993; Best, 2016). The thesis takes its point of departure in the local challenges (scaling down) (Koskinen and Hush, 2016) and thus adapted a Social Design approach on segregated neighbourhoods in Kolding and Copenhagen to investigate the relationships and the affections between the many different actors (Latour, 2005) influencing a place. Power In all of the empirical studies there has been a repeated reversion to the concept of ‘power’, since ’power’ is somehow present in all the categories related to Collaborative Urbanism (which is explained further later in this chapter). In the following section, I return to the three theoretical distinctions of how power is acted out within this thesis and discuss how the distinctions of power appear in the subject matter of the investigation and the empirical studies. The three distinctions of power in the thesis are. • • •

Power through the spatial organisation of the physical surroundings Power through interactions and relationships Power through language

In public urban places, the negotiation of power relations happens all the time, and the physical surroundings play a pivotal role. The majority of negotiations happen without frictions and without even being noticed (like stepping aside to pass each other on the pavement). In the two case studies there are several examples of the manifestation of power in the spatial organisation of the physical surroundings. In Superkilen the investigation illustrates how the poor connection between Mjølnerparken and Superkilen is a result of the execution of power.

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On the opposite side of Superkilen, the fence becomes an indication of power that manifests itself in the physical surrounding. The dilapidated shopping centre in Skovparken/Skovvejen, becomes a physical manifestation of the inequality in the Danish society, including inequality in the built environment, to the extent that the social stratification manifests itself in the physical surroundings (Bourdieu, 1989). The spatial organisation affects the identity of the users and what the place is used for, as well as the equal access to the city (Lefebvre, 1991; Tietjen et al., 2017). In Superkilen we see how the physical configuration (unintendedly) makes the Red square attractive among skaters from all over the country, which means that they are dominating the square and impeding other users’ access to the place. The Super Bicycle Lane is another element in the spatial configuration, which affects the power relations on the square and among the users. Several respondents refer to Superkilen as a traffic corridor, which impacts the length of their stay in the place. The design intervention, likewise, illustrated a shift in the hierarchy between the cycling, walking and playing users on the square. The spatial configuration thus influences who the users are and how the power relations among them are played out. Finally, different objects in a place can contribute to the demonstration of power employed by a distant actor. Examples are the surveillance cameras which are installed on the walls in both Superkilen and the centre square. The cameras refer to Foucault´s illustration of the Panopticon, how the mere thought of possibly being monitored leads to a more disciplined behaviour. However, as a way of building solidarity and tolerance in my negotiations with the boys I indicated that I had no intention of using the camera recordings of them destroying the benches. Hence I switched the function of the cameras from being a threat to being an element of tolerance and solidarity building. The second example of the impact of power is power through interactions and relationships. As already mentioned, frictionless power relations in interactions happen all the time in public urban places, whenever there is a shift of users in the occupation of place. However, frictions and unequal power relations can also develop. Territorialisation (Brighenti, 2014; Kärrholm, 2017) is linked to the second category, where the distribution of power through interactions and relationships is explained in the theoretical concept of ‘place attachment’ (Relph, 1976). This is exemplified in the empirical studies through the Faktaboys´ feeling of existential ‘place attachment’, which affects their manifestation of power and their domination of the centre area, to the extent that it prevents other residents from using the place. The investigation in Superkilen likewise reveals how agonistic behaviour turns into a manifestation of power in the public place. Power through interactions and relationships also appear in my negotiation with the Faktaboys about the centre square, where the modification of our power relation into being equal, allowed for tolerance and solidarity to arise. Yet another important aspect of power through interactions and relationships appeared in the participatory events and the processes with residents. In the empirical study, Safety Day /A Place Called… it was revealed that the method and the approach to resident involvement affect who will participate and hence who becomes representative of the neighbourhood and whose voices are being heard. It shows an important awareness regarding the presence and effectuation of power in resident involvement processes. The whole spatial concept and configuration of Superkilen is a result of the distribution of power in the interaction between 238

the Copenhagen Municipality and the involved residents in the neighbourhood around Superkilen. If the project had been developed as a democratic, participatory process, where the Copenhagen Municipality had listened to its residents, the place would most likely have looked very different today. The final distinction of power is through language. It is through language that we define ourselves, and we express either individual or shared identity, e.g. an identity of living in a ghetto. It is also through language that we distinguish ourselves and define others. The Urban Songline study reveals a series of examples where power is distributed through language, by residents expressing prejudice related to ethnic background or lifestyles and through the articulation of ‘them’ vs. ‘us’. Another example of the distribution of power through language could be the Danish Government´s Ghetto List (Table 1). The increased stigmatisation of people, places and images are the results of power through language. Power through language is again connected to territory and mobility. By connecting territory to events and actions, it links territory to the power of language, because it puts the narratives about places in motion for distribution (Brighenti, 2014). The media thus contributes to territorial stigmatisation of the deprived neighbourhoods (Bech-Danielsen and Stender, 2017; Wacquant et al., 2014). The connection between territory and actions appeared in the situation with the critical newspaper articles that changed the foundation of the empirical part of the thesis and thereby demonstrated that power through language also affects the physical development. In this case by putting an end to a potential development project. This discussion of power reveals that power is present in many ways in the public urban place, and that it is important that the traces of power are brought to the fore (Laclau and Mouffe, 2014; Mouffe, 1993). An awareness of the distinctions can potentially support the identification of power and also the process of making it operational.

Concepts and models supporting the development of ‘social sustainable development of public urban places’ Existing literature in the theoretical scaffolding argues for an understanding of places as relational. Even though the thesis investigates the bounded geographical location of a public urban place in a city, the place is also understood as more than a location, that places are something that ‘takes place’ and that it is a product of the lived reality of our everyday life, with all its influencing entities (Casey, 1996; Malpas, 2012; Massey, 2005, 1994). The relational understanding of place argues that territories are a matter of interaction between place, time and social relations (Brighenti, 2014, 2010; Kärrholm, 2017) and that the lived space always transcends the physical space in terms of geometry and measurability (Pallasmaa, 2005). Through investigations of the connection between the actual physical place and social phenomena appearing within the place, the PhD thesis has contributed to existing theory regarding the understanding of places as relational. Concrete examples from the empirical studies and findings within the reference cases enable me to point to some consequences of places being relational and how the many human and non-human actors and their controversies (Latour, 2005; Yaneva, 2013) influence the physical place. The empirical study, Words Upon a Place, reveals the consequences of ‘social frictions’ in a place not being integrated into the design approach. Subsequently, it reveals that design artefacts can 239

contribute to the creation of an ‘opportunity space’ from which tolerance and solidarity can arise (Bauman, 1993), which enables the potential development of that place into a place supporting interaction between citizens and a coherent city. Additionally, the thesis re-contextualises the concept of Collaborative Consumption (Botsman and Rogers, 2011) into the field of ‘social sustainable design of public urban places’. I recontextualise each of the four categories from the original concept by connecting them to existing theory from the theoretical scaffolding. As such, they explain and account for behaviour within the physical context of public urban places. The concept of Collaborative Urbanism contributes with a theoretical and a conceptual framework for analysing places by connecting the physical place and social phenomena. As a result of a shared organisation and reflection on the analysis of each of the empirical studies through the PhD thesis I position Collaborative Urbanism as the overall theoretical concept within which I place the other developed concepts. I argue that all the theoretical concepts – ‘levels of interest’, ‘place attachment’, ‘social frictions and also ‘mediating design artefacts and interventions’ – can be embraced in the concept of Collaborative Urbanism, which can be used by researchers and practitioners (urban planners, architects, designers, employees in a municipality) to analyse a place and support the development process. In the following paragraphs, I will position the different concepts within the four categories of Collaborative Urbanism: • • • •

Levels of interest (Critical Mass) Place attachment (Idling Capacity) Social frictions (Trust between Strangers) Design artefact and interventions (Belief in the Commons)

I create a combined analysis conducting a comparative analysis of the empirical studies in relation to each category; I conclude with a final discussion and qualification of the concept.

9.2.1

Levels of interest (Critical Mass)

Critical Mass refers to the number of users needed to make a place attractive and thereby support interaction between people. What attracts people the most in public places are other people (I. Gehl, 1971; J. Gehl, 1971; Whyte, 2012). It is, therefore, essential to focus on different motivators for attracting people to a place. One approach is through attention to the type of interest a place can evoke. The model of ‘levels of interest’ was developed based on Stauskis and Eckardt's (2011) explanation of important elements for places to empower interaction, and their position of these elements in relation to different users and how they connect to different ‘levels of interest’. The development of the model is additionally supported by the theoretical argumentation that the patterns of space between buildings – the space that we occupy and move through – is fundamental for interaction across socioeconomic layers (Hillier and Hanson, 1988). The model was developed as part of the analysis of Superkilen and I have used the model repeatedly as a model to analyse and discuss the findings from the three different

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locations and their ability and potential to support interaction between citizens and a coherent city. Figure 40 visualises first the generic models and then the analysis of the three places (Superkilen, centre square in Skovparken/ Skovvejen and the Library Park in Kolding).

Figure 40: Shared mapping of Levels of interest

Superkilen supports all four ‘levels of interest’: The residences surrounding the park (neighbourhood level) had gained an attractive urban park, which previously was a murky wasteland mainly visited by dog walkers and taxi drivers during a break. Additionally, the park has improved the neighbourhood image by adding an attractive park, which has further supported the residents´ self-image. The park supports the local district’s (Ydre Nørrebro) interest, as my investigations reveal that the majority of visitors to the park live different places at Ydre Nørrebro. Nørrebrohallen plays a fundamental role in both local district and city interest, because there is mutual interaction between the park and the activities in Nørrebrohallen. Due to the Super Bicycle Lane, the park has city interest (Copenhagen), since the park has an attractive bicycle route connecting a long stretch through Copenhagen, which creates an important connection to the infrastructure of Copenhagen. The city interest is a fundamental strategic element introduced by Copenhagen Municipality, because it has 241

contributed to an improved image of Mjølnerparken. A large number of Copenhageners use the bicycle lane on an everyday basis and experience that Mjølnerparken is less dangerous than the image painted in the media. Finally, Superkilen also has national interest, because it has turned into an urban art installation due to its distinctive design and the narrative concept of the 100 objects from 54 different countries. The centre area in Skovparken does not support the local district and the national interest. It supports neighbourhood interest (Skovparken/ Skovvejen) by being a meeting place for a group of residents (the Faktaboys) and by offering close-by shopping opportunities for the residents of Skovparken/ Skovvejen. Aside from the Faktaboys´ use of the place the place is dependent on the opening hours of the shops, since the centre or the area around it has no attractiveness in itself. It contains no mutual promotion as seen in Superkilen, where the indoor and outdoor activities promote each other. Due to the ethnic shops and the mosque, the place contains city interest. The mainly ethnic minority-oriented functions do not support interaction across different worlds or value systems or different cultural patterns (Lefebvre, 1991; Massey, 1994), even though the place has city interest. The lack of local district interest weakens the potential of the place to support coherence with the neighbouring residences, which could potentially support interaction between the different worlds or value systems, since the homes are inhabited by different ´groups of citizens´. The Library Park supports neither neighbourhood nor local district ‘levels of interest’, but it supports city interest and national interest. Both ‘levels of interest’ are related to the surrounding functions such as hotels, the train station, the library, and the cultural attraction of Koldinghus (museum) and the Castle Lake. The park does not promote any attractions in itself; there are too few functions or activities that any urban tribe can relate to. The park contains no reasons for longer stays and therefore only gains an identity as a transit place, with a minor ability to support interaction among citizens. The lack of interest on neighbourhood and local district levels affects the next category, ‘place attachment’. Because there are no returning users of the place that contribute to a place identity due to the lack of functions or activities within a place, which someone can relate to and identify with, all the activities within the place are related to the surrounding functions. Comparing the three places through an analysis of ‘levels of interest’ reveals that this model is useful in the analysis of the potential of a place to support interaction and coherence. It illuminates the ability of a place to motivate different kinds of users in a place and also where the different places lack ‘levels of interest’. The model provides design research with a tool to identify different typologies of places for further investigation. The model can likewise support an analysis to help indicate which level functions or activities should be added, depending on the aim of the public urban place. This analysis can support the practical work. However, the analysis of ‘levels of interest’ cannot stand alone, since it does not indicate whether any users within the four ‘levels of interest’ feel a ‘place attachment’ towards the place. ‘Place attachment’ influences the negotiation of place and the potential of a place to turn into a ‘new public domain’ (Hajer and Reijndorp, 2001).

9.2.2

‘Place attachment’ (Idling Capacity)

‘Place attachment’ is the translation of ‘Idling Capacity’. It refers to one urban tribe taking over a function or activity after another thus lengthening the ´use time´ of a place. The ‘place 242

attachment’ of different urban tribes further supports mobility in territories (Brighenti, 2014), because it supports a change in time/ space territories by supporting a shift in functions, acts or/and users. In Figure 41, I have divided the seven categories presented by Relph (1976) into three overall, general categories: objective, constructive and subjective relations to place. I have turned to the online Oxford English Dictionary 22 to explain the rationale behind the division. • • •

Objective: “Not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing facts”. Constructive: “Not obvious or stated explicitly; derived by inference” or “having or intended to have a useful or beneficial purpose”. Subjective: “Dependent on the mind or an individual's perception of its existence”.

I will argue that the division is already present in Relph´s dichotomy, moving from completely objective, towards a functional and rational relationship, to an emotional relationship. I add an overall division, to illustrate the feature of the underlying levels. Not all of the seven categories are represented in my empirical data, and I have not developed in-depth discussions of the categories which are not represented.

Figure 41: The model of ‘insideness’ and ‘outsideness’

In terms of the objective relation to place, people have an either unconscious or logical relation to the place. In terms of a constructive relation to place, the relation is either tied to functions or to the narrative of the place, where people relate by organising the place into a 22

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/

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typology of similar places. In terms of the subjective relation to a place, the ‘place attachment’ arises, because people relate to the place on an emotional level. It is within the subjective relation to a place that the human actors contribute to the ‘place identity’, and it is the human actors within the subjective category who should be involved in the design approach. The awareness of levels of ‘insideness’ and ‘outsideness’ is fundamental to the analysis of pivotal actors influencing a place (Latour, 2005; Yaneva, 2013). At the centre square, the pivotal human actors (the Faktaboys) feel an existential ‘insideness’, which leads to a territorialisation of the place to the extent that it prevents other residents from occupying the place. The Faktaboys´ strong identification with this place affects their behaviour, as seen in Words Upon a Place. This makes them important actors to integrate into the design approach. Besides the dominating Faktaboys the centre owner PRESAN Real Estate also exists as a human actor influencing the place. I will categorise PRESAN as objective ‘outsideness’, since they are totally objective towards the place and relate to the place only on a level of efficiency. PRESAN´s feeling of objective ‘outsideness’ results in a total lack of interest in the upkeep of the centre, which is the main reason for the ‘social friction’ between PRESAN and the social housing organization. This situation exemplifies the connection between levels of ’insideness’ and ‘outsideness’ and ‘social frictions’. In the Library Park the opposite situation is present. The daily users mainly feel a behavioural ‘insideness’, which means that they are visiting the place for the functions. They see the place as containing objects, views and activities. Besides the daily visitors, the library also encompasses distant human actors who influence the place. In the Library Park it is the urban planners in Kolding Municipality who are the human actors that impact the appearance and configuration of the place. I will likewise categorise them as objective ‘outsideness’, working from the perspective of logic, reason and efficiency. All things considered, this results in a place with no ‘place identity’, mainly logic thus failing to support Collaborative Urbanism and interaction between citizens. In Superkilen, different relations to place are represented. I will categorise the majority of users in Superkilen as feeling an ‘empathetic insideness’ and a ’behavioural insideness’. The citizens using the Super Bicycle Lane use the park for transit. They feel a ‘behavioural insideness’ and are present in the place because of the function and also because the function is attractive. Otherwise they could choose other routes through the area. My interviews reveal that the residents, in general, are not aware of the name of the place, Superkilen. However, they do know the story and the concept of the 100 objects from 54 different countries. The residents with different ethnic background than Danish (mainly interviewed at Mødestedet) are fond of the narrative, and it supports their feeling of ‘empathetic insideness’, which further supports a ‘place attachment’.

