Hanna Fors

The Inherent Politics of Managing the Quality of Urban Green Spaces

Although the term ‘quality’ has a universal positive connotation and typically is framed by a focus on improvements, its application includes as well as excludes the access, values and world views of particular actors and interests. In this article, we highlight the relevance and implications of such ‘inherent politics’ through a case study of a widespread approach to operationalizing quality in urban green space management. We conclude that adoption of any quality model has both limiting and enabling implications for public participation and decision-making and that a critical stance is needed within both research and practice for the development of quality models that connect to values of broader societal relevance.

The governance of landscape management: new approaches to urban open space development

ABSTRACT The concept and practice of urban open space (UOS) management is becoming increasingly influenced by varying governance arrangements for participatory co-development. These varying arrangements generate multifaceted approaches to UOS management as well as to landscape architecture more broadly. Governance and management constitute two central themes within UOS development, but their combination has so far been little addressed, despite its potential in addressing different desired values and processes. This paper uses a secondary case study approach to highlight and analyse this combination in different contexts and discusses conceptual use and knowledge gaps within landscape architecture, critically rethinking current process logics, reflecting on new tendencies for co- and self-management and discussing consequences for theory and practice. The conceptual understanding of governance approaches in UOS management presented may be useful for sustainable long-term development of UOS.