Effectiveness and Disadvantages of Designated Administration in City Parks through Joint Ventures

Abstract

The administrator of a city park must respond to various needs pertaining to parks as a provider of social and ecological services for city sustainability, through both profitable and non-profitable services. Especially for a large city park, it is difficult to cover all requirements through a single administrative party. Thus, a joint venture (JV) constituting multiple parties is one promising way to administer a large city park. This study aims to clarify the effectiveness and tasks of a JV in the designated administration of city parks. The results of questionnaires received from 69 designated administrators of large city parks (43.7% cover rate in study targets) indicated that JVs tended to actively seek new relationships with parties that have never interacted before to realize better park administration. The merits of constituting a JV included complementing limited know-how of park administration and accumulating new know-how in constituent parties. On the other hand, some disadvantages were highlighted, such as an insufficient number of new projects created through collaboration and vertically divided administration due to role sharing. To cope with these problems, better communication among constituent parties and the establishment of a collaborative environment are necessary.

Editorial Introduction

“…First, Imanishi and Nakamura (2019) focus on the advantages and challenges in a participatory management system at the urban park scale, with a questionnaire survey of joint venture activities in Japan. The joint ventures under an emerging designated administrative system were expected to improve the current park management in a more professional and sustainable way, by accumulating knowledge from various professional participants.…”