Landscape Democracy 2015 Working Group E - Case Study 4

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Place name	Picin Park
Location	Banja Luka
Country	Bosnia Herzegovina
Author(s)	Azra Kunic

Rationale: Why have you chosen this case for the landscape and democracy seminar?

Banja Luka is a second largest city in Bosnia and Hercegovina, country located in a south-western Europe. Back in 2003, the assembly of City of Banja Luka gave a permission to local real estate developer to build large (30.000m2) mixed used project (mostly residential and commercial). The location for this development was an area known as a public park with common name Picin Park. This unformal park, was one of the few green areas in the city center of Banja Luka. In 2012, when construction work commenced, citizens of Banja Luka led by environmental enthusiasts formed an initiative called “Park is ours” and protested daily for over a year. This was the first time that people protested over environmental issues given that the country is struggling economically and socially. Unfortunately protests did not stop the construction, but it brought together large number of citizens and NGOs and triggered many unsolved structural issues in the country.

Representation of your observations

• you are basically free to use one or a mix of different presentation techniques
• possibilities are: analytical drawings, graphical representations, collages, video clips, comic/graphic novel, written essay/visual essay
• please add any visual material to the gallery, videos can be placed below, you may add text as you like

• Design Synthesis Drawings
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  case representation

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  case representation

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  case representation

Reflection

What are the major challenges for changing the situation?

Bosnia and Herzegovina, being a country in transition, has many structural problems that go beyond environmental issues. Corruption on every level of government is one of the major challenges that needs to be solved together with high level of bureaucracy that usually takes a long time especially when it comes to decision making process. In addition, lack of transparency is another serious issues which led to citizens losing faith in government and their competency. Following, citizens are left out when it comes to decision making process,although, the project dealt with public place that was commonly used by citizens for many years. This being said, it is obvious that leading government bodies have little or no interest in public necessities and its benefits. This led to the phenomenon where citizens partially or entirely lose identification with the city and the feeling of belonging to a place.

What could be a starting point for democractically-based change?

• Please add approx. 150 words for each questions

References

* Please make sure that you give proper references of all external resources used.

* Do not use images of which you do not hold the copyright.

* Please add internet links to other resources if necessary.

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