Participatory planning is an urban planning paradigm that seeks to involve the community of an area in the urban planning of that area. Its goal is to allow communities to work together to identify and address problems and to create a plan to achieve a desired social and economical goal. Participatory planning emerged in response to the centralized and rationalistic approaches that defined early urban planning work.
The importance of participatory planning is that it ensures the planning process reflects the interests and priorities of all major groups in the community. It also helps to build commitment to translating the plan into action. It has become an influential way of approaching traditional urban planning and international community development.
There are several approaches to and theories about participatory planning. Consensus building and collective decision making is usually emphasized, and the inclusion of traditionally marginalized groups in the planning process is also often prioritized.[McTague, C. & Jakubowski, S. Marching to the beat of a silent drum: Wasted consensus-building and failed neighborhood participatory planning. Applied Geography 44, 182–191 (2013)]
Origins
Rational planning tradition Prior to the 1970s, community planning was generally led in a top-down way by professionals. Modern community planning developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as city governments and urban planners began to create centralized, comprehensive community plans such as the garden cities of Ebenezer Howard. In this era, the rational planning model was the dominant way of approaching urban planning. Professional planners would identify an established set of goals for a project, rationally weigh a set of alternatives to achieve those goals, and then create and implement a plan accordingly.
There was very little room for public participation within these rationalistic planning models. While discussing the common threads in the vision and work of early urban planners, urbanist Peter Hall writes that "Their vision seems to have been that of the planner as the omniscient ruler, who should create new settlement forms ... without interference or question. The complexities of planning in a participatory democracy where individuals and groups have their own, often contradictory, notions of what should happen—all of these are absent from the work of these pioneers."
A rationalist approach to planning was often applied during the urban renewal programs of the mid-20th century. Under these programs, large areas in major cities, often where poorer people and people of color lived, were demolished, and a new plan for the area was designed and carried out. These urban renewal programs have been criticized for destroying viable communities with long histories, and displacing disproportionately black and poor people to other underserved parts of the city.
Emergence of participatory planning In the 1960s and 70s, there was a growing wave of critical responses to these traditional rationalist approaches. Scholars criticized traditional planning methods as undemocratic and unresponsive to community needs. In her influential 1961 book The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs argued that centralized planning methods are disconnected from real knowledge of life in a city. In 1969, Sherry Arnstein wrote a landmark essay, A Ladder of Citizen Participation, describing different types of citizen involvement in municipal programs, and criticizing less participatory approaches to urban planning. In the 1970s a series of planning theorists suggested alternative models of urban planning which were more participatory in nature. Prominent among them were John Friedmann's model of transactive planning, Paul Davidoff and Linda Davidoff's model of advocacy planning, and Stephen Grabow and Allen Heskin's theory of radical planning. These models constituted a shift towards a more participatory planning paradigm which has influenced modern urban planning.
At around the same time, participation became increasingly central to planning policy and practice. In 1961, landscape architect Karl Linn started the first community design center in Philadelphia. Community design centers are organizations which provide planning expertise to marginalized communities. These grassroots participatory planning models became widespread, often organizing to fight major urban renewal projects. In the mid-1960s, the federal government responded to widespread criticisms of urban renewal by establishing the Model Cities Program and the Community Action Program. These two programs were part of Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society, and included a focus on community participation. The legislation establishing both programs required the "maximum feasible participation of the members of groups and areas to be served". These programs were influential and marked an important turn towards a more participatory vision of urban planning.
In recent years, participatory planning has continued to evolve, leveraging digital technologies to enhance community engagement. The integration of tools such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS), virtual reality, and online platforms has made it easier for citizens to visualize planning proposals and provide feedback. This digital shift has been particularly evident in projects like participatory budgeting initiatives in cities like Paris and New York, where technology facilitates broader and more inclusive participation. Additionally, contemporary urban planning increasingly focuses on sustainability and resilience, integrating participatory approaches to address climate change and disaster risk reduction.
Methods Participatory planning programs use a range of methods and tools to facilitate public participation in the urban planning process. Since the 1960s, planning programs have used tools such as referendums, focus groups, consensus conferences, citizen advisory committees, public hearings, and public opinion surveys to encourage public participation. Some planning practitioners employ more comprehensive approaches to participatory planning, such as Participatory rural appraisal. Social media and other digital tools have transformed participatory urban planning. Many organizations have integrated these participatory planning methods into their work, either conducting broad community planning projects or conducting planning initiatives for specific purposes such as forest management,[Menzel, S. et al. Decision support systems in forest management: requirements from a participatory planning perspective. Eur J Forest Res 131, 1367–1379 (2012).] natural disaster risk reduction, and ancient rock art management.
Participatory rural appraisal Participatory Rural Appraisal is a method of participatory planning, used most often in the context of international community development. Participatory Rural Appraisal draws heavily on the work of Paulo Freire and his idea of critical consciousness, as well as Kurt Lewin's integration of democratic leadership, group dynamics, experiential learning, action research, and open systems theory. PRA has been modified and reframed in the related models of Participatory Learning and Action (PLA), and Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR). Robert Chambers, an important early practitioner of Participatory Rural Appraisal outlines a "menu" of specific methods and techniques that are central to the broad technique of Participatory Rural Appraisal, including: Semi-structured interviews Participatory mapping and modelling Time lines and trend and change analysis Transect walks Daily time-use analysis Institutional diagramming Matrix scoring and ranking Shared presentations and analysis Oral histories and ethno-biographies
Participatory e-planning Participatory Planning organizations can use digital tools to enhance and organize public participation in the planning process. E-participation has come into use in public service programs as information and communications technologies have become more available.[Saad-Sulonen, J. The Role of the Creation and Sharing of Digital Media Content in Participatory E-Planning: International Journal of E-Planning Research 1, 1–22 (2012).] E-planning draws on