URBAN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT: PARTICIPATORY LEARNING PROCESS FOR HEALTHY SPACE DEVELOPMENT, PASI-CHAROEN DISTRICT, BANGKOK, THAILAND

This study is mixed of qualitative and quantitative research methods. This study is a part of the research project for Healthy Space Development: A Pilot Project in Pasi Charoen District, Bangkok.

The objectives are:
1) to study the context of Pasi Charoen District
2) to study the participatory learning process for healthy space development and
3) to propose the recommendations for healthy space development.

The 3 steps of implementation period were:
1) to develop tools and review the documents
2) to survey and conducted qualitative study with operational research and
3) to analyze and synthesize recommendations. Survey and focus group were used to collect data through triangular technique to verify and update. Purposive random sampling was designed to select the respondents from community leaders, representative agency and as a voluntary member of the community. 80 community leaders were randomized to answer the questionnaire. Focus group was done by the rest of 15 community leaders, 450 community members from 15 communities, 60 representatives of 7 communities and 80 representatives of member agencies.

The conclusions are the following:
1) data explorer called community mapping was developed with four components namely: information of public area, space utilization, resource persons, and activities related to healthy space development. According to community mapping, Pasi Charoen’s context composed of 19 useless areas in 6 sub-district, 40 congested areas, 10 markets, 35 schools, 1 university, 1 college, 27 temples, 8 hospitals and health centers, 468 outdoor shops, 1 department store, 4 hotels, 257 food shops, 690 factories, 18 exercise fields and 60 green fields with total land area is 5,108.75 square meters. There are 451 community leaders, 30 local wisdoms and 7 communities from 4 sub-districts are the leaders of this first year project to develop the healthy space with 3 components:
1. the development of the area to carry out food activities,
2. to conduct the exercise activities and
3. to develop the area for landscaping activities.

2) Participatory learning process for healthy space development composed of 5 steps:
1. identified the problems by community leaders,
2. conducted a community forum to confirm the availability of healthy space developed,
3. network and parties mobilization for support the operation,
4. operations participatory activities and
5. lessons learnt for healthy space development.

The recommendations are
1) the involved organizations should promote the process of community participation to be self-management communities,
2) establish a working group which consists of community representatives, representatives from departments in all sectors and collaborates with all related networks to define the concrete plan, and develop the urban environment sustainability,
3) identify the limitations or problems to reduce the risky areas of health,
4) motivate to add more networking to develop healthy space,
5) enhance the learning process as a learning community for the management of healthy space and
6) update the existing database every now and then.