Who Is ‘All’?: Target Groups and Accessibility in the Viennese Place-Based Organisation Gebietsbetreuung Stadterneuerung

Abstract

Gebietsbetreuung Stadterneuerung (GB*) is a Viennese organisation engaged in place-based community work. Originally the domain of engineers, planners, and architects, GB*’s teams have, since the 2000s, also included social workers and other professionals. Drawing on Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach, I ask: What enables access to GB* and what hinders it? Who remains excluded? This article presents findings from an institutional ethnographic study involving Gebietsbetreuung Stadterneuerung and intra-EU migrant-origin families with children, conducted between October 2020 and February 2022. I contend that the stated objective of engaging ‘all’ residents within each designated area, with no further distinction, may paradoxically undermine accessibility. Three dimensions of GB*’s accessibility are analysed, which include: the reduction in the number of physical sites and the corresponding increase in workload over time; three competing ideal-typical conceptions of the role identified among practitioners (technical, social work orientated, and political approaches); and the exclusion of children and intra-EU migrants from the organisation’s target groups.