12-11-2020 // HERE WE GO
Approaching stakeholders in the Emmasingelkwadrant
Meeting with Monique
We were ready to start engaging with the locals, starting with the entrepreneurs we thought would have already established some kind of social relationships with inhabitants. Starting with a coffee place, ZwartWit, we gained insights into what energy already lives in the area. Just like we had hoped, the staff was able to connect us to even more potential stakeholders. Underneath we will elaborate on the insights we have gained per individual conversation, ending the text with insights in trends we have gained from the conversations overall.
MOBILE INTERVIEWING
Wednesday 11 November, we went to the Emmasingelkwadrant. At the end of the morning, we had an appointment with Jenko, the manager of ZwartWit. As we indicated in our previous blog, we have not created a list of stated questions to ask. It is not crucial to have the ability to ask smart questions, but the talent to listen carefully to what someone has to say and ask for further explanation in an appreciative way. We choose ‘mobile interviewing’ as our design research approach. This means that we try to avoid the somewhat artificial setting and role division between us and the one we talk to. Our starting point was to choose the Emmasingelkwadrant, more specific the Victoria Park, as a spatial context that has relevant stimuli. We wanted to create a natural interaction between us and the one we spoke to. We want to get a feeling of the stakeholder experience that is related to the specific context, namely the Emmasingelkwadrant and the Victoria Park. Therefore, mobile interviewing was for us the most suitable method within our research design (Rooijackers, n.d.).
ZWARTWIT KOFFIE
The conversation with Jenko started with a short introduction about us and what we are doing. We immediately noticed that Jenko was interested in what we were doing, but wondered to what extent change was possible with regard to the liveability in this area. This because several things have been promised to the stakeholders, the main promise being the Victoria Park, but in general little action is taken in his opinion. In addition, he has the feeling not much will be done with the input organizations or inhabitants give. At the moment he has a ‘hard head’ in the situation and just waits for the park to be built. As the conversation progressed and we became more responsive to Jenko's needs, we noticed that he became more involved in the situation and shared his thoughts about making the area more liveable. Although we ended up talking mainly about concrete ideas, such as a market and a neighborhood BBQ, we saw Jenko become more enthusiastic. We indicated that concrete ideas can only take place when there is a community and stakeholders are united to take action. There was a big difference between the attitude Jenko had towards our project at the beginning of the conversation and the attitude he had at the end of the conversation. He was more positive about making the area more liveable in the run-up to the developments and indicated that he would like to think along when a stakeholder meeting is organized. This was something we experienced as positive; we noticed that he had to be convicted a bit to see the essence of improving the living experience in the area. We also asked Jenko who else he thinks we should approach in this area. Jenko indicated that we should look at which neighborhood associations are active and mentioned Holland2Stay, a property management specialist based in the Victoria Park Lighting apartment complex. This organization can be interesting to get in touch with internationals.
DE HUISKAMER
Our second stakeholder on the list was De Huiskamer, a youth center located next to the Victoria Park. We have been in touch with Claudia through a phone call. She was pleased with our project. However, it is difficult for them to welcome people on location; they can only welcome 15 people per day at the moment. They will of course give priority to the refugees. Claudia indicated that they have contact with Vital Zone about "the bench" that can be adopted by various entrepreneurs in the area to stimulate conversations between people. She also indicated that De Huiskamer has already shared their ideas several times with, among others, students who were doing an internship at the Municipality of Eindhoven, or students who were doing a project for other studies. She often hears little or nothing back after sharing their thoughts. That's why she was holding back a bit to share their thoughts with us. Nevertheless, she has now promised us to discuss internally what the needs of De Huiskamer are after explaining the essence of our project. She will share with us via email what they have discussed internally. In this email, she will also indicate what they are already actively working on, their connection with residents, and people with whom they already work. They will immediately check who we could possibly approach further.
PUBLIC LIBRARY & TEMPORARY ART CENTER
The library and the TAC were the third and fourth stakeholders on our list that we wanted to speak with. Monique gave us the contact details from Susan, who works for the library. Susan has already suggested several ideas last summer, but because of COVID-19 these ideas could not take place. We had tried to call her a number of times but without success. Finally, we decided to stop by, not realizing that the library was closed due to Corona. After leaving a voicemail, she called us back. We briefly told her what we are doing. Although she immediately indicated that she had several ideas that could not continue because of Corona, we indicated that we only wanted to talk to her about the needs of the library in this area. In general, every stakeholder thinks equally in terms of concrete ideas. This is not surprising, of course, it is logical that everyone immediately visualizes what the possibilities are. However, a community must be created first. Because who is going to put all these concrete ideas into practice? Susan was open to talking to us. We have a meeting scheduled with her on Wednesday, November 18.
From the TAC we approached Davy, who is responsible for the communication of the TAC. He is also willing to talk to us. We have scheduled a meeting with him on Tuesday 17 November.
AND FURTHER...
While we were standing in front of ZwartWit and were thinking about how to continue the day, Sebastiaan came to us. Sebastiaan works at ZwartWit and knows Jesse. He asked us if it is correct that we are working on a project to improve the living experience in the area. When we confirmed and said that we are looking for interesting stakeholders in the area to approach, Sebastiaan indicated that he wanted to help us. Sebastiaan knows many people (personally) who visit ZwartWit regularly and will see who is willing to talk to us.
