Development process of publicness of a community garden established by the Kashiniwa program

要旨

Parks established and maintained by the public sector have long been playing a major role in Japanese open space plans. However, Japanese cities, not only in remote areas but in major urban regions, are now starting to shrink due to rapidly aging and shrinking population, and under such circumstances provisional community gardens established and maintained by local residents are becoming to play an indispensable role in maintaining public spheres in a local community. This study aims to identify the development process of a community garden as a public sphere by having Jiyu Hiroba established by the Kashiniwa program in Kashiwa City, Chiba prefecture, as a case study. Documents including site plans illustrated by residents and annual management reports were collected, and then in-depth interviews were conducted by having neighborhood association members as the subjects. As the result of literature and interview surveys it was identified that “publicness” of the community garden in Jiyu Hiroba was gradually enhanced by aggregating plural “privatenesses” with occasional interventions by the public sector. Community gardens with publicness, as a result of aggregated privatenesses, were understood as new public spheres suitable for future shrinking cities in Japan.

主題