Local governance of quality of life – through the eyes of the consortium’s young researchers!
Cemre Betul Ay is currently a PhD student and research assistant at Politecnico di Torino. She is the co-author of GOVQoL’s first deliverable – our position paper on local governance of quality of life.
Nina Opitz is studying landscape architecture at the university of applied sciences of Weihenstephan-Triesdorf, Germany. She had the opportunity of joining the University of Ljubljana for a few months and contributed to the work done on GOVQoL.
The consortium built around the GOVQoL project is made up of 2 pan-Alpine NGOs (Alliance in the Alps and CIPRA) and 2 research institutions (POLITO and University of Ljubljana). All involved partners have already taken part in Interreg projects. This new interview aims at changing the lens and collecting the viewpoint of young researchers, new to EU projects and to the topic of governance in relation to landscape planning.
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What is your personal definition of quality of life?
Nina: Services of general interest, and especially basic services such as healthcare and transport infrastructure, are the obvious answer to me. Also because they are so obvious that they are taken for granted and viewed as something that will always be taken care of – when that is not the case. SGIs are linked to general and objective needs, to live in a peaceful and harmonious environment. Subjectively, I would add social infrastructures and open-mindedness as my ingredients for a good quality of life.
Cemre: For me, Quality of Life is about having accessible resources that allow us to enhance our life experiences. When I say “resources,” I mean this in a broad way – ranging from basic needs such as shelter and education to financial and environmental resources. In my opinion, creating an environment where not only individuals but the whole community can reach a sufficient level of accessibility to these resources is the key to achieving a high Quality of Life.
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What is your academic background and how does it relate to GOVQoL?
Nina: I am studying urban planning, landscape design and landscape planning. Landscape planning in particular links back to the concept behind GOVQoL, as governance & policy-making are at the heart of landscape planning. GOVQoL offers a new perspective to spatial planning: it is more general in a sense, less focused on natural resources and climate risks, but connected to the complexity of the local level. The importance of governance was surprising to me, I didn’t think it would necessarily play such a big role, but it is relevant for each and every project at any scale – and it makes sense in the end.
Cemre: I am an urban planner who is interested in the dynamics between urban development, nature protection, and economic growth. In this sense, the Alpine context provides a fascinating setting for understanding how these three topics are interconnected. Each country we are researching in the projects has its own socio-economic characteristics that have been formed during the history, and it is truly interesting to see how these differences have shaped the Alpine territory and its communities and how these conditions influence the local population’s Quality of Life.
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How do you understand the concept of governance?
Cemre: To me, governance is about untying the intertwined aspects of communal life. While providing physical facilities, like housing, education, and healthcare, is a very concrete part of community development, ensuring that these services are accessible to everyone is where things become more complex. Here, Governance is the concept that ties this puzzle together: it involves creating the social and economic opportunities, making decisions to use them, and taking actions to implement them in a way they will improve people’s lives.
Nina: In one of my classes, the teacher asked the question “What is your understanding of governance? How can you translate it into your native language?” … And for me, it was hard to translate into German! Maybe it would be something along the lines of “how the government leads”
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Why is the local level important?
Cemre: Even though many decisions in contemporary systems are made at higher levels, the implementation and the people who feel the effects are at the local level. Local communities have their own specific opportunities and challenges, and as both the practitioners and the target group of these policies, they are the ones who experience real change. That’s why focusing on the local level is crucial for seeing meaningful differences.
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Both of you are taking part in an EU project for first time, what is your first reaction to this kind of work cooperation?
Nina: European projects are definitely important, in connecting topics that are important for different stakeholders in various areas of the Alps. The project is an interesting opportunity to take a peak into other territories and to see how they are dealing with similar issues, without taking borders into account.
Cemre: I believe EU projects offer great opportunities, particularly in terms of funding research in areas that have not been explored much, and in creating networks across similar contexts – which is what we are doing with GovQoL. Throughout the project, we have discovered both the similarities and the differences among Alpine communities across five countries, which helped us to understand how various landscapes of life exist in these regions. On the other hand, considering how large and diverse the EU is, generalization can become a challenge. At the beginning of the project, I didn’t expect such variation within the same macro-region. Grouping all of them under the umbrella of “Alpine communities” can sometimes underestimate their authenticity. It would be great to see more projects that focus on specific contexts as well.
Thank you, Cemre and Nina!