Improving Living Quality in L-Flat through Participatory Action Research

Categories Finished, Living quality, Netherlands

Description

The L-Flat in Vollenhove, Zeist belongs to the biggest gallery flats in western Europe. About 2000 people from over 60 different nationalities inhabit the flat. The L-Flat was built in the sixties as a response to the enormous housing shortage after World War II and in 1968, the first people took their residence in the flat. Since it’s opening, problems have been signalled concerning vandalism, criminality and contamination of the environment by garbage. Due to the fast in- and outflow of inhabitants and its multi-culturality, social cohesion among inhabitants remains low. Especially the contamination of the environment due to garbage and underlying causes has triggered the municipality of Zeist to start an action research to tackle this issue together with inhabitants and other stakeholders. In order to give respondents space to express their main issues and identify underlying issues, the subject has been broadened from ‘garbage’ to ‘improving living quality’.

Project details Vollenhove in the Picture

The Participatory Action Research project is an intensive 13-week cooperation between 7Senses and the municipality of Zeist, in which two 7Senses – action researchers participate and 6 municipality employees are ‘trained on the job’ in action research by 7Senses. In a multi-disciplinary team they performed Participatory Action Research in the L-Flat to boost community empowerment of residents and local organisations while at the same time work on their own personal and professional development.

Project name	Vollenhove in the Picture
Start date	January 2018
Duration	Three months
Status	Finished
Country	The Netherlands
Coordinators	Madelon Eelderink, Mariëlle Sluiter, Jorieke Vermeulen
Number of action researchers	Eight

Each Participatory Action Research starts from a community issue, addressed by its problem owners at location. As such, we make sure the action research is based on local demand rather than donor demand. Together with these local stakeholders, we design the action research in a way that fits the local context, from the problem framing up to methodology and concept definitions.

Problem Definition

Objective

Main Research Question

Sub Questions

Methods

Concepts

Each action research delivers direct outcomes for the local community on the addressed issue: we can share how many people have been reached, what their perspective is on the current and desired situation and what final Community Action Plan (CAP) they have co-created and implemented. In a later stage, local stakeholders will evaluate the impact of the CAP. Since this project is currently running, the outcomes and impact of this action research are not yet clear. As soon as we have results it will be presented here.