Vulnerability Through Resilience?

Inhabitants of Wilhelmsburg are confronted with fundamental threats, such as the risk of flooding due to the natural island position of the district, health-threatening emissions from local industry, toxic ground, traffic noise pollution, spatial marginalisation due to natural barriers between the district and the rest of the city (the River Elbe) and the extensive port areas to the north and west, and economic problems (low purchasing power, low growth rates especially of smaller and medium-sized companies). In addition, residential areas are threatened by expansion of the port (Zukunftskonferenz Wilhelmsburg2002: 2 ff.) and threats to social cohesion, quality of life and the chances of upward social mobility for many inhabitants due, for instance, to integration issues of multi-ethnic population structures, low levels of education and high unemployment rates. Further threats are negative images and stigmatising media discourse about the district that have become established over a long time. This particular endangerment results in an entire urban district being assigned an enduring negative image. Developmental perspectives can thus be constricted and social problems exacerbated. Not least, devaluing external images about an urban district can even threaten the identity of its residents, if positive self-images are overlain, and can endanger potential commitment to the stigmatised space.

On the basis of available empirical data, the focus of the paper is on the perceptions of local actors.

Of relevance to this section are the papers Christmann/Ibert (in this issue) and also Christmann/Ibert/Kilper et al. (2011).

Dangers, that is threats, that as endangerments represent potential damages to a good, are aspects of social vulnerability constructions, but are not to be seen as the equivalent of this term (see Christmann/Ibert in this issue in reference to Birkmann/Böhm/Buchholz et al.2011: 8 f.).

“Topoi have emerged in the communicative pasts of city related discourse, extend through past and present interpretations of the reality of the city and spread their influence even into the personal identity of the city’s citizens. Topoi are thus important elements of city culture” (Christmann2004: 50; own translation).

Seehttp://​www.​iba-hamburg.​de/​de/​01_​entwuerfe/​3_​mission/​mission_​zukunftzeigen.​php (last accessed 13.06.2011); due to a website relaunch most documents fromwww.​iba-hamburg.​de which were used for analysis are no longer accessible online since 07.03.2012.

The urban district Wilhelmsburg lies in the south of Hamburg on a large river island between the north and south arms of the Elbe.

From 1998 the city of Hamburg organised its urban development policy goals, programmes and funding structures in Wilhelmsburg through the federal state programme “Social Urban District Development” (“Soziale Stadtteilentwicklung”) and since 2009 through the “Framework Programme for Integrated Urban District Development” (“Rahmenprogramm integrierte Stadtteilentwicklung: RISE”). Since 2006 this has been carried out in the form of the “International Building Exhibition Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg”, combined with an international garden exhibition.

See the programmes in: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg (2002); Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg (2003).

Seehttp://​www.​hamburg.​de/​contentblob/​135220/​data/​sprung-elbe-burgerbroschuere​.​pdf (last accessed 20.01.2012).

For Future Search Conference as a method see Weisbord (1992) and Weisbord/Janoff (2000).

Seehttp://​www.​sprung-ueber-die-elbe.​de/​index.​htm (last accessed 07.03.2012).

Themes: Overall spatial concept, transport, employment and economy, residential, living together, schools and education, free-time and culture (see Zukunftskonferenz Wilhelmsburg2002).

This paper uses qualitative data from the Leibniz Institute for Regional Development and Structural Planning project “Spatial pioneers in the urban neighbourhood—towards communicative (re-)construction of restructuring spaces” (“Raumpioniere im Stadtquartier—Zur kommunikativen (Re-)Konstruktion von Räumen im Strukturwandel”) (2009–2011). Against the background of the more recent social constructivism (Knoblauch1995; elaborated by Berger/Luckmann1969) the project investigates knowledge structures in the form of spatial images and spatially related identities upon which the social practice of individual and collective actors in urban neighbourhoods is based. An integrated perspective guided the research. The investigation therefore followed the methodology of focussed ethnography in line with Knoblauch (2001). This allows not only the delimiting of the object of investigation through use of prior theoretical knowledge, but also the triangulation of various sorts of qualitative data and evaluation methods. So from the middle of 2009 until the end of 2010 theme-focussed interviews were carried out with spatially based committed individuals from Berlin-Moabit and Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg in their living environments, and their ego-centralised project network compiled. In selected groups and at public events in these urban districts participatory observation was undertaken, and in addition documentation and press materials were collected and evaluated. To ensure anonymity, all those interviewed are indentified in this text by formal abbreviations (e.g. H-ER 01).

The chances to develop attractive housing in the turn of the century area Reiherstieg are, for instance, threatened by plans for the further expansion of the harbour docks in this district. Plans for the expansion have represented a continued endangerment scenario for the chances of upgrading the district since the flooding disaster of 1962.

“When this SPD-led Senate just didn’t want to understand what’s going on here, we organised a press conference … with the title: Cry for help from the Bronx … [T]here was suddenly all of the Hamburg press around the table. And that built up so much pressure … that the Senate gave permission for the Future Search Conference” (Interview H-ER 17).

In reaction to continued public pressure the customs fence was opened with festivities in 2012. Following this the first concern of residents was a ferry connection so as to achieve a further possible connection to the rest of the city (see Rebaschus2010).

A drastic ecological vulnerability experience was, for instance, the scandal that in 1984 surrounded the Georgswerder rubbish heap from which dioxin was seeping. A consequence of this was the development of public protests against the building of a refuse incineration plant (Markert2008: 193).

http://​www.​iba-hamburg.​de/​de/​01_​entwuerfe/​4_​leitthemen/​leitthemen_​start.​php (last accessed 13.06.2011). In the same way the titles of the IBA cross-sectional projects that bundle the individual projects according to topic reveal perceptions of problems from within the Future Search Conference and the White Book drawn up by residents (“Educational Offensive”, “Creative District Elbe Island”, “Intercultural Space”, “Climate Protection Concept”);http://​www.​iba-hamburg.​de/​de/​01_​entwuerfe/​6_​projekte/​projekte_​neuemitte.​php (last accessed 05.09.2011).

The focus is here repeatedly on immaterial, district related images and perspectives of the space—the “ideas in the heads” (http://​www.​iba-hamburg.​de/​de/​01_​entwuerfe/​3_​mission/​mission_​zukunftzeigen.​php, last accessed 13.06.2011). Thus for instance the urban districts Veddel und Wilhelmsburg had “in the past experienced negative stigmatisation due to an unfavourable development of social structures and infrastructure” (Internationale Bauausstellung Hamburg2010a; own translation).

http://​www.​iba-hamburg.​de/​de/​01_​entwuerfe/​6_​projekte/​projekte_​querschnitt_​boe_​ueberblick.​php (last accessed 03.09.2011).

Widespread term of reference for Wilhelmsburg in the local and supralocal press following the dangerous dog attack on a boy in 2001.

For instance, an IBA poster that promises to want to enable a lively urban district is cynically perceived by many inhabitants, who already experience the district as being very lively (Interview H-ER 31).

As well as dialogue with residents, serving to inform the public about ongoing projects, the IBA/IGS Participation Council (“IBA/IGS-Beteiligungsgremium”) is conceived by the IBA as a central participatory body. “24 residents from the IBA presentation area (15 from Wilhelmsburg, six from Veddel and three from Harburg/Schlossinsel as well as seven politicians (the latter without voting power))” are a fixed part of the body (Internationale Bauausstellung Hamburg2010b; own translation).

Those active also frequently mention the threatening exploitation and “marketing by others” of local actors’ projects by the IBA (Interviews H-ER 06; H-ER 02; H-ER 03).

