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Short abstract:

We analyse how citizen's actions in low-income neighborhoods defy standard expectations of participation and therefore remain invisible. First; through “watchful attendance”, second; the re-definition of neighborhood problems and third; by stepping outside of delineated spaces for participation.

Long abstract:

Healthy cities and neighborhoods require the participation of citizens in both understanding what a healthy urban environment means and the ways this can be realised. As part of an ethnographic research project, we started the ‘University-with-the-Neighborhood’ (UwtN) in 2017, a collective for research, action and engagement oriented at promoting a healthy living environment in low-income neighborhoods. While municipal statistics show citizen participation in these neighborhoods to be low, citizens recount and demonstrate actions that are arguably fundamental to a healthy and democratic city.

We analyse three types of invisible participation in the neighborhoods. Their invisibility is not a consequence of secrecy but rather stems from a narrow classification of citizen participation as solving public problems. In contrast, our analysis is guided by the concept of “cosmopolitics” with which Latour (2004) points out that a “same world” is not a given starting point for politics, it can only be a product of construction-work. First, citizens take active note of what happens in their environment, they are the eyes, ears and memory of the neighborhood. Secondly, citizens come together to make sense of their observations and experiences and formulate new understandings of their neighborhood and local problems. Finally, citizens might step out of a delineated space for public participation, into what is considered the domain of professionals.

Not unlike much care work, citizen’s activities that at first sight may appear passive remain unrecognized. However, forms of invisible participation form an inherent part of the urban assemblages that make up a healthy city.