The vital importance of activation and participation is undisputed in both city and borough councils. But, as is the case with neighbourhood management, the municipalities have very different ideas about what activation and participation actually mean. There is little consensus on who should be activated and encouraged to participate by whom by which means and with what aims. The point is often made that activation and participation cannot realistically be treated separately, since activation always has a participatory effect and all forms of participation are a manifestation of activation. However, observation of onsite activities reveals that many municipalities offer conventional "top down" participation opportunities, hoping that they will have activating effects, only to discover that the participatory panels which they set up attract little or no interest from local residents. Therefore it is important to analyse activation as a separate issue.(1)
Activation is also a central component of urban district social work and community action: "District resident activation work following the tradition of community action is a process with no specific reference to any particular projects or themes. Such work (usually) continues over many years. It does not exclude flagship initiatives but its main aim is to mobilize a neighbourhood through a large number of smaller activation measures based on the openly expressed, yet sometimes fickle, interests of residents. These measures then become seed beds for larger individual projects."(2) If district development strategies were implemented without mobilizing the people concerned, they would have very limited impact on the community and little chance of permanently contributing to neighbourhood improvement. It is therefore necessary to "organize the collective aspects of individual concerns, to bring people together around a single table, to strengthen neighbourhoods and to mobilize local potential. The key phrases are: communication, innovation and organization of human and financial resources." Combining these aspects should allow municipalities to "tap existing interests, activities and needs as useful tools for improving community life." The most important principles of district social work are therefore identifying the wishes of inhabitants – the question "What do you want?" instead of "What do you need?" – and utilization of existing district or neighbourhood resources. "Anyone wanting to empower people to enhance their potential must take the time to learn what makes them tick."(3)
"Activation" can therefore be understood as all available techniques for targeting individuals and groups in a neighbourhood and getting them to communicate with one another. Activation goals include establishing and maintaining contact with neighbourhood residents, identifying the problems they may experience in everyday life, and investigating and inspiring willingness to participate in district development. Activities are therefore primarily relatively informal and not project-specific. Often they consist of outreach approaches. Tasks are: activating surveys; advice services; outreach work; street work; networking of individual players, institutions and organizations; moderation; mediation in conflict situations; organization of assemblies, (district) festivals, celebrations, events, campaigns, neighbourhood walks and open days; and information services. Neighbourhood public relations work such as publishing (multi-lingual) district newspapers, posters, pamphlets, brochures, newsletters, and web pages, and devising logos and slogans are other important activation tasks.(4)
Participation, on the other hand, is more formal. Its processes are more or less planned and have a concrete programme, a specific location, a set schedule. Participation processes have relatively explicit objectives (e.g. discussing precise themes, developing projects, representing interest groups). Forms of participation include district conferences, district and citizen forums, future-building workshops, lay expertises, task forces, task groups, workshops and participation-oriented projects.
(1) Vgl. auch: Thomas Franke, Aktivierung und Beteiligung
im Rahmen des Programms "Soziale
Stadt", in: Soziale Stadt info, Nr. 7 (2002), S.
2-6.
(2) Hierzu und zum Folgenden: Wolfgang Hinte, Bewohner
ermutigen, aktivieren, organisieren.
Methoden und Strukturen für ein effektives
Quartiermanagement: http://www.stadtteilarbeit.de/Seiten/Theorie/Hinte/Quartiermanagement.htm
(Stand 9/2001).
(3) Maria Lüttringhaus, Förderung von
Partizipation durch integrierte Kommunalpolitik: http://www.stadtteilarbeit.de/Seiten/Theorie/Luettringhaus/Buergerbeteiligung.htm
(Stand 9/2001).
(4) Vgl. Marion Mohrlock, Michaela Neubauer, Rainer
Neubauer und Walter Schönfelder, Let’s
Organize! Gemeinwesenarbeit und Community Organization im
Vergleich, München 1993, S. 223 f.
(Reihe Gemeinwesenarbeit, AG SPAK Bücher M 113).
Translated from: Soziale Stadt - Strategien für die Soziale Stadt, Erfahrungen und Perspektiven – Umsetzung des Bund-Länder-Programms „Stadtteile mit besonderem Entwicklungsbedarf – die soziale Stadt", Deutsches Institut für Urbanistik 2003
