The role of citizens’initiatives in governance is changing, therewith changing governance. This thesis studies groups of citizens following their ideals and taking charge of their living environment. Citizens’ initiatives and self-organizing communities, are seen as groups of people, who organize themselves, are active in the public domain, creating public values  and who organize and manage their social, cultural and green living environment. The actuality of self-organizing citizens gives rise to investigating its actual practice: people’s reasons to get involved, their activities, their meaning for place and vice versa, their strategies, their (informal) organisation, their development, their relations to others, etc. Besides investigating how citizens’ initiatives and self-organizing communities develop and realize themselves, the research concerns the implications for governance processes and the role and approach of citizens and governmental organizations in these processes.

Van Dam, R.I. (2017) Bonding by doing: The dynamics of self-organizing groups of citizens taking charge of their living environment. Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen.