ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the modern economic and political development of management organisations in order to understand the frameworks behind the urban open space (UOS) that UOS managers of today are responsible for and govern. It focuses primarily on local governments, with special emphasis on the UK, Germany and Sweden as three countries which have responded very differently to modern local government developments. It also provides a unique overview of the complexity of the current UOS sector concerning its size, actors and budgets, using Sweden as an example. The historical background of UOS organisations, combined with the example of the complex Swedish UOS sector, leads into a discussion on the future challenges for organisations relating to governance and management of UOS.
