Place-keeping: capturing and developing the capacity of cross-sector partnerships to deliver successful green spaces

This project aims to examine the extent to which cross-sector partnerships are effective in managing green spaces. There is a long history of public, private, third sector organisations and community stakeholders involved in the management and maintenance of green spaces. However, we do not know how successful cross-sector partnerships (i.e. those made up of stakeholders from different sectors) are at achieving good green space management. The economic recession has led to severe budget cuts by local authorities to green space management, in essence because they are under no legal obligation to provide it - unlike health service and education provision, green space management is a non-statutory service. Nevertheless, the benefits of good quality green space have been well-documented in research, and local authorities are under pressure to continue to provide good-quality green space with considerably fewer resources. In this way, local authorities (such as Sheffield City Council) are looking to involve communities and organisations from other sectors much more in how they deliver green space management on the ground. This might range from specific activities such as grass cutting and litter picking to becoming landowners and running existing facilities (e.g. cafes). But the motivations, responsibilities, commitment and skills of partners from different sectors are as yet unclear in relation to green space management. This project aims to make sense of the complexity of cross-sector partnerships through the concept of place-keeping. Place-keeping is long-term and flexible management of green spaces which ensures that they can be enjoyed by all users now and in the future. Place-keeping acknowledges that partnerships are one element of successful green space management, alongside decision-making, design and maintenance, policy, funding and evaluation. Initial research into place-keeping in Sheffield undertaken by the academic project partners shows that poor communication both internally and between organisations to share knowledge and information may be a key barrier to effective green space management. To address these gaps in our knowledge, this project aims to answer the following questions:
- Who does place-keeping?
- How does place-keeping work on the ground when in partnership with cross-sector organisations?
- What are the barriers to successful place-keeping partnerships?
The project team will focus on place-keeping in two areas of the city of Sheffield. These areas have been selected following the 'Place-making and place-keeping' conference (summer 2012, Sheffield). Conference participants identified a need to explore place-keeping in more detail in the city, and the areas of the north and south-east of Sheffield were selected at a meeting with non-academic project partners. The project team will use a research method, 'partnership capacity analysis', which has been developed by academic project partners to evaluate the nature and extent of contribution that partners make, individually and together, to cross-sector partnerships.
As well as exploring how successful partnerships are for place-keeping, the project is primarily aimed at improving knowledge exchange between academics, policymakers and place-keeping practitioners in general (i.e. those individuals, groups and organisations who are involved in any aspect of green space management). The project team will host a series of workshops, interviews and a final event to provide participants with the opportunity to explore place-keeping in partnership, contribute to the project findings and help refine the method of partnership capacity analysis. The team will also create an interactive place-keeping website as an important tool for knowledge sharing. This team is made up of one academic and five non-academic partners to ensure that the project is as useful and relevant to those practitioners who are engaged in place-keeping on an everyday basis.

Who will benefit from this knowledge exchange project?
Alongside the project partners, the following beneficiaries will be interested in, and benefit directly from, the project's focus on place-keeping:
Public sector including Sheffield City Council departments (particularly Parks and Countryside, Planning, Roads and Transport) and Core City councils (including Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Nottingham); and at a local level, Community Assemblies in Sheffield;
Private sector including contractors employed (e.g. by councils) to engage in place-keeping activities (such as maintenance of verges and tree management); businesses using green space volunteering within corporate social responsibility programmes, and interested in active engagement in place-keeping in green space (e.g. through sponsorship);
Third sector including organisations engaged in green space management including social enterprises, contracting organisations and trusts, who may rely on volunteers to deliver place-keeping activities on the ground;
Community groups including Friends groups, Tenants and Residents Associations, sports groups whose are engaged in place-keeping activities within green spaces such as parks and residential areas;
The wider public who use green spaces in Sheffield (and beyond Sheffield in the Core Cities) will benefit indirectly from this project.
How will they benefit?
This project will contribute directly to increasing cross-sector capacity in Sheffield to deliver place-keeping in times of economic constraint. This project uses innovative research methods to explore how place-keeping happens in partnership, fully involving public, private, third sectors and community group users and beneficiaries. The project's focus on cross-sector partnerships has not been explored before in relation to green space management, and has been highlighted by practitioners, who participated in the recent 'Place-making and place-keeping' conference, as an important gap in their knowledge. This project builds on this conference held in Sheffield (July 2012) by using findings and contributions from participants to inform the collaborative development of this project. The project provides cross-sector users and beneficiaries with the valuable opportunity to come together to reflect on individual and collective contributions to partnerships, and see how place-keeping knowledge and information flows between/ among different practitioners, and identify the gaps and barriers to good communication. With place-keeping as the linchpin of this project, and the university as non-partisan facilitator, the project will provide an innovative forum for cross-sector users and beneficiaries to come together and share their knowledge collaboratively in an inclusive environment. Participating in the project workshops/ event and making use of the resources made publicly available on the project website means that users and beneficiaries will have the opportunity to improve their working practices through better communication and sustained knowledge exchange. This will help contribute to better decision-making about use of scarce resources and ultimately contribute to benefiting the wider public by improving place-keeping activities on the ground. In addition, using digital media will help reach a wider range of people such as younger people who may not currently be active in (or aware of) place-keeping. The final event will be a high-profile event aimed at keeping place-keeping on the political agenda by ensuring the involvement of policymakers from Sheffield, members of the Core Cities group and other place-keeping practitioners and professionals around the UK. Users and beneficiaries will continue to benefit from this project beyond the one year timescale as the website will be active for much longer, and the team will develop findings to develop new project proposals and produce articles in practitioner-focused journals/ outlets.