**4.3 Interview action guide**

What have you experienced contributing to creating successful citizen engagement processes?


What have you experienced creating a process that people feel invited to join?


**429**

*Urban Social Sustainability - Case Study; Gellerupparken–Denmark*

associations and organizations in the Gellerupparken area.

How can we use these good experiences to create successful citizen engagement

An integral part of the discussions is also an explicit focus on which actors and groups resource persons find important to involve in the process. In this way, the individual interview generates, so to speak, the next as we subsequently contact the said persons and groups and invite them to participate in the interviews. Alongside the interview process, two meetings are held with city representatives, which are also designed around the above structure. Finally, a joint day is held for citizens,

In total, hundreds of qualitative interviews, as well as a group interview, have been conducted through the interview process. In the following section, the central themes from the qualitative interviews are presented. An interpretation of the conducted interviews is based on the themes below, on which the interviews were structured.

• Factors that help to create successful citizen engagement processes

• From good experiences to citizen involvement processes in the future

**5. Factors that help to create successful citizen engagement processes**

Broadly speaking, two key themes from the experience of the resource persons seem to be crucial to the successful citizen engagement process. First and foremost, the subject of the process is concrete and relevant. Second, the process itself is

Throughout the interviews, it is pointed out that successful citizen engagement processes are characterized by their being perceived as concrete and relevant to the participants. This means that the topic is not abstract but is based on the daily lives and interests of the citizens. This point is reflected in the observation of the consistent emphasis that residents of the area come to meetings largely because of specific matters that interest them. Thus, the focus of successful processes is directed towards themes that have a significant influence on the daily life of the residents. The question in this context is, of course, what is contained in the specific and relevant process. This question seems to be answered from another perspective. Citizens will greatly assess participation in the process based on whether they can acquire a real, visible, and noticeable benefit from it in their daily lives. The follow-

• Factors that create a process that people feel invited to join

ing topics are, by extension, highlighted as particularly appealing:

• Leisure time: How can we ensure that children and young people have

• Relationships: How can we create new relationships with each other?

• Family: How can we create well-functioning families?

completed with strong local anchorage in the area.

**5.1 A specific and relevant topic**

• Health: How can we live healthily?

active leisure time?

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93124*

processes in the future?

**4.4 The data required**

<sup>1</sup> The term "resource person" is used to describe the interviewed persons. The designation emphasizes that these individuals have only been selected to participate because they constitute an essential resource in the area in terms of their knowledge of the area as well as their experience in citizen involvement processes.

*Urban Social Sustainability - Case Study; Gellerupparken–Denmark DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93124*

How can we use these good experiences to create successful citizen engagement processes in the future?

An integral part of the discussions is also an explicit focus on which actors and groups resource persons find important to involve in the process. In this way, the individual interview generates, so to speak, the next as we subsequently contact the said persons and groups and invite them to participate in the interviews. Alongside the interview process, two meetings are held with city representatives, which are also designed around the above structure. Finally, a joint day is held for citizens, associations and organizations in the Gellerupparken area.
