Space for the people: building and governing a multifunctional participatory public space in Maunula, North Helsinki

Space and people are co-constitutive (Massey 2006). The paper explores how the struggle over the building and managing of Maunula House – a multi-functional public (municipal) building including a library that opened in 2017 in North Helsinki. Maunula library is discussed as a public space and particularly the citizens’ central demand for a non-profit café at the heart of this non-commercial meeting place important for the suburban life in Finland. Such a space has been a desire of the citizens since the 1980s, the final planning process of the building started in moment of the City of Helsinki democracy pilots. The strong involvement of the citizens had an important role for the planning process and functioning of the building that besides the library houses the youth centre and adult education unit. The process of planning and governmental model of the house were negotiated in the planning phase and became a marker of the new era of participation in Helsinki. The paper draws on participatory democracy, urban planning, and participatory research – where the mobilising of local activists is at the core. In the tradition of interpretive policy analysis, the authors explore the generation of the public space around the suburban library in a multi-function environment. The data includes a combination of interviews with public officials and resident activists involved in the multi-function library building by one of the authors, participatory action research by another author, and research workshop conducted on site on a Horizon project on public space and inclusion. The research also shows where mobilisation of the temporary “us” as “one +” form or representation and how to resist institutionalisation, in the name of the people.