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One prevailing user group are families with children. They can identify with parts of Superkilen, because of the many objects which accommodate their needs regarding activities and also regarding the expression of the objects like the black octopus or the elephant in Picture 67.

Picture 67: Objects attracting families with children

The skaters are a prevailing user group on the Red square. They identify with the place due to the ‘atmosphere’ (Böhme, 1998) and also because the park´s configuration supports their activity, which results in the place becoming a meeting place and hence a support in their community. My interviews reveal statements pointing to the skaters as balancing on a feeling of ‘existential insideness’ leading to a territorialisation of the place. Some respondents claim that the skaters tend to take over the place, with the penetrating sounds from the boards landing and their lack of consideration towards other users of the square. This again reveals a connection between ‘insideness’ and ‘outsideness’ and ‘social frictions’. Just like the Library Park and the centre square, Superkilen has distant human actors influencing the place. The area of Superkilen belongs to Copenhagen Municipality, which makes it an influencing actor. The Municipal´s layout of the Super Bicycle Lane and its decision not to remove the kindergartens between Mjølnerparken and Superkilen are both decisions that impact the social life and Superkilen´s potential to support interaction and coherence between Mjølnerparken and the surrounding city.

9.2.3

Social frictions (Trust between Strangers)

The third category refers to the acts that take place in shared public places. It relates to Bauman´s (1991) argumentation regarding tolerance and solidarity which, if they exist, can turn into a shared responsibility for each other despite different worlds and value systems (Healey, 2006; Lefebvre, 1991; Massey, 1994). Trust between Strangers is fundamental to frictionless negotiation and mobility in territories (Brighenti, 2014; Kärrholm, 2017). Analysing the potential for creating Trust between Strangers in a public urban place means analysing and integrating ‘social frictions’. Mouffe (Laclau and Mouffe, 2014; Mouffe, 1993) argues that rather than trying to erase traces of power, they must be brought to the fore, acknowledged and integrated. In the empirical studies, there are several examples of unacknowledged social frictions ending up affecting and weakening the physical place. The presentation above of ‘place attachments’ reveals how the identification of the human actor´s level of ‘insideness’ and ‘outsideness’ has connections to ‘social frictions’. The mapping of

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‘social frictions’ reveals which traces of power must be brought to the fore and integrated into a development process. The section below presents the different ‘social frictions’ mapped in the thesis. The study of Superkilen reveals frictions related to the chairman working against more openness in Mjølnerparken (‘personal priorities or agendas’). It illustrates how the two kindergartens lie as barriers for the connection between Mjølnerparken and Superkilen (‘political priorities and agendas’). It also illustrates how conflicts between the two social housing complexes (Lejerbo and AAB) bordering Superkilen along the Green Park result in fences along the park and constraints to flows (únresolved conflicts’). And, as already mentioned, the skaters’ éxistential place attachment’ is a potential ‘social friction’, which I will argue should be integrated into a possible future development of Superkilen (‘agonistic behaviour’). The Urban Songline study revealed several constraints for interactions inside the neighbourhood, both due to past unpleasant experiences (‘unresolved conflicts’) and also across the five different housing association departments, due to a lack of understanding of other residents with different cultural patterns (Massey, 2005, 1994) (‘prejudice’), a category which I thus, added to the model. In a possible future development project, I will argue that this category is important to integrate into the development process in Skovparken/ Skovvejen because it is underlying ‘social friction’ which can potentially weaken the project’s aim if it is not brought to the fore. Finally, did all respondents mentioned the threatening behaviour of Faktaboys, and some also the alcoholics (ágonistic behaviour´). Safety Day/ A Place Called… likewise revealed constraints for interactions inside the neighbourhood and also in relation to the rest of the city. The study revealed that the surroundings´ negative perceptions and expectations for residents living in Skovparken/ Skovvejen, is something the residents connect with the feeling of unsafety (´prejudice´). The study revealed examples of anxiety due to the Faktaboys behaviour (ágonistic behaviour´) and in general, did the study reveal a series of past unpleasant experiences (‘unresolved conflicts’). Words Upon a Place illustrates that I underestimated the power of ‘social frictions’ in a place and continued the intervention with the benches without having the Faktaboys ón board,´ which led to the destruction of the benches (‘agonistic behaviour’). The design process further revealed constraints for collaboration between PRESAN Real Estate, the owner of the centre area, and the social housing association (‘unresolved conflicts’). In the Library Park, I did not observe any ‘social frictions’. One explanation for this can point back to ‘place attachment’, which reveals that nobody has a subjective relationship to the place and therefore no deep interest or aim of occupying the place. Figure 42 shows the model of ‘social frictions’ identified in the different empirical studies. The model of ‘social frictions’ presents the five categorises which have been identified during the progression of the thesis. Based on the present reference cases I identified: ‘Political priorities or agendas’, ‘unresolved conflicts’ and ‘agonistic behaviour’. During the Superkilen case study, I added ‘personal priorities or agendas, and during the Urban Songline study, I added ‘prejudice’ to the categories of ‘social frictions’. Both additions were the result of findings in the empirical data. The categories of ´social frictions´ thus, expanded during the progression of the PhD project. This indicates that the thesis has not contributed with an exhaustive set of 246

