Co-production of public parks in the Johannesburg inner city. The cases of End Street South, End Street North, Ekhaya and Pullinger Kop parks

Abstract

Parks are particularly important public goods in the inner city where there are high density residential living, poverty, homelessness and crime. Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo experiences considerable difficulty in providing and maintaining this public good due to its resource constraints. Consequently, there is a need for private and public investment into the inner city. ‘Co-production’ is used as an exploratory approach to analyse the collaborative production and management of inner city parks by the state, private and community based organisations. The research findings illustrate specific challenges to co-production in the inner city can be attributed in part to the under-resourced and fragmented citizenry, and the difficulty to establish and maintain successful partnerships with private organisations. Formalised and legal agreements are useful instruments that help frame partnerships and expand the disposal resources available to respond to inner city challenges. However even these instruments are problematic and need to be monitored and regulated, actions that do not always take place.