This refers to “the basal and … more broadly arranged communicative coordination processes in which common shared spatial interpretations in groups, networks and public spheres emerge and in which dynamic spaces of culture and identity with their non-material and material forms of expression evolve”. In the contexts of governance action such communicative coordination processes occur “intentionally and strategically”, in the context of proto-governance “rather incidentally and ‘unintendedly’” (Christmann2010: 29; own translation).

“[I]t has always been extremely difficult to place Wilhelmsburg topics … north of the Elbe” (Interview H-ER 17).

In this function this is self-confidently cultivated by local actors: “[I] think that they won’t get a single one of these motorways through …. Well, that [is one of] our easiest exercises” (Interview H-ER 17).

Also, when dealing with new themes such as transport planning, it is conspicuous that active residents use symbols and metaphors that are connected with collective memories of the flooding event. Thus a self-conceived event is named “Water level Elbe Island” (“Pegelstand Elbinsel”). A water measuring rod serves as a visible symbol even though the topic here is not flood protection, rather all transport themes are to be discussed (seehttp://​www.​insel-im-fluss.​de/​Pegelstand/​pegelstand.​htm; last accessed 07.03.2012).

Strategic attempts by the IBA to disseminate a positive image of the district in the media are interpreted in this context as being a “marketing machine for Hamburg” (Interview H-ER 10).

Owing to the heterogeneous nature of the population structure, the social life in the neighbourhoods of the Elbe island can of course not be described as homogeneous, as being socially integrated from the outset. But if socio-historical investigations (such as e.g. Dietz2008) for Wilhelmsburg can identify, on the one hand, phenomena of social segregation and disintegration in the past (as most recently in 2001 with xenophobic tendencies increasing locally and alarming election success for the rightwing populist Schill Party; see Dietz2008: 109 f.), on the other hand the same investigations reach the even clearer conclusion: “that generally speaking the peaceful coexistence of very different population groups in Wilhelmsburg owes much to the engagement and prudence of many individuals and groups” (Dietz2008: 110; own translation; on the contribution of the immigrant associations in Wilhelmsburg to social integration see also Hahn2008: 121 f. and 124). Such findings underline the central role played in local social integration processes by the socio-spatially committed actors interviewed.

The association developed from the Future Search Conference Wilhelmsburg and represents a voluntary affiliation of committed Wilhelmsburg residents. The association wants to critically accompany the implementation of ideas that were developed at the Future Search Conference 2001/2002. Simultaneously it aims to “innovatively and actively help shape” future developments in the district (Verein Zukunft Elbinsel2003; own translation).

Thus—as already mentioned—the title of the self-organised series of events “Water Level Elbe Island” is a clear reference to the socio-historical experience of the flooding disaster, even though there is a wide range of themes handled, for instance issues of transport policy.

Building on the work of Karl Mannheim, conjunctive spaces of experience refer to shared bodies of knowledge arising from the joint execution of actions that constitutes a common milieu. Conjunctive means contexts of experience that are unifying, connecting or also communitising in effect, with the result that in joint action similar qualities of experience and attributions of meaning are shared with others (see Mannheim1980). Accordingly, conjunctive experience is to be distinguished from communicative experience, which makes abstract the immediacy and perspectivity (subjectivity) of shared knowledge of experience in the here and now, because it is “over-personal” (Mannheim1980: 289; own translation). Conjunctive spaces of experience with others can, for example, exist in the form of the shared experience of a flooding disaster as well as in the form of an experience at a demonstration.

On the positive effects of convictions of self-efficacy and control see Bandura (1997).

So in explorative interviews held locally it was reported that, for instance, when a resident of Polish origin who was wearing lilac-coloured leggings was vilified as “gay” and attacked on the street by neo-Nazis from Harburg, Turkish young people defended him with the words “We don’t do things like that here” (Memo on the explorative Interview H-Exp 1 conducted on 11.09.2009).

More in-depth analyses of patterns of interpretation, also on the attitudes of institutional actors are desirable here. There is a need for research in this context.