categories and that more studies could provide the model with even more categories of social frictions. The aggregate model shows that not all categories are present in each study, which means that different places and situations display different ‘social frictions’, which further supports Bech-Danielsen and Stender's (2017) argument that there is no ‘common recipe’ and that an analysis of each individual place is fundamental.

Figure 42: The model of ‘social frictions’

Connecting the aggregate model of ´social frictions´ to the discussion of power shows that power is embedded in all of them and that power is distributed differently in the four studies. Power and ´social frictions are thus closely connected appear and could as ´ghost designers´ if they are not identified and integrated into the design approach. The categorisation of different ´social frictions´ helps the identification and hence supports integrating them into a design process.

9.2.4

Design as ‘mediator of knowledge ‘ (Belief in the Commons)

The final category, ‘design as mediator of knowledge´, refers to the negotiating ability of people present in a place and also the ability of the Belief in the Commons to be involved in resources they care about. Within this category ‘design as mediator’ plays a pivotal role. The empirical study of Superkilen illustrates how poor citizens’ involvement can lead to frictions, which can make the park more vulnerable to future transformations because of the lack of local support. The design intervention, where I created a ´criticality´ (Rogoff, 2005) of

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the bicycle lane focussing on power relations between the different actors (Yaneva, 2013), likewise illuminates one weakness of the Red square as both a traffic corridor and a playground. Safety Day/ A Place Called… illustrates that approaching resident involvement in an entirely new fashion can lead to involvement of different residents, which makes another group of residents representative of the same neighbourhood. The approach and method for involvement become closely related to power because it affects whose voices are being heard. Finally, Words Upon a Place illustrates how the benches as a design artefact contributed to the creation of an ‘opportunity space’, where tolerance and solidarity arose and opened up for a negotiation of the place and a future opportunity for developing the centre square into a shared place supporting interaction and coherence.

Implications for design practice I see this PhD thesis contributing to the field of Social Design research, by presenting extended knowledge on the role of design artefacts and design interventions as mediating tools for knowledge production and also as mediators in the process of behavioural change. I also see a contribution to research in the positioning of ´social sustainable design´ of public urban place into the design research fields of Social Design and Design for Social Innovation and in the distinction of power in public urban places. I likewise see this thesis as contributing to the design, architecture and planning practice, by offering models and concepts which can support the analysis and design process in the development of ‘social sustainable public urban places’. The transformed matrix, Figure 42: Matrix for Mapping Collaborative Places, (first presented in Chapter 4) is developed based on Spradley’s matrix for participant observation (Spradley, 1980). The transformed matrix is a complementing tool for the concept of Collaborative Urbanism. The matrix can structure and support the initial observations and mapping of pivotal actors within a public urban place before integrating the concept of Collaborative Urbanism. The Matrix for Mapping Collaborative Places is based on the theoretical scaffolding for the thesis, where places are relational products of both human and non-human actors. The matrix hence supports the initial mapping of ten different categories which, in different ways, support the further analysis of ‘level of interest’, ‘social frictions’, and ‘place attachment’.

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Figure 43: Matrix for Mapping Collaborative Places, adapted from Spradley, 1980, pp. 82-83,

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The thesis further contributes with the new term Collaborative Urbanism. Through comparison and connection between the shared findings within the different empirical studies and a joint analysis in relation to existing theory, the thesis contributes with extended knowledge regarding the mutual dependency between the physical environment and the social phenomena. I have developed Collaborative Urbanism into a design concept containing models for analysing and supporting future development projects of ‘social sustainable public urban places’. Figure 44 illustrates the concept of Collaborative Urbanism. The diagram includes the four categories of Collaborative Urbanism. Connected to each category are models for mapping and integrating pivotal design parameters into the design process. The first three categories respond to the first research question – ‘investigating pivotal design parameters in the development of social sustainable public urban places supporting interaction between citizens and a coherent city’. The research responds to this question by presenting an awareness of the broad spectrum of both human and non-human actors influencing a place. For instance, present users in a place with a subjective relation to the place, distant human actors contributing to social frictions that ends up influencing on the physical place, or how adding levels of interest can influence on the perception of a place. The final category in the model for Collaborative Urbanism responds to the second question of ´How can design contribute to empowering the involvement of citizens and to the development of places´? This question is answered by presenting a series of examples, such as A Place Called… with a re-articulation (Rogoff, 2003) of the situation of the lack of safety in the centre square. In that study, a different narrative of the centre square was brought to the fore and a different group of residents became representative of the neighbourhood of Skovparken/Skovvejen. Another example is in Words Upon a Place, when the design and position of the benches created an ‘opportunity space’ for tolerance and solidarity to arise. The empirical studies reveal how design, including artefacts or intervention, has contributed to empowering situations of knowledge creation by involving both people and places. Awan et al. (2011) points towards a lack in the vocabulary, among architects to confront critical ´real world´

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issues. The concept of Collaborative Urbanism could contribute to a shared vocabulary among professionals for describing and contextualizing the many different influencing actors.

