UTM UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA
PERCEPTION OF NEIGHBOURHOOD OPEN
SPACES TO CREATE SENSE OF COMMUNITY
AMONG ETHNIC RESIDENTS IN NIGERIAN
1
AGBOOLA OLUWAGBEMIGA PAUL
PB133002
Main Supervisor DR. MOHD HISYAM RASIDI
Co- Supervisor
ASSOC. PROF. ISMAIL SAID
Research Aim • The aim is to explore the perception through which
neighbourhood markets are contested among local
residents of diverse ethnic groups residing in rural
community, as a precursor to establish effective
theoretical planning models.
2
Research Questions
• ( RQ1): Does the residents’ perception of markets differ among
the three ethnic groups?
• ( RQ 2): Are there any socio-cultural relationships based on
place attachment between residents and the market?
• ( RQ 3): Are there any variations in the usage, satisfaction and
sharing of market among the three ethnic group residents?
• (RQ 4): Do the market possess the good physical condition
and attributes that enable communal sharing among the ethnic
groups?
3
Objectives • (RO1): To investigate the perception of market spaces among
the three majority ethnic groups residents within the
community.
• (RO2): To establish socio- cultural relationships based on place
attachment between residents of the three ethnic groups and the
market in the local community.
• (RO3): To investigate the variations , level of utilization and
satisfaction degrees with market among the three ethnic
groups.
• (RO4): To identify physical attributes and characteristics of
market that enhances ethnic residents’ utilization.
4
5
CULTURE : Norms, commonalities,
abnormalities etc
NEIGHBOURHOOD
OPEN SPACE
-Market square
INDIVIDUAL
IDENTITY AND
ENTHUSIASM Challenge
s:
1. OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL PROBLEM
2. INTER- ETHNIC INTOLERANCE
3. CONFLICTS IN UTILIZATION AND PARTICIPATION
4. CONDITION OF NOS FEATURES AND CHARACTERISTICS. (
Alubo, 2011, Oduwaye, 1998; Ukiwo, 2006; Jagboro, 2000;
Ojie & Ewhrudjakpor, 2009 )
RESIDENTS
A Challenge That Need To Be Resolved at the
Traditional Market Square……….
Research underpinning
6
Shared
Neighbourh
ood open
space
People-
environment
relationships
NEW
PLANNING
MODELS
Visible Place: arch. Pattern,
physical setting & spatial
composition to design
Social Place: individual
experience, visible culture,
memory, politics
(1). Characteristics of place, (2) Residents’
instinct. (3) Local socio- cultural value
MEANING (1) Activity
(2) Physical
appearance
(3) Sensory
experience
(1) Neighbourhood Cohesion (2) Social Capital (3) Place attachment
Sense of community
RESEARCH
UNDERPINNING Theory of Attachment :
Kyle et al (2004) & Low &
Altman (1992) & Scannell &
Gifford,( 2010).
Theory of place
meaning : Tuan, (1984).
Cresswell, (2004) &
Morehouse, (2008).
Ethnic’s
residents (perception)
Nigeria Linguistic Groups
Map of Research setting
Local government map Osun state map
Town Neighborhood Map
Market area within the neighborhood
Market
Square
area
PLEMINARY REPORT ON FOCUS GROUP INTERVIEW
11
Introduction
Plethora of research work have adopted qualitative techniques in open
space studies, such as in-depth interviews (Burgess et al 1988; Ho et al,
2005; Krenichyn, 2006), however, fewer studies have adopted focus
group method. Focus groups offer several advantages such as (i) cost
and time effective (ii) foster interactive research (iii) enables researchers
to investigate sensitive issues ( Cameron,2005; Goss,1996; Morgan &
Krueger,1993); (iv) provision of rich descriptive data (Krueger,1994), (v)
facilitation of easy accessibility to “hard to reach populations”(Wolf et al,
1993). (vi) Respondents’ words could be quoted appropriately when
reporting results (Cameron, 2005; Krueger,1994; Morgan and
Krueger,1993; Stewart and Shamdasani,1990).
Focus group methodology
12
1. Aims & Objectives (i) Gathering opinions, beliefs, and attitudes about
issues of interest
(ii) Encouraging discussion about a particular topic
(iii) Providing an opportunity to learn more about a
topic or issue.
(iv)Building excitement from spontaneous combination
of participant’s comments.
(v)Testing your assumption
2. Advantages of focus group
method (i) Time effective
(ii) Gathering feedback on activities, projects and
services as related to the open space
(iii)Generating and evaluating data from different ethnic
groups that use open space.
(iv)Generating and evaluating data from different
ethnic groups within a local community.
13
(v) Developing topics, themes and questions for further research
activities like questionnaires and more detailed interviews.
(vi) Foster interactive research
(vii) Enables researchers to investigate sensitive issues
(vii) Provision of rich descriptive data
(ix) Facilitation of easy accessibility to “hard to reach populations”
(x) Respondents’ words could be quoted appropriately when
reporting results
3. Recruitments
(a)Nomination of the
participants
(i)Nomination ethnic group residents through the Ethnic group
community leaders
(ii)Nomination of the experts through the head of local government
administration
(b)Distribution of
Invitation letters to the
Nominated participants
Letters were sent, indicating the date and venue of the programme
Focus group methodology
Focus group methodology
14
(c)Follow up of the
invited participants Monitoring was done through telephone calls
4. Group Brainstorming (i)General introduction by the researcher
(ii)Participants’ self-introduction
(iii)Appointment of the moderators/facilitators
for each session
(iv)Grouping into three identified sessions
(v)Regrouping into a final session
(vi)Summary from each sessions
5. Analysis, Summary & Findings
Focus group participants’ profile
15
Participants‘ Demographic characteristics
Number of participants
Percentage (%)
1. Sex
Male 20 57.1
Female 15 42.9
2. Marital status
Married 24 68.6
Single 11 31.4
3. Age groups
12-18years 9 25.7
19-29years 9 25.7
30-59years 17 48.6
Participants‘ Demographic characteristics
Number of participants
Percentage (%)
4.
Years lived in Town
1-3 years 4 11.4
4-6 years 13 37.1
7-10years 7 20
11 years above
11 31.4
5.
Ethnic groups
Yoruba 16 45.7
Igbo 10 28.6
Hausa 9 25.7
Focus group participants’ profile
16
Participants‘ Demographic characteristics
Number of participants
Percentage (%)
6. Current employment
Government employed
16 45.7
Self employed 19 54.3.
7. Educational background
No formal education 8 22.9
High school 8 22.9
Bachelor or 1st
Degree
10 28.6
Participants‘ Demographic characteristics
Number of participants
Percentage (%)
Post Graduate degree and above
9 25.7
8`. Neighbourho
od
affiliations
Ijebu-jesa 18 51.4
Iloko 10 28.6
Ijeda 7 20
Focus Group pictures
Yoruba focus group session
Focus group pictures
18
Hausa Focus Group session Igbo focus group session
Igbo focus Group
session Yoruba focus group session
Data collection Pictures: Case study areas
19
A shrine building within the
market square
High chief house within the
market square
Beehive of activities
within the Market area
Market square showing
the Magistrate court
and the main access
road
Case study areas.
20
One – One Interview
with the expert
Market main access road (core area linking neighbouring villages)
Services (Bore hole)
located within the market
square
Vehicular route in
to the market
21
Case study areas.
Services (Bore hole) located
within the market square
Road network within the market square
Shopping complex within
the market square
Preliminary findings from Focus group interview
(Content analysis)
22
Questions Findings
Research Objective 1
What is your own interpretation of Neighbourhood market?
Yorubas: An heritance gotten from forefathers. Igbos & Hausas: An economic centre.
Research Objective 2
Why residents are so much attached to the present location of Neighbourhood market? And do they wish to be relocated somewhere else?
Long habitation (100 years) at
the market square formed the
basis for the residents’
attachment. NOS’s poor
planning and lack of essential
amenities has affected its
effective utilization capable of
enhancing ethnics’ interactions
and social bonding. They are
not willing to be relocated,
rather preferred the present
market space to be improved
upon.
Preliminary findings continued……
23
Questions Findings
Research Objective 3
Is there any perception
of conflicts, dominance
and miss-use of
Neighbourhood market
among ethnic groups
during interaction? If
yes, how do you resolve
the conflicts or did not
bother to resolve it?
(i)There are conflicts among the ethnics, however, the conflicts are resolved by the community leaders and market leaders ( “Iyalojas” and “Babalojas” ) (ii)It was evidently identified that there exists a communication barrier (language differences) among the ethnics which has been the major challenge faced.( this could be addressed through the creation of social interaction arenas within the market square, where people can often time gather to associates.
Preliminary findings
24
Questions
Findings
Research Objective 4
Have you ever been involved in (or heard) situation where residents (individual or groups) get involved in planning and design as well as improving the quality or condition of Neighbourhood market? ( summary)
(i)Findings revealed that resident’s opinion, views, aims, suggestion and objective in decision making at various stages of open space planning has not been practising . If this is done it will go a long way in resolving open space planning and problem currently faced in Nigeria.
Publications
• Oluwagbemiga Paul Agboola (2014): Neighbourhood Open
Space’s Attachment and Utilization Characteristics among
ethnic groups in rural community of southwest, Nigeria.
1st conference proceedings of International Alliance for
Sustainable Urbanization and Regeneration. Theme
“Sustainable Society as our Challenge”. Held between
24th-27th October, 2014 at Kashiwa, Japan. (http://www.
iasur.org).
• Oluwagbemiga Paul Agboola, Mohd Hisyam Rasidi, Ismail
Said (2014 ): Neighbourhood Open space As Cultural
Heritage Value in Multi-ethnic Community of South-West
Nigeria. Asian Journal of Humanities and Social Studies.
Manuscript accepted, waiting for publication
25
THANK YOU
Q & A
26