Landscape Democracy 2015 Working Group E - Case Study 4

---> back to group page working group E

Please add the title of your case study here, adjust the map coordinates () and replace the moa image with a characteristic image of your site

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.

link title== 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

• Observations
• 

  case representation

• Yourfilename3.jpg

  case representation

• Yourfilename4.jpg

  case representation

link title

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?

As a starting point, the idea of common good and common public spaces needs to be redefined. In addition, the inception of environmental awareness should be used to address this problem and it can be used as a starting point for new solutions. On the other side, governmental bodies should focus more on public necessities and benefits. It is essential that government focus on working transparently in order to regain the faith that citizens lost in them. Also, it is crucial that community gets involved in every phase of projects, from decision making to executing.

Stakeholder Mapping

Create a visual representation of the stakeholder groups that are involved in your case. Try to cover the following aspects in your representation: Power (high, medium, low) / Support (positive, neutral, negative)/ Influence (high or low)/ Need (strong, medium, weak)+ also map the relationships between the stakeholder groups

• Stakeholder Map
• Mystakeholermap.JPG

  Stakeholder Map

Change Scenario

Look at the various methods and tools available and think how they can be applied creatively. Think about the needs of different stakeholder groups - you may need a methodical mix to address them all. Visualize a scenario illustrating how these methods/tools can be applied within an imagined time frame

• Change Scenario
• Mychange szenario.JPG

  Change Scenario

Cross cutting theme

Identify a cross-cutting theme/topic between the cases of your group and write a short reflection on it (approx. 150 words)

Concluding reflections

Reflect on your case and your change model. Potentials? Limitations? (approx. 150 words)

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.

---

About categories: You can add more categories with this tag: "", add your categories