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Figure 44: The concept of Collaborative Urbanism

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Reflection on future research This PhD thesis is a study which has grown mainly from the empirical material of only two cases investigated through four empirical studies. This calls for further investigations to challenge the model of Collaborative Urbanism in other environmental settings, and for fine-tuning and adjustments. However, I will argue that the model is an important contribution as a concept to support analysis of places from a relational perspective, enabling the inclusion of both physical and social actors. A natural next step would be to initiate a development process of the centre area, integrating the findings and activating the pivotal design parameters as a direct testbed of the research. In this thesis I have been concentrated on how the social phenomena and the physical context affect and are influencing each other. I have been investigating human and non-human actors influencing on a place and I have through analysis of the case studies developed a matrix and a concept for mapping and understanding the actors influencing on a place and how they affect each other, which can function as foundation for a sold development and design process of a place. However, the role of the architect and the designer and what shifting roles and features are demanding when entering ´the space between´ with a design approach is a very interesting and relevant field, which I have not touched upon. Hernberg and Maze (2017; 2018) raise the question of the designers/ architects role in merge between ´temporary use´ and ´participatory design´, through the concept of seeing designers/ architects as urban agents. It could be interesting to contribute to this field of investigation for example as part of a potential development process of the centre area. The Urban Songline study contains findings regarding the respondents’ relationship to a place, which could be interesting to investigate further since it revealed a preponderance of respondents relating to places based on memories and experiences and less on aesthetics and functions, which are often the prevailing elements in a design process of public urban places. It could, therefore, be interesting to extend an investigation into relations to place. An investigation of relations to place going hand in hand with an investigation based on Relph's dichotomy could be interesting and relevant for extended knowledge regarding how levels of ‘insideness’ and ‘outsideness’ affect a place, which additionally could be interesting as part of an investigation of the role of the designer/architect. Finally, I envisage interesting future research into an investigation of the concept of ‘social frictions’ in completely different contextual settings for example design projects in the Public sectors, where ‘social frictions’ are barriers for development and therefore, must be brought to the fore.

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Appendix: 1. Three Papers a. Urban Songline Book as mediator, 2016, Corlin – Nordcode conference b. Using Interdisciplinarity as a Catalyst for Reflexivity´, 2017, Sesay, Corlin & K. Feder, Poster presentation Cumulus conference c. Words upon a place, 2018, Akoglu, Corlin, 2018, Cumulus conference. 2. Reference projects 3. Site-Writing project, the newspaper, A Place Called….

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WEB Yaneva, Albena https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS2s6AcVFrE Richard Sennet, - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p4Qxc6pMeo

Pictures

Picture 1: Coffee and cake day in May 2016. .............................................................................. 44 Picture 2: Bentham's concept of `Panopticon.' ......................................................................... 51 Picture 3: Picture of the Urban Songline book ............................................................................ 97 Picture 4: Image of the assembled matrix .................................................................................. 98 Picture 5: Newspaper articles ................................................................................................... 108 Picture 6: Orthophoto of Ydre Nørrebro showing the three focus areas and Mjølnerparken . 113 Picture 7: Superkilen plan site (http://www.archdaily.com/286223/superkilen-topotek-1-bigarchitects-superflex.) ................................................................................................................ 114 Picture 8: Three of the objects placed in Superkilen. ............................................................... 114 Picture 9: The Palestinian soil located on top of the hill at the Black square. .......................... 115 Picture 10:The Red square (Picture below to the left Iwan Baan https://iwan.com/portfolio/superkilen-park-copenhagen-big/) .............................................. 115 Picture 11: The Black Square ..................................................................................................... 116 Picture 12: The Green Park ....................................................................................................... 117 Picture 13: Orthophoto of Superkilen and the near context, Google maps ............................. 118 Picture 14: 1) Nora´s Café, 2) Ali, who invited me to Ali´s café 3) a woman I interviewed at Mødestedet ............................................................................................................................... 121 Picture 15: Examples of working document of Axial Coding .................................................... 123 Picture 16: Process of Selective Coding .................................................................................... 123 Picture 17: When Nørrebrohallen was still a tram depot (picture Gunner W. Christensen, togbilleder.dk) ........................................................................................................................... 126 261

Picture 18: Flee market stand (Picture Jann Ulrich Bech) ......................................................... 126 Picture 19: Pictures from the intervention. .............................................................................. 128 Picture 20: Pavilion from St. Louis, USA and Pavilion from Kazakhstan ................................... 129 Picture 21: The swing bench with different urban tribes ......................................................... 129 Picture 22: Bicycles parked by the swing bench ....................................................................... 130 Picture 23: Showing different urban tribes occupying the Red square and Nørrebrohallen. .. 133 Picture 24: The Black Square with different urban tribes using the places simultaneously (the first picture above is from the book Superkilen........................................................................ 134 Picture 25: The Green Park with its constraints for interaction and shared experiences ........ 135 Picture 26: ´The Heart of Nørrebro´, picture by Cindy Fonvig .................................................. 139 Picture 27: Four different Urban Songline books...................................................................... 149 Picture 28: The participating respondents in the Urban Songline study .................................. 151 Picture 29: Drawing on aerial map ............................................................................................ 152 Picture 30: 8 pictures of different dwellings presented by me................................................. 153 Picture 31: 20 pictures of different kinds of Urban Places presented by me ........................... 153 Picture 32: The ´Task card.´ ....................................................................................................... 154 Picture 33: Respondent looking at his photographs during the second interview................... 154 Picture 34: All data gathered into one matrix ........................................................................... 155 Picture 35: Respondent 6,7 and 8 on our walk together in Skovparken/Skovvejen ................ 156 Picture 36: Safaa and I are talking about Toboggan run and the playground .......................... 157 Picture 37: Respondent 1. Picture of a place that best describes the neighbourhood ............ 157 Picture 38: Respondent 11 drawing a line down by the centre square. ................................... 158 Picture 39: Axial Coding, the document is cut into pieces and supplemented with notes and sketched connections................................................................................................................ 161 Picture 40: Selective Coding, drawing of centre square together with notes .......................... 161 Picture 41: The centre and the square in front of it ................................................................. 163 Picture 42: Statements about the centre.................................................................................. 165 Picture 43: Quote regarding the centre area ............................................................................ 168 Picture 44: Ambassaden photographed by Respondent 10, showing a place he likes in Skovparken. ............................................................................................................................... 170 Picture 45: Quote expressing the importance of social capital ................................................ 171 Picture 46: Quotes describing methods to create trust between stranger .............................. 171 Picture 47: Examples of different worlds and value systems ................................................... 173 Picture 48: Prejudice both inside the neighbourhood and from the surroundings .................. 174 Picture 49: Relations to places based on memories and atmosphere...................................... 177 Picture 50: One resident and actors from Prisme conducting a role play about the Faktaboys ................................................................................................................................................... 183 Picture 51: Role play about prejudice, resident buys flagstones .............................................. 185 Picture 52: The participants on Safety Day ............................................................................... 186 Picture 53: Decoration of the intervention ............................................................................... 188 Picture 54: The participants on A place called .......................................................................... 199 Picture 55: ‘the new map’ ......................................................................................................... 199 Picture 56: Drawings and visualisation of the benches made by the Alexandra Institute ....... 205 Picture 57: The Library Park ...................................................................................................... 206 Picture 58: The centre square .................................................................................................. 206 Picture 59: Countings at the centre square and the Library Park ............................................. 206 262

Picture 60: Arial photo of the two locations ............................................................................. 207 Picture 61: The centre and surrounding area ........................................................................... 208 Picture 62: The Library Park ...................................................................................................... 209 Picture 63: From the two story telling cafes ............................................................................. 211 Picture 64: process of integration and intepretation ............................................................... 215 Picture 65: Showing the parking lot at a regular hour and during Friday prayer ..................... 223 Picture 66: The Faktaboys sitting on the benches .................................................................... 227 Picture 67: Objects attracting families with children ................................................................ 245 Figures

Figure 1: The feature of design parameters................................................................................ 12 Figure 2: Thesis structure ............................................................................................................ 24 Figure 3: Identified categories of social frictions affecting the physical design or use of public urban places. ............................................................................................................................... 28 Figure 4: The aspects included in the concept of ‘social sustainable design of public urban places’.......................................................................................................................................... 33 Figure 5: Location of all ´reference cases´................................................................................... 38 Figure 6: Title and visualisation of the PhD project .................................................................... 56 Figure 7: Levels of interest .......................................................................................................... 59 Figure 8: Configuration of place .................................................................................................. 59 Figure 9: Position of ‘social sustainable design of public urban places’ in relation to Social Design and Design for Social Innovation ..................................................................................... 81 Figure 10: Positioning the empirical studies within research approaches ................................. 88 Figure 11: Spradley, 1980, pp. 82-83, Matrix for conducting focussed field studies. ................. 91 Figure 12: Matrix for Mapping Collaborative Places, adapted from Spradley, 1980, pp. 82-83, 95 Figure 13: Themes included for analysis in each empirical study ............................................. 102 Figure 14: The different actions and their mutual order .......................................................... 120 Figure 15: Example of GT analysis in Superkilen ....................................................................... 124 Figure 16: The four ‘levels of interest’, both generic and in the context of Superkilen ........... 130 Figure 17: Categorisation of ‘public, private, lifestyle and new public domains’ ..................... 132 Figure 18: Visual barriers........................................................................................................... 134 Figure 19: The different edge zones along Superkilen .............................................................. 142 Figure 20: Social frictions identified in Superkilen .................................................................... 144 Figure 21: Steps through a collection of data in the Urban Songline study.............................. 152 Figure 22: Example of GT analysis of the Urban Songline study ............................................... 162 Figure 23: The centre area functions and surroundings ........................................................... 164 Figure 24: ´Levels of interest´ .................................................................................................... 166 Figure 25: The different places inside Skovparken/Skovvejen supporting the feeling of community ................................................................................................................................ 169 Figure 26: The concept of Social Frictions................................................................................. 175 Figure 27: The six categorie, on which the respondents have based their choice of places .... 176 Figure 28: The grouping of participating residents regarding causes for the experience of unsafety. .................................................................................................................................... 182 Figure 29: The concept of socially sustainable design of public urban places. How plane 1 affects plane 2 at the centre square ......................................................................................... 184 263

