Asset based community development towards sustainable citizen initiatives

Abstract

The topic of this thesis is the sustainability of social artistic practices aimed at neighbourhood change where citizens have the position of initiator. This thesis takes on the vision of asset based community development. In this approach the capacities of inhabitants of neighbourhoods are the starting point and by developing these individual capacities and linking people in neighbourhoods a level of self-help can be achieved. The central question of this thesis is: What factors from the source group and the relevant institutions contribute to inspiring, mobilizing, valuing and further developing sustainable citizen initiatives for social artistic practices that contribute to neighbourhood development?