QuartiersNETZ: Quartiersprofile. Eine Beschreibung der Referenzquartiere im Projekt QuartiersNETZ

The neighborhood profiles are a description of the four reference neighborhoods of the project "Older people as (co-)producers of neighborhood networks in the Ruhr area (QuartiersNETZ)". QuartiersNETZ is a trans- and interdisciplinary joint project funded by the BMBF. The joint consortium is developing real and digital neighborhood networks with and for older people. These ensure that people can participate in public life at all stages of their ageing process and play a decisive role in shaping it. The neighbourhood profiles are used to gain an initial overview of the neighbourhoods and to identify the special features of each neighbourhood, the prerequisites for the development of neighbourhood networks and also how the respective neighbourhoods are perceived by the population (50+). This also serves as a basis for finding out whether neighborhoods with different requirements also need different approaches to development and networking. The neighborhood profiles describe the population structure and development, the spatial situation, the supply structure and social infrastructure as well as the perception of the neighborhood among the 50+ population and existing and significant engagement and stakeholder structures. The descriptions show that the neighborhoods differ in many important areas, but that there are also similarities, whether due to their affiliation to Gelsenkirchen and thus also to the Ruhr region, or simply because similar actors are active in the neighborhoods or because certain structural features are similar. All in all, the four reference neighborhoods described offer a good basis for neighborhood development, as a large number of stakeholders are already active and there is a high level of local identity in the neighborhoods (among the 50+ population). The challenge, as always in neighborhood and community work, is to reach as many residents as possible from the most diverse life situations and thus ensure that the participants in neighborhood development represent as many of the different groups in the district as possible. Low-threshold participation formats are important for this, which, among other things, respond to the discrepancy between the willingness to participate and the opportunities for participation. Support from city-wide structures and local politics is also important and, last but not least, the existence of social framework conditions that, among other things, secure and strengthen participation processes and forms of democratic influence.

Gelsenkirchen

Local politics

Quarter

Neighborhood development

Ruhr area