Figure 30 The role of the different stakeholders involved in the intervention ........................ 210 Figure 31: Example of Thematic analysis in Words upon a place ............................................. 216 Figure 32: Levels of Interest ...................................................................................................... 218 Figure 33: Relations to context ................................................................................................. 219 Figure 34: Levels of ‘insideness’ and ‘outsideness’ ................................................................... 220 Figure 35: Movement patterns in the two locations ................................................................ 221 Figure 36: Social frictions identified in Words Upon a Place .................................................... 226 Figure 37: Steps through the negotiation ................................................................................. 230 Figure 38: The level of place attachment is grounded in causes on plane 1. Place attachment can be addressed and pushed through a design approach. ..................................................... 231 Figure 39: Exemplification of how a change in the research approach changes the relationship between the four categories ..................................................................................................... 236 Figure 40: Shared mapping of Levels of interest....................................................................... 241 Figure 41: The model of ‘insideness’ and ‘outsideness’ ........................................................... 243 Figure 42: The model of ‘social frictions’ .................................................................................. 247 Figure 43: Matrix for Mapping Collaborative Places, adapted from Spradley, 1980, pp. 82-83, ................................................................................................................................................... 249 Figure 44: The concept of Collaborative Urbanism................................................................... 252

Tables

Table 1:The Danish Government’s Ghetto List 2018 .................................................................. 17 Table 2: Levels of ‘insideness’ and ‘outsideness’ ........................................................................ 65 Table 3: Transformation of Spradley´s matrix for participant observation into the matrix for Collaborative Urban Public Places............................................................................................... 93 Table 4: Steps through the design intervention........................................................................ 213 Table 5: Counting of citizens at the two locations .................................................................... 217 Full-page Pictures

Picture on page 47: Skovparken August 2016 Picture on page 159: Photograph of a place in Skovparken/ Skovvejen the respondent dislike Picture on page 178: A Place Called…. Picture on page 202: The benches in use

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Acknowledgements Finally – but probably most importantly – I would like to thank all the people who have supported me and contributed to this research project. This study would have been impossible without help and interaction from a long list of wonderful citizens in Kolding and from numerous other supporters. I would like to thank: Nacera Abdelali and Yousra Abdelali, Anna Jensen, Allan Rasmussen, Christian Sørensen, Grethe Jensen, Ilham Ibrahim, Tarek and Karim, Zakaria Zuber, Ole Ravn, Mohammed Ajjawi, Sofiya, Saafa and Salma, “The black children”, The Faktaboys, ´The alcoholics´ Karen Filskov, Kim Rosenstand, Simon Maegaard, Erik Voss, Merethe Due, Lars Uffe, Mustafa Sayegh (Musse), Dorthe Christiane Zinck Iversen, Hanna Andreasen, Louise Munksø, Jytte Nissen, Abdel, Hussein, Suaad, Salma, Florian. All the residents in Skovparken/ Skovvejen who participated in the intervention about naming the centre area and all those who came up to me during my fieldwork and many visits to Skovparken/ Skovvejen and told me your version of living here… The City and the Development Department, Kolding Municipality, first of all for having an interest in the project and an ambition to support it. All the people in the department for making me feel welcome when I came and occupied a table. Jan Krarup for believing in the project and Hans Peter Therkildsen and Klavs Buch Thomsen for inspiring conversations and for never putting any pressure for answers or deliverables (thanks indeed for this). I hope for more future collaboration. Byliv Kolding, Mette Hagensen, Bente Ginnerskov Hansen, Camilla Neve Lieknins, Nanna Carlsen and Ahmed Nasser. Without your help my work in Skovparken/Skovvejen would have been impossible. Bovia Kolding and Per Nielsen for supporting the project both financially and by putting your neighbourhood out there for investigation. Landsbyggefonden for supporting the project financially. Design School Kolding for believing in and supporting this project and me, and for giving me space, time, and comfort while I worked all the pieces together in my pre-doc period. The Alexandra Institute for collaboration in Words Upon A Place, Jens Peter Madsen for helping with the storytelling and Allan Krogh and Kolding Library for supporting the last intervention. My dear friend Nynne Hoe, for reading several of my chapters extremely thoroughly and constantly reminding me to practice having my own voice and taking ownership of the language; and for your friendship and all the inspiring conversation about the mystery of life. Another dear friend, Trine Blicher Folmer, owner of Getto, for discussions regarding the list of reference projects. If anyone reading this needs a skilled architect integrated into their development work of a deprived housing neighbourhood, I would go to her. My PhD companions, Karen Feder, Trine Møller, Louise Ravnløkke, and Anna Mamusu. The PhD journey would have been hopeless without you. And to Sidse Carroll and Bodil Bøjer (even though you jeopardised this ACK :-). Jane Rendell for making writing interesting and creative and theory something that can come to life. Helle Raheem, for patiently polishing up my English. Canan Akoglu, my Supervisor; you deserve a special thank you for your empathy, support and structure. This thesis would probably never have been completed without you. Finally, thanks to my three boys, Carl, Villum and Jann. You are the love of my life.

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