Architecture, Building and Planning - Theses

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End date: 2001 × Start date: 2001 × Type: PhD thesis × Subject: Victoria × Subject: citizen participation ×

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    The practice of citizenship: place, identity and the politics of participation in neighbourhood houses
    Permezel, Melissa ( 2001)
    How people enact citizenship and participate as active and engaged citizens in the communities and society in which they live is a vexed question in the 2lst Century. As Australian cities such as Melbourne become increasingly socially, culturally and economically diverse and polarised, how people fulfil their personal needs and aspirations whilst at the same time, feel part of and contribute to community becomes more complex. This dissertation takes up the themes of engendering participation in urban environments through a focussed study on how people enact citizenship in Neighbourhood Houses of Melbourne. The role of citizenship is gaining increasing attention as both a juridical and moral tenet through which the dilemmas of participation and notions of inclusivity are waged. A major problem with juridical citizenship, however, is its inability to relate to people's everyday experiences of participation. As a result, there is a substantial gap between the formal and informal enactment of citizenship. This undermines its political and everyday application as well as its capacity to be a mechanism through which formal improvements to the participatory experience can be made. Rather than abandoning citizenship, however, this dissertation argues that it is better re-conceptualised as practice and informed by people's everyday experiences. This could be achieved by understanding the informal machinations of participation including how and where people negotiate their identities and gain the necessary skills and knowledge to participate. To explore the practice of citizenship, the dissertation examines the role Neighbourhood Houses in urban localities of Melbourne play in enabling a range of people to achieve the endeavours of citizenship: that is, to be active and engaged individuals who feel part of community and society. Neighbourhood Houses are non-government community initiated organisations located in urban streets throughout Australia. Through a range of formal and informal activities, they attempt to respond to the educational and social support needs of local residents within a geographical area. By examining the role of Neighbourhood Houses, this dissertation makes a theoretical and practical contribution to understanding the functionalities of enacting citizenship. In particular, it brings new light to the role of geography by exploring the relationship between place and identity at the local scale. The socio-spatial relations brought to bear in the neighbourhood house context shows that the presence of informal, low-cost forums in urban streets are critical mechanisms that ameliorate certain barriers to participation and in doing so, facilitate a positive citizenship experience for a range of individuals and groups. People begin to regard themselves as active and engaged citizens who are also part of a community. Importantly, however, whilst supportive social networks are established in the neighbourhood house context, the range of people passing through their doors also facilitates the establishment of communities of difference. In doing so, the understanding of citizenship is broadened to include those who are often excluded but who form part of the heterogeneous public of Australian cities.