Organizational models for community management in conflict settings. The case of Jenin on the Gaza Strip

Purpose – The overall aim of this paper is to provide knowledge on the importance of organisation as a strategic factor in creating innovative models driving to a sustainable and resilient urban planning in conflict territories. Yet, given the locally critical conditions of the municipality of Jenin despite the on-going Palestinian and Israeli conflict, the paper will attempt to understand if the local community and its actors can still benefit from places and spaces for action where all can develop activities aimed at constructing and sharing knowledge. If that is the case, the goal is to investigate the conditions for contemplating an effective and suitable model of organisation that would support Jenin’s resilient and sustainable planning. The paper will aim to respond to the following research question: RQ1: In what way it is possible to generate Public Value through effective public policies in conflict/occupied settings? RQ2: If it was still possible to produce collective value, what would it be the most valuable organisational model able to stimulates innovation within communities? If yes, once people have been made enabled to acquire, develop and manage information and knowledge, in what ways does the model contribute to triggering off processes of transformation in the urban ecosystem? Would there be the case to imagine a specific model for Jenin? Design/methodology/approach – The suggested approach is firstly based on the review of the literature available on organisation models, smart communities, collaborative relationships, knowledge creation, value co-creation and citizen co-production, sustainable urban planning. Secondly, the paper presents a case study that explores some manifestations of community resilience and self-protection mechanisms. The approach used to study this case is qualitative: a number of 930 participants have gathered in this type of research. However, it serves as a spring board for a deeper understanding on conflict communities that can inform theory, practice, and specific situations. Originality/value – Originality is given, firstly, by the topic as it combines the issue of conflict with the capacity of community under threat to leverage on its resilient capabilities. The research will inform about the development of unique mechanisms for self-protection and self-management which reconcile inter-organisational aspects with a macro-level view. Secondly, by the methodology used that, highlighting the multidisciplinary character of urban and territorial planning, focuses on organisation-related implications at both levels. Practical implications – The paper will tell is all the municipality of Jenin owned the necessary existing resources for stimulating innovation for social and cultural change and activate processes of transformation in a conflict, but resilient, community. Its outcome will be to preliminarily investigate the existence of all the conditions above in order to imagine a specific organisational model for Jenin. Eventually, the model would enable the community itself to share knowledge, co-produce services and create value in order to manage the local assets in the wider perspective of urban and territorial planning.