Two residents from the Victoria Park Lighting apartment complex arrived and Sebastiaan immediately referred them to us. We talked to Femke for 15 minutes to find out how she thought about the neighborhood, what she appreciated about the neighborhood, and what she would like to see differently. When we started talking about the living experience and her needs with regard to the neighborhood, she described a number of things that she would like to see differently and she also came up with concrete ideas. One of the things that she would like to see differently, are the trash containers that are always too full. We can add Femke to the list of stakeholders that we can approach when we organize a stakeholder meeting to map out the needs and to see how we can improve the living experience in the neighborhood.
Femke had just left when the next resident of the Victoria Park Lighting apartment complex was open to talking to us. Edwin shared with us how he felt about the neighborhood and what he would like to see differently. We also asked him if we could approach him when we organize a stakeholder meeting. He was open to this, which means that we can add another resident of the Emmasingelkwadrant to the list of people who would like to contribute ideas about improving the living experience in the area.
STRIKING INFORMATION
- The stakeholders we spoke to are generally skeptical at first. As the conversation progresses and we tell them more about the approach of the project and focus on the needs of the stakeholders, we notice that the stakeholders are more enthusiastic, want to share more, and are open to thinking about improving the living experience.
- In general, the stakeholders name concrete things about what it is like now and how they would like to see it. The concrete things they refer to as "negative" or "points for improvement" are mainly things such as the park that looks like a construction site (such as the pile of sand and grass) and the possibilities that the park offers. Or actually, don't offer. For example, the stakeholders we have spoken would like benches to enjoy the outdoors. What is interesting about this is that the benches have been removed, because it would cause nuisance and attract people who should not be attracted. When we started talking about the inconvenience that would occur, most stakeholders indicated that they did not experience it that much. During the liveability meeting, it was clearly stated that there is a lot of nuisance. This is striking, who are the stakeholders who experience this nuisance, and is the nuisance actually very present?
- A number of companies and organizations were also named that could be interesting, but are not located in the Emmasingelkwadrant. These are the Reuring Dienst, Holland Expat Center, and Studio Smelt. The Facebook group of the Victoria Park Lightning was also mentioned as a possible way to get in touch with internationals.
HOLLAND2STAY & INHABITANT
Sebastiaan van ZwartWit has indicated that he wants to help us. We can create a list where people can leave their data so that we can approach them. After we left, Sebastiaan got the contact details of two stakeholders. One of the stakeholders is Christian, a resident of the Emmasingelkwadrant and (if we heard correct) inhabitant of the apartment complex De Graaf. He is active in the neighborhood, so could be a useful stakeholder for us to approach. Sebastiaan also got the contact details from Freek. Freek is the area manager for Holland2Stay. This can also be an interesting stakeholder; precisely because we already wanted to approach Holland2Stay. We approached them both by email.
MEETING MONIQUE
The Thursday after our day in the Emmasingelkwadrant, we had our weekly meeting with Monique again. Monique named Inge Feijen as a possible interesting stakeholder. She works for the municipality of Eindhoven, but lives in the Emmasingelkwadrant and may be able to identify a number of interesting stakeholders. We have sent Inge an email.
The Design Academy contacted Monique to be involved in the Emmasingelkwadrant in a certain way. There are no concrete details yet, but Monique has asked if the Design Academy would like to be approached by us.
Monique has also stated that the Studio of the municipality of Eindhoven can create and print the necessary things. We may want to make use of this possibility. We were thinking of having stickers created and a list where people can leave their contact details. This will be continued.
CONCLUSION
Apart from all the insights we got from the individual conversations, we feel that we can already distinguish some sort of trends amongst residents and local entrepreneurs by linking individual insights.
Overall it struck us that the stakeholders obviously have issues with the situation. However, most of them do not feel the urgency to get up and change things. Initially, locals seem to have the tendency to maintain a passive attitude towards the situation while on the other hand, they indicate to be willing to undertake action when the times again allow organizing for the neighborhood. Therefore, we are under the impression that the Corona pandemic definitely influences the attitude of locals towards actively engaging in the community as they see limited possibilities.
To be more concrete, they seem to be more willing to get involved when the park has been built than they are at this point in time.
Moreover, they seem to be lacking a bit of trust in the municipality and its willingness to improve the livability in terms of investing and living up to ‘promises’ or their plans as communicated. This also applies to other organizations and students who have tried to organize something in this area before. The stakeholders feel that it makes no sense because they feel that nothing is being done with their input anyway. Nevertheless, everyone that was willing to speak to us would like to hear of any further progress along the process of our assignment.
It seems to be a challenge to make the stakeholders feel the urgency of acting at this point in time. Therefore, we will probably have to find a way to clarify the importance of uniting and organizing themselves already even before they will be able to organize events for the neighborhood. When we talk about how that could help with making sure that they are able to organize things on a sustainable basis rather than just organizing one cool event, we do seem to catch their interest. Nevertheless, we see the possibilities of convincing them of the value hidden in organizing themselves as a community and standing up for their interests.
In the coming time, we will try to keep an open mind regarding our own perspective and investigate if our assumptions as we have now are true or should be readjusted. We will analyze all the gathered perspectives via KUMU.
REFERENCES
Rooijackers, M. (n.d.). Design Research. Retrieved 11 November 2020, from https://buas.libguides.com/designresearch
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