Busschers, Thom (2021) The transition from shrinkage to ‘smart shrinkage’ in the Eemsdelta. Master thesis.
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Abstract
Shrinkage is a driver for economic and social bust situations, influencing the liveability within regions. Those ‘shrinking regions’, are faced with an outmigration of youth, closing facilities and an ageing population. The ambition of the municipality to minimize the negative effects of shrinkage and keep high levels of liveability, is called smart shrinkage. In contrast to shrinkage, smart shrinkage aims at creating liveability levels among citizens that are not negatively affected by shrinkage. This thesis investigates the transition from shrinkage towards smart shrinkage by focusing on the importance of citizen participation. The area under study is the municipality of Eemsdelta, located in the north-eastern part of the province of Groningen. In this case study, consisting of interview and questionnaires, citizen participation, governance and institutional capacity building are analysed through the lens of Evolutionary Governance Theory (EGT). EGT creates an overview of the different path-, inter- and goal dependencies within Eemsdelta. By investigating how these dependencies evolved, I aim to contribute to developing possible strategies for the future. The data resulted in guidelines which are visualized in the wheel of shrinkage, that shows from an abstract level towards a place-based strategy, a possible direction to go within the transition towards smart shrinkage. The multi-actor, multi-dimensional and multi-scale characteristics of the transition explain the importance of citizen participation and form the heart of the wheel. A successful transition goes hand in hand with active leadership, trust, ambition and especially cooperation. Citizen participation is thus a cornerstone within this transition.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master) |
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| Degree programme: | Environmental & Infrastructure Planning |
| Supervisor: | Vaart, G. van der |
| Date Deposited: | 23 Jul 2021 11:52 |
| Last Modified: | 23 Jul 2021 11:52 |
| URI: | https://frw.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/3602 |
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