Public Sektor Phd-Project
The Landscape Room
Raet National Park in Arendal.
The third case is located in ” the Landscape Room” in the coastal areas. Here I want to follow and investigate this coastal zone mobilisation and population involvement within the Raet National Park. The plan for this area is included in the municipal area plan. In the current municipal plan, the city council of Arendal has established a coastal policy zone with the aim of taking care of both further development of living and working functions related to the sea, as well as the coastal zone and the resources of the ocean. In the current area plan, it is proposed in uninhabited coastal zones to ensure the natural and cultural environment, outdoor life, landscape and other general interests. The Raet National Park was established in 2016 by a decision in the Norwegian Parliament in order to protect a large natural area in the sea and on land in the Arendal region, as well as in two other neighbour municipalities. The area consists of a varied coastal landscape and interesting ecosystems with a large diversity of species, as well as well-preserved geological sites with great natural historic value. The area is very important for outdoor activities and of increasing interest for tourism. In Arendal, the national park encompasses the entire municipality’s outer coastal line. In order to reinforce the protection beyond the national administration’s formal regime, the municipality of Arendal, together with “With a Heart For Arendal”, wishes to mobilise the civil society in a “bottom up” process, and through participation, ensuring common ownership of the purpose of the national park. A mobilisation project called “Our Beaches” has been launched, where the population and visitors collect rubbish and plastic along the beaches in the area. The project is an extension of the project “ Clean a beach” in Arendal, and is a collaboration between “ Our Beaches”, GRID Arendal, “With a Heart For Arendal”, the Municipality of Arendal and various collaborations and organisations. A main project was promoted in February 2017 and also supported by “Plastretur”. The idea is that this project, together with related initiatives driven by the inhabitants, can pave the way for a new type of coastal zone management, in which the entire civil society contributes to the fulfilment of the municipal plan for the area. The leadership of Raet build on and connect to the initiative “ Friends of Hove”. This initiative has been providing pathways for walks and maintained the forests and farming areas together with farmers and landowners. This organisation was the first of its kind when it started years ago. The multilevel management model of the park with the national, regional and local level involved, also has a broad involvement and comprises a diversity of actors and groups. The added value of this broad participatory approach, will be the subject for further research based on the methodological approaches and the research questions in this PhD-project. The case study will be based on analytical perspectives like placemaking, place-shaping, place leadership, place management, place communication and place-innovation. Social capital, cultural- and other resource- approaches, and the degrees of participation and co-creation for various actors will also be analysed.