Municipal co-creation with the citizens in Allerød Municipality: Governance, planning, democracy, organizational management and citizen involvement

Municipal co-creation with the citizens in Allerød Municipality

Rigtrup, Michael

4. term

Sustaianable Cities, Master

2018

73

Dette speciale undersøger forholdet mellem en kommunal institution og offentligheden – forstået som borgere, foreninger og virksomheder – med Allerød Kommunes Visionsproces som case. Fokus er, hvordan borgerinddragelse i den strategiske planlægning organisatorisk kan forbedre relationen mellem dem, der leverer kommunale ydelser, og dem, der modtager dem. Den teoretiske ramme bygger på moderne styringsparadigmer i kommuner, fra hierarkisk styring til borgerinddragende og netværksorienteret governance, og anvender demokratibegreber til at vurdere saglighed og demokratisk kvalitet. Empirisk bygger studiet på analyse af interne procesdokumenter, der understøtter udarbejdelsen af kommunens visionære retning, samt publiceret litteratur om andre eksempler på borgerinddragelse i politikudvikling og byplanlægning. Desuden indgår interviews og exit-surveys fra et borgermøde for at få kvalitative indsigter fra både medarbejdere i administrationen og aktivt deltagende borgere. Undersøgelsen vurderer intentioner og design i de interne processer for at se, hvordan målet om borgerinddragelse bliver omsat i praksis. Konklusionen er, at styringsprocesserne ligner en hybrid mellem ældre hierarkiske og nyere netværksbaserede tilgange, som hver har fordele og ulemper set fra et demokratisk perspektiv. Emnerne i Visionsprocessen bliver ikke kun defineret administrativt, men også formet gennem strukturerede borgerbidrag. Samtidig peger studiet på, at en stærkere borgerinddragelse kan forbedre relationen mellem kommune og borgere, men at der mangler en mere systematisk evaluering, og at den afsatte tid var kort i forhold til Visionsprocessens samlede forløb.

This thesis examines the relationship between a municipal institution and the public—defined as citizens, associations, and businesses—using Allerød Municipality’s Visionsproces (vision process) as a case. It focuses on how citizen involvement in strategic planning, viewed from an organizational perspective, can improve the relationship between those who provide municipal services and those who receive them. The theoretical framework draws on modern governance paradigms in municipal organizations, ranging from hierarchical government to citizen-inclusive and network-oriented governance, and uses democratic concepts to assess objectivity and democratic quality. Empirically, the study analyzes internal process documents used to shape the municipality’s visionary direction, as well as published literature on other cases of citizen inclusion in policymaking and urban planning. It also includes interviews and exit surveys from a citizen gathering to gain qualitative insights from both administrative staff and actively involved citizens. The analysis evaluates the intentions and design of internal processes to understand how the goal of citizen inclusion is pursued in practice. The study concludes that governance practices resemble a hybrid of older hierarchical and newer network-based approaches, each with democratic strengths and weaknesses. The topics addressed in the Visionsproces are shaped not only administratively but also through structured citizen input. It further finds that pursuing stronger citizen involvement can improve relations between the municipality and citizens, but that systematic evaluation is lacking and the allotted time was short in relation to the overall length of the Visionsproces.

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