The Levels of Citizen Engagement in Urban Development

This article addresses certain Participatory Design (PD)-related aspects of the project OurCity that took place in Meri-Rastila, a multicultural suburb in East Helsinki, Finland. The aim of OurCity was to democratize design processes and to empower local residents to influence the redevelopment of their area. PD processes were a key component to the OurCity project and its activities, particularly in relation to the process of drafting an Alternative Master Plan (AMP) for the area. The plan competed with, and lost by a narrow margin to, the plan drafted by the Helsinki City Planning Department. In AMP the scope of PD was underestimated. In this article, we argue that it is necessary to make PD processes more visible in the end products of participatory planning. We base this argument on firsthand experience as members of the OurCity team and on an analysis of printed media and digital texts.

AESOP Annual Congress 2019

Urban Design and Planning worldwide have long been criticized for their lack of meaningful public consultation and participation in the process of shaping our built environment. Currently, the existing practices of consultation and participation are within the confines of council meetings, complex form filling and survey reports that often carry little weight towards the decisions made by the planning authorities; the latter are increasingly seeking for ways to encourage meaningful public participation in urban development decisions. This paper presents a systematic literature review on sustainable urban governance vis-a-vis participatory planning, in an effort to consolidate, evaluate and critique the various approaches on involving the public in decision-making process in relation to urban form in general and public space in particular. The literature/case studies presented are referenced across a scale of degrees of participation, referring to a range of influence that participants have in the decision-making. In its two extremes it can be viewed as no participation, where designers make assumptions of users’ needs and requirements, and full participation, based on user-defined criteria of quality. The evaluation of many participatory research practices is somewhere in between the two extremes, focusing more on design with the users. However, the given theoretical process, might provide an insufficient degree of realism that designers need to cope with, due to time and budget constraints. If it is to remain grounded to the practice of design, literature should be able to cope with barriers, and seek understanding beyond its conceptual approaches.

The Sustainable City XV, 2021

While there is a growing practice of engagement processes in urban planning, with diverse strategies and actions, there are still many questions regarding the evaluation; the gap being how to conclude that a process has been successful or not, and in what terms. In this context, this paper analyses a series of international reference models over the last fifty years, including levels of participation (Arnstein, UN-Habitat, IAP2), key performance indicators (IISD), evaluation guidelines (IOPD) and quality standards and indicators for community engagement (NSfCE, OGP, UNICEF). Based on this analysis, the research proposes an evaluative framework specific for citizen engagement in urban design and planning processes. The framework includes consists of six standards, with quantitative and qualitative indicators to consider both a process’s outputs as its outcomes. The standards are: scope (level of engagement, process planning and structure), inclusion (diversity and quantity of stakeho...

J. of Design Research, 2021

There are well understood urban design approaches that respond to the economic, social, and environmental pillars of sustainable development, but urban design decision-making for sustainable outcomes is complex both technically and, in democratic societies, politically. Urban design decision-making must incorporate citizen participatory processes that, as Sherry Arnstein in her 1969 paper, 'A ladder of citizen participation' points out, are undertaken at varying levels ranging from the tokenistic through to citizen control. In this paper, we explore benefits and challenges of citizen participatory processes illustrated with practical examples from an Australian context and propose improvements that utilise emerging technology. We then outline a new approach that rotates Arnstein's ladder diagram 90° to instead form a ladder-truss of citizen participation. This ladder-truss includes aspects of each rung as a structurally necessary and interwoven component of inclusive participation aimed at bridging between the community and sustainable urban design outcomes.

Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Urban Design and Planning, 2017

The paper builds on the evidence of an increasing consensus towards citizens' engagement practices in shaping both the form and functioning of the city, and on the apparent distance between the setting up of governance structures adequate for participatory processes to be performed, and the daily urban planning and design. Against this context, the research investigates whether public participation processes are adequately and appropriately addressed in urban planning and design practices. A bibliometric analysis on participatory processes' connection with urban studies (including urban governance, planning, design and development) is described, together with an in-depth evaluation of some works, which makes it possible to appreciate the complexity of the topic. The bibliometric analysis shows a significant divide between the traditional fields of social sciences, built environment disciplines and information technologies; and no common understanding or framework to transla...

Engaging Citizens through Co-design and Deliberative Engagements, 2019

This is the inaugural Legislative Assembly Library Fellowship paper. Its focus is on building public sector capability in understanding how co-design and deliberative engagements can contribute to citizen participation in the development of public services and policy solutions. The paper incorporates findings from historical reviews of co-design and deliberative engagements, drawing comparisons and commonalities between these two approaches. The paper provides key considerations for the application of co-design and deliberative engagements in the public service context, with especial focus on the Australian Capital Territory.

2018

Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Sustainable Cities and Communities, 2020

Definition Participatory design in urban management defines multiple types of participatory processes developed in a wide range of policy domains, which differ from representative mechanisms (e.g., political elections), direct democracy initiatives (e.g., public petitions and referenda), and forms of public information or consultation. The participation of associated and non-associated citizens to the formulation, implementation, and/or assessment of public policies aims to contribute to the quality of democratic governance against the decrease of citizenry trust toward elected representatives and provide more effective responses to wider community.

Guía que presenta una serie de técnicas y herramientas para impulsar la participación comunitaria en los procesos de diseño y planeación urbana, ejemplificadas con quince estudios de caso de varias partes del mundo.

Strategic Design Research Jorunal, 2017

The context of everyday urban life is the cradle of more democratic social changes, and on which design practice aimed at the regeneration of urban space towards something more democratic, inclusive, participative and resilient has to focus. However, design practice within the city has hardly been successful from this perspective. In this paper a path to strengthening design practice within the urban context is presented by identifying the points of concurrency and enrichment between strategic design from the perspective of the ecosystem and the participatory design approach of infrastructuring agonistic public spaces. Political design and agonistic democracy are the theoretical thread running in the background of the discussion here presented that results in affirming the need to qualify metadesign, within strategic design, as infrastructuring agonistic public spaces when acting within the city, as well as to amplify the potentiality of the suggested practice through the integration of prototyping and scenario building.

Mimarlık Fakültesi dergisi, 2023

2014

This doctoral research will examine the use of codesign-a "democratic approach that is focused on the processes and procedures of design…[that] collaboratively engages, consults and develops solutions to problems" (Cook, 2011, p. 50)-as a mechanism to build the capacity of lay people and communities to develop or influence socially sustainable solutions responsive to their needs and aspirations. The engagement of lay people and communities and their empowerment are complex phenomena through which individuals formulate meanings and actions that reflect their desired degree of participation in individual and collective decision-making processes (Tritter & McCallum, 2005). Therefore, this research also seeks to identify co-design processes and procedures that recognize different relevant forms of knowledge and experience of both professionals and lay people, while allowing for varying levels of participation in different stages of the design process.

Evidence-Based Policy Making in the Social Sciences, 2017

This chapter examines how design thinking, with its commitment to seeing challenges from the user perspective, prototyping and rapid learning, has begun to make head way in the policy world as a technique to review service delivery practices. This chapter will review the thinking behind it, connecting design to various social sciences theories and showing applications of the technique.

Универзитет уметности у Београду, Факултет примењених уметности eBooks, 2022