Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Results
Online Survey
Concerning the decision criteria which are relevant for the three actor groups, the
respondents were asked which of the items shown in Table
2
influences their
decision making process. The items had been tested and complemented in the
pretest of the online survey. Respondents could choose all items they agreed to
and also add additional decision criteria. As Table
2
shows, it was found that spatial
thinking plays an important role for a considerable amount of decision makers. The
items which explicitly mention “city districts” get the ranks three to five. There are
hardly any significant differences in the answer behavior between the three actor
groups. The items “the opinion of political parties which I belong to” and “the
opinion of political parties which I don
'
t belong to” (which means, the political
enemy
s
perspective as a city councilwomen, the non-responses have been highly influenced
by what respondents believe is socially accepted.
Respondents have shown big interest in using maps in the process of establishing
a local budget plan. Nevertheless, their spatial knowledge seems to be at a low
level. Within the online survey, the respondents should solve answer different
questions about spatial patterns of phenomena within different political action
fields. Most of the respondents just estimated the answer instead of having a deep
knowledge of the domains. The respondents were asked to give reasons for their
answer. Some respondents seem to be especially “spatially addicted”; their reason-
ing mentions different spatial aspects of living quality in a city. Others seem more
addicted to non-spatial reasoning, they have been taken into account e.g. financial
aspects.
'
s opinion) only get 14.6 and 4.4 % of agreement. Seen from the author
'
Table 2 Decision criteria of local decision makers in the local budget process
Percent of respondents (%)
Creating new situations through investments
67.7
Experts
opinion
66.0
'
The city district for which I think the investment is useful
62.2
The city district where I live
44.2
My personal relationship to a city district
25.5
The opinion of friends and family
18.0
Preserving city districts in the current state
17.0
The opinion of political parties which I belong to
14.6
Other items
10.6
The opinion of political parties which I don
'
t belong to
4.4
