An Ecology Model for Participatory Strategies: Community-Led Green Networks and Its Social and Spatial Agents

Over the past three decades, the city of Medellin has sustained dramatic transformations, transitioning from being one of the most violent cities in the 1990s to emerging as one of Colombia's most resilient, innovative, and greenest urban centers. A key component driving these changes has been the revitalization of lower-income neighbourhoods through participatory strategies aimed at reducing violence, enhancing social resilience, and promoting inclusivity via urban green projects. A remarkable initiative was the Green Belt project included in the Plan Maestro Area Centroriental, designed to connect the most relevant nodes through walking and cycling paths, recreational facilities, and diverse urban green infrastructure such as urban farming, community gardens, parks. Government-led participatory strategies have not only beautified the neighbourhoods but have also garnered both local and international attention. Nevertheless, the shortcoming of these strategies in Medellin is the fragile relationship between stakeholders and spatial ownership, particularly concerning green spaces. Conflicts occur when green areas previously managed by communities, are transferred to the local governments, fracturing both activism and spatial equality. Amidst these deliberations, the significance of an overlooked green infrastructure that has survived for decades is the small-scale community-led green interventions often located at the fringes of residual green areas (i.e., nearby roads or areas next to water streams). The random appropriation of residual green spaces depicts vital signs of pro-environmental behaviours, reflecting commitments to nature preservation and environmental agency. This green network, acknowledging the involvement of both human and non-human living agents (e.g., plants, trees, and wildlife), is often overlooked in traditional urban design and planning approaches. This chapter discusses the potential of these often disregarded small-scale community-led green networks as complementary avenues to government-led participatory strategies in urban green revitalisation projects. Through an exploration of the diverse living agents involved in this processes, the levels of interventions, and modes of autonomous participation, the chapter unravels and analyses these aspects to formulate an ecology of participation model. This model introduces a paradigm emphasising equitable interactions in urban green projects, grounded in a living ecology framework that recognises the social and political agency of all spatial actors.