Superk­ilen is one of many pub­lic spaces that have been cre­at­ed over the past twen­ty years in the Copen­hagen dis­trict of Nør­re­bro. The park aimed to cre­ate an extend­ed social space that would inte­grate Nør­re­bro more close­ly into the urban fab­ric. It was also intend­ed to estab­lish con­di­tions for co-man­age­ment and inclu­sion, so that var­i­ous cul­tur­al and eth­nic groups could become part of the plan­ning. Thus, the aim went beyond sim­ply cre­at­ing a space where the neighborhood’s res­i­dents want­ed to spend time. The design was also to reflect their diver­si­ty. In the process, a series of spaces was cre­at­ed that were shaped by dif­fer­ent aspects and pro­grammed by var­i­ous activ­i­ties. But this con­verse­ly rais­es a mul­ti­tude of ques­tions about the pre­cise ambi­tions for and imple­men­ta­tion of civ­il soci­ety par­tic­i­pa­tion processes.

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