UTM UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA

PERCEPTION OF NEIGHBOURHOOD OPEN

SPACES TO CREATE SENSE OF COMMUNITY

AMONG ETHNIC RESIDENTS IN NIGERIAN

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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(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

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(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

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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

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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

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Hausa Focus Group session Igbo focus group session

Igbo focus Group

session Yoruba focus group session

Data collection Pictures: Case study areas

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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.

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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

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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)

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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……

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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

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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

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THANK YOU

Q & A

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