Case Studies   The Danish Neighbourhood Regeneration Programme. Kvarterløft in Copenhagen

Municipal learning

The experiences from Copenhagen show that regeneration projects such as Kvarterløft may be difficult to link with the ordinary procedures and routines. The local residents’ wishes may, of course, deviate from the municipality’s internal planning and priorities, and the 1-year budgeting may be difficult to combine with resident-managed projects. When, at the same time, it does not become clear until late in the process what the expectations are for the participation of each department, difficulties will occur in the incorporation of the Kvarterløft projects in the departments’ internal planning. This conflict is built into Kvarterløft projects and can only be settled through dialogue, understanding for each other’s working conditions, and flexibility on both sides.

In relation to Kvarterløft the central municipal administration is confronted with new ways of working. The Kvarterløft projects are working across the traditional municipal sectors, which means that the responsibility and the decision making are also spread between the different municipal departments. Therefore if Kvarterløft projects are to function properly the municipality must be willing to give space for different ways of working.

When the municipality of Copenhagen started Kvarterløft, its organisation was not geared to work of this kind. Among other things, the sectored structure of the municipal administration was an obstacle to Kvarterløft projects. For some years however, the municipality has been orientated towards project organisation and a holistic approach across organisational and technical demarcations in the municipal system. Such working methods contribute to gearing the municipality better to participate in projects such as Kvarterløft.

But there are still problems. One dilemma for the municipality is whether to submit decisions made in the working groups which are not democratically representative. The question is if the decisions made in these groups are in accordance with the opinion of the majority in the neighbourhood or whether the initiative and responsibility for the local neighbourhood taken by these residents are sufficient to legitimate their decisions.

Another problem arising from the regeneration projects in relation to the central administration is whether the departments should participate in the local working groups or not. On one hand it could have the effect that new ideas that might be good, could be eliminated as not feasible at a far too early stage. On the other hand the participation of the municipality in the working groups would provide the working groups with information and knowledge on how to form the ideas to fit better in the overall municipality policies. In some of the projects the residents have expressed that participation of the central municipality from the beginning in the working groups would have made it much easier to transform their ideas into reality.

The partnerships between the municipality, the residents and the businesses also demand a lot from all participants. The enterprises work in another tempo than for example the municipality and vice versa. That means that all the different participants have to compromise their way of working. In that way all participants learn different ways of working from the different partners in the partnership. Thus the projects also serve as a learning process for both the municipality and the local neighbourhood.

Many of the techniques used in the regeneration projects have been adopted and used in the municipality - especially regarding how to involve the community in a neighbourhood in the process of deciding how to solve problems and so forth. But still it is primarily inside the departments in the municipality and between the departments.

2.0.5 The type of residents participating in the projects    2.1 Experiences and perspectives