ARTICLES A REVISTES INDEXADES

Stakeholder entanglements around diversifying schoolyards in Brussels and Barcelona

Títol de la revista o publicació: 
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening

Autors/es:

[*] Autor a qui s'ha d'adreçar la correspondència.

Data de realizació:
2025

Resum:

This research undertakes a comparative analysis of schoolyard transformation initiatives in Barcelona (Spain)
and Brussels (Belgium), combining Social Network Analysis with semi-structured interviews to explore the
stakeholder entanglements around making schoolgrounds greener, diverse, climate adaptive and socially inclusive.
We examine the features of the social networks that coalesce around the cocreation of green schoolyards.
One finding here is the fundamental role of public organizations not only as funders, but for rooting and
embedding ambitious goals and progressive ideas around “schoolscapes”, despite institutional inertia and setbacks.
This said, strengthening inter-school linkages would allow for cross-pollination between educational institutions
around naturalizing schoolgrounds. The study also delves into the type of actor entanglements that
enable the emergence of nature-rich schoolyards. A central insight here is that nature access, diversified play and
socialization in schoolyards requires amplifying the agency of actors, including architects, and particularly those
with expertise in grassroots participation, environmental education, and landscape ecology. In contrast, architecture
firms that, prioritize aesthetic visions of nature or a consultative view of participation tend to impede,
rather than facilitate the type of transformation that is at stake. Participation, we contend, needs to take place
beyond the singularity of the mental plane, and get nourished by children’s inborn emotional intelligence. Ultimately, a shared ‘mentality of care’ for urban green commons, such as schoolyards, emerged as a key driver of
successful ’schoolscapes’. Such mentality, however, did not arise mechanically, but was continually cultivated
through the sustained commitment of school communities to nature-based education

DOI:
10.1016/j.ufug.2025.128957

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