Collaboration and Inclusion: Studies on the Community in Bloom Programme in Singapore

Community garden is an important practice for the public to participate in urban greening and share the outcomes of urban greening. Currently, more and more community gardens are under construction in China. It is necessary to establish a management system with clear responsibilities and rights. Through literature analysis and field survey, the paper takes Singapore's Community in Bloom programme as a case, and analyzes its management mechanism of community garden construction in Singapore. This study finds that the community gardens located in Public Housing Estates in Singapore have adopted the “government & community” collaborative management. National Parks Board, Town Councils, Residents’ Committees and residents cooperate to undertake a series of responsibilities during the process of approving the garden plans, selecting garden sites, planning and constructing the gardens. Based on the primary principles, such as opportunity equality, participation in governance and sharing outcomes, this programme has promoted the formation of inclusive communities. In view of Singapore’s experience, the construction of community gardens in China can develop the positive role of government and middle actor, establish flexible management rules and take the public interest as the core and fairly share the outcomes of development.