Beyond Construction Site, beyond informality?

With Aidan Cerar
Beyond small gardens: Beyond Construction Site community garden, pp. 72-79
Urška Jurman, Polonca Lovšin (eds.)
KUD Obrat | Ljubljana | 2021 | ISBN 978-961-95545-0-0

Beyond Construction Site community garden has been active for more that a decade. Located in Ljubljana city centre, it is well known to the public. As a successful case of urban gardening, food supply, community building and temporary land-use management, it has attracted considerable media coverage and experts’ attention. Less attention, however, has been placed on its importance for citizen participation in the city. The article discusses Beyond Construction Site community graden as a case of community building and citizen participation that can help building partnerships between residents, neighbourhood communities, civil society organisations and city government, and in consequence contribute to democratic neighbourhood management and sustainable urban development in Ljubljana. The article argues that the City of Ljubljana has so far failed to take this opportunity and expand citizen participation beyond Beyond Construction Site to urban gardening and community practices in the city.

More about the book on the Beyond Construction Site webpage.

Poljane reinvented: social cohesion and collective space

Poljane: extended city centre, pp. 129-137
Ilka Čerpes, Blaž Križnik, Luka Mladenovič, Marko Studen (eds.)
Municipality of Ljubljana | Ljubljana | 2008 | ISBN 978-961-6449-17-5

Sustainable city and new public spaces are the main topics of the latest edition of Europan. The paper argues, however, that the debate about sustainable city and new public space needs to be translated into more operational concepts such as social cohesion, collective space or identity politics in order to become relevant for the future development of the Poljane area, the Europan site in Slovenia, and for the everyday experience of Ljubljana in general.

Download the article.