The self-organized citizen and its outcome in urban regeneration

This research is a case study of self-organization, namely, “The Creative District Foundation” who aims to drive as the central roles on urban regeneration emphasizing creative economic approach in significant value of the heritage of Bangkok, Thailand. This phenomenon is not common to see local stakeholders trying to initiate volunteering actions which embed in governmental organizations based on a notion of hierarchical instrumental policy and decision- making in the context of Thailand. The research objective is to understand how local stakeholders evolve themselves that are involved in a process of self-organization and affect the outcome of urban regeneration in Bangrak-Khlong San district. The main research question is: How does the self-organizing process by local stakeholders affect the outcome of their process in the field of urban regeneration in Bangrak -Khlong San District, Bangkok? The sub-questions are; what are the factors which facilitate the self-organizing process by local stakeholders? What are the outcomes of their process in the field of urban regeneration? And how is the relation between the self-organizing process by local stakeholders and their output of their process in the field of urban regeneration? The formulation of the conceptual framework was based on literature on Network governance, self-organization, and a combination between Network governance and Self-organization which focused on boundary-spanning activities and the conditions of self-organization citizen in the field of community-led urban regeneration. In this way, the factors facilitating the self- organizing process and the quality of the outcome’s factors are formulated to evaluate their performance on urban regeneration and see how was the relation between the self-organizing process by local stakeholders and their outcome. In order to operationalize the conceptual framework and measure them, this single holistic case study is used for research strategy which based on the collection and analysis of qualitative data. The primary data was collected by in-depth interview with semi-structured and the secondary data was also collected for triangulating data which included policy documents, magazines, websites and social media. The result of the research can be concluded that the succession of the self-organizing process by local stakeholders in order to deal with urban regeneration which is complex public issues, is not processed on itself. The self-organization needs to collaborate intensively with the local community and governmental organizations. The trust and social capital, and boundary spanning activities are the important factors and needed to develop within the community group boundary and the community-administrative boundary in order to generate the quality of the outcome of urban regeneration more effective. However, this collaboration is not easy because the self-organization still exists within governmental organizations environment which based on a notion of hierarchical instrumental policy and decision-making, as well as, the absence of organizational and community governance arrangements in a policy context. This situation frustrated self-organizing process of the initiators which the governmental organizations and community do not have the room to cooperate together as a partnership in order to generate urban regeneration process in the neighborhood. However, more knowledge is therefore needed how and what to extend those the direct organizational environment, and wider political and The self-organized citizen and its outcome in urban regeneration: a case study of Bangrak-Khlong San District, Bangkok 4 policy environment in different boundaries influence the self-organizing process which citizen plays as a center role.