The art of bonding: informational capital in Dutch green urban citizens’ initiatives

Abstract

Today’s western society is characterized by a transition towards self-organization by citizens in communities. Increasingly, societal problems are addressed by groups of citizens who take action to find concrete solutions. A second feature of western society is that it is an information society in which information and communication play a key role. In this paper, we analyse how these two societal trends come together at the community level. Applying a relational and contingent perspective to how green urban citizens’ initiatives develop, we look into the role of information in their interactions with other people, organizations and institutions. We analyse the mechanisms whereby information plays a role in the citizens’ initiatives. This leads to the conclusion that informational capital is fundamental to the realization of citizens’ initiatives and that informational capital is generated, identified, used and enlarged through the relational strategies of bonding, bridging and linking. It is a process that works in both ways and reinforces citizens’ initiatives.

Towards a Sustainable Landscape: Constructing Identities and Ambitions in a Citizen Initiative in the Making

“…Van Dam et al [9], however, found that information about the environment and relevant actors has a great effect on how an initiative meaningfully positions itself. Both formal and informal communication should function as antennae for exploring and mapping the environment and adjusting an organisation at the right time and in the right way in order to function optimally in realising its ambitions and at the same time build constructive relations [35].…”

“…Demands and impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss, food production systems, energy transition, and flood-risk protection are putting our landscape under pressure [1,2]. Concurrently, there is a proliferation of self-organised citizen initiatives in support of improving the quality of the living environment [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. The involvement of citizens in policy development and implementation is not new as it reflects a broader societal and scientific trend over the last twenty years, which is known as the transformation from government to governance [11,12].…”

“…Participation refers to practices whereby the government invites citizens to participate, in various degrees, in procedures and frameworks set by governmental agencies [18]. Self-organisation is initiated by citizens who organise themselves in order to realise a collective ambition [9,19] in which citizens themselves define the goals and how to achieve them, independent from governmental or other external organisations [10]. Arnstein's [20] participation ladder distinguishes between different degrees of participation, whereby a citizen initiative could be placed at the end of the ladder, where citizens take the initiative and ask the government for support.…”

Groenvoorziening in sociale woningbouw : Stand van zaken in literatuur en praktijk voor het project ‘Prettig Groen Wonen’

“…De doelgroepen in de sociale woningbouw geven geen prioriteit aan lokale groen-/gezondheidsprojecten in private en publieke ruimten en slagen er niet in hun bijdrage langjarig te leveren. Dit in tegenstelling tot wijken met andere sociaaleconomische klassen, waar wel succesvolle buurtinitiatieven plaatsvinden (Van Dam et al, 2017). Er is in armere buurten dus sturing en trekkerschap van andere actoren dan de bewoners nodig om projecten van de grond te tillen en te continueren.…”

De toegankelijkheid van Jufferswaardin Renkum : bezoekaantallen, burgerparticipatie en communicatie

“…Sociaal kapitaal is zowel belangrijk voor de relaties binnen een organisatie als voor de relaties van een stakeholder met andere stakeholders, beiden kunnen bepalend zijn voor de invloed van een stakeholder (Hassink et al, 2016;van Dam et al, 2017). Sociaal kapitaal binnen een organisatie zorgt ervoor dat de organisatie een hecht netwerk is.…”