Community activation and participatory design: a case study of community building through the community gardens

Abstract

In this research, cases are reported about how residents activated their own communities though the having green garden spaces in urban areas. It is said that people who are living in an urban area just decreasing chances to talk with neighbors during daily life, and sometime they say that even they don’t know who are living in the next door. However those lifestyles are weaken relationships among communities and residents are getting isolated. Now a days, single living elderly person got solitary death in their home and founded a few months or a few years later cases becoming one of blind spot of social security. One thing to prevent those is make connections with neighbors. Neighborhood associations used to work a kind of social safety net, but it doesn’t work very much anymore. Many individuals/NPOs/NGOs/Public sectors are trying to make chances to connect with others, and some of them got succeeded, but the most important thing is a continuation. To fill up those requirements, “Green garden space” is works very well. One reason is everybody can make their own work in the garden and can participate in many ways, even doing nothing and just sitting or standing outside but at least they can enjoy talking about garden with others. The other reason is products in the garden are growing day by day, so people can enjoy them every day. Moreover, people feel seasons and finally will get some fruits from the garden. Those things avoid psychological barrier from participants, and accelerate to participate. It was reported that the chance the person who has not spoken each other till they work in the garden talks mutually increased, the number of acquaintances increased, and the interpersonal relationship became much smoothly through the garden. Those green garden spaces in urban areas are different from that in the rural area or regular farms. People gathering there want not only gardening work or cultivate experiences but also chances communicate with other people work though the gardens. It was not only cultivates the field in the urban area, but also people exchange their skills, products, and experiences though the place then to increase the new partnerships among them.