Material dimensions of public involvement in planning
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2016-06-16
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en
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Abstract
The discussion of public involvement is one of the most significant issues in planning studies, particularly in the context of governance-beyond-the-state in which parts of civil society may take greater role in policy-making, administration and implementation. This highlights the growing need for new ways and instruments of articulation, and different levels of support and regulation of public involvement. This research explores material dimensions of public involvement,in order to contribute to the development of the interface between civil society and planning. The participatory process of R-Urban project, that makes use of different materials to engage public, is explored as a case study using participant observation and semi-structured interviews. The data was further related to theoretical framework based on practice theory. The results demonstrate that material dimensions directly influence the articulation of urban issues, giving meaning to individual actions in the context of urban agendas. The seductive characteristics of experiments are used as "a good hook", to engage people and facilitate the diffusion and marketing of the urban issues at stake. Yet, the question of sustaining legitimate development of these practices remains open. It requires adequately trained personnel, time and finances. Great dependence on the setting design has serious implications for democracy, resulting in manipulation of framing and contextualisation of urban issues. Furthermore, its implementation depends on the ability of official system to become open and supportive for these kind of spatial experiments and their specific outputs.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen