Public Participation Process In Urban Planning

This book critically examines the public participation processes in urban planning and development by evaluating the operations of Planning Advisory Committees (PACs) through two meta-criteria of fairness and effectiveness. Traditional models of public participation in planning have long been criticized for separating planners from the public. This book proposes a novel conceptual model to address the gaps in existing practices in order to encourage greater public involvement in planning decisions and policymaking. It assesses the application of the evaluative framework for PACs as a new approach to public participation evaluation in urban planning. With a case study focused on the PACs in Inner City area of Canberra, Australia, the book offers a conceptual framework for evaluating fairness and effectiveness of the public participation processes that can also be extended to other countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada, Scandinavian countries, the European Union, and some Asian countries such as India. Offering valuable insights on how operational processes of PACs can be re-configured, this book will be a useful guide for students and academics of planning and public policy analysis, as well as the planning professionals in both developed and developing countries.

Mirroring the complexities of cities and neighborhoods, this volume makes a conscious departure from consensus-oriented public participation to conflict-resolving public participation. In India, planning practice generally involves citizens at different stages of plan-making with a clear purpose of securing a consensus aimed at legitimizing the policy content of a development plan. This book contests and challenges this consensus-oriented view of citizen participation in planning, arguing against the assertion that cities can be represented by a single public interest, for which consensus is sought by planners and policy makers. As such, it replaces consensus-centered rational planning models with Foucauldian and Lacanian models of planning to show that planning is riddled with a variety of spatial conflicts, most of which are resolvable. The book does not downplay differences of class and social and cultural identities of various kinds built on arbitrarily assumed public interest created erroneously by further assuming that the professionally trained planner is unbiased. It moves from theory to practice through case studies, which widens and deepens opportunities for public participation as new arenas beyond the processes of preparation of development plans are highlighted. The book also argues that spaces of public participation in planning are shrinking. For example, city development plans promoted under the erstwhile JNNUM programme and several other neoliberal policy regime initiatives have reduced the quality, as well as the extent of participatory practices in planning. The end result of this is that legally mandated participatory spaces are being used by powerful interests to pursue the neoliberal agenda. The volume is divided into three main parts. The first part deals with the theory and history of public participation and governance in planning in India, and the second presents real-life case studies related to planning at a regional level in order to describe and empirically explore some of the theoretical arguments made in the first. The third section provides analyses of selected case studies at a local level. An introduction and conclusions, along with insights for the future, provide a coherent envelope to the book.

This book compares public participation in a selection of European counties. Using the UK, France, and Sweden as examples of alternative approaches to urban planning, the author examines public participation both at the planning and development control stages.

This book provides a state of the art approach to participatory planning, and generates innovative thought in planning theory and knowledge study. The book introduces a new conceptual framework for participatory planning, one which redefines concepts that have been taken for granted for too long: those of “public participation” and “local knowledge”. It draws on the rich repertoire of public participation practices that have developed globally over the last 50 years, and investigates the following questions: Which participatory practices most effectively capture residents’ genuine spatial needs, perceptions and desires? And how can these be incorporated into actual plans? The book is based on an empirical comparative examination of the effectiveness of various participatory processes, and proposes practical solutions for public participation through two new instruments: the Practices Evaluation Tool, and the Participatory Methods Ladder. These instruments calibrate participation methods according to certain criteria, in order to improve their ability to extract local knowledge and incorporate it into planning deliverables. These new instruments correspond to and elaborate on Arnstein’s ladder - the 1969 theoretical landmark for participatory planning. Both academics and practitioners in the area of urban and regional planning will find this book to be an invaluable resource, given the way it develops both theoretical and practical cutting-edge outcomes.

While the rate of urbanisation in the developing world has increased dramatically over the past 20 years, governments' capacity to support urban growth has, in many cases, failed to keep up with this trend. Non-governmental organisations working in the field have long advocated community management of the urban environment as the best solution to this problem, and there is now a growing consensus that the answer does, indeed, lie with local communities. Yet there is still little understanding of what constitutes meaningful and effective community participation, or how it may be achieved in such a complex operating environment. Sharing the City gives a comprehensive account of urban community participation, both in theory and practice. It first presents a wide-ranging analysis of the issues, and develops a participatory framework for urban management. Using case studies and existing examples from around the world, and drawing on lessons learned from previous experience, it then develops the theory into a practical working model. Effective participatory urban management calls for a fundamental rethink on the part of all the actors involved - from local authorities and development agencies, through local and international NGOs, to the community-based organisations and the communities themselves. In redefining their roles and relationships, Sharing the City presents a new and radically different, yet viable and effective, approach to the concept of urban management.

The author's aim has been to draw together the threads of political and social science and of sub-specialisms within those broad areas of study and to interpret them in the context of urban and regional planning. Consideration is given to various interpretations of decision making in a democracy, to 'representation' and the public interest, to the opportunities for citizen participation in the planning process, to the range of potential participants, their motivation and competence, to the means which may be employed to secure different levels of citizen involvement; and to the impediments to meaningful participation. Therefore this book will contribute to the closing of the existing gap between theory and practice by drawing together a diversity of themes from political science, philosophy and psychology, community theory and regional science, rendering them comprehensible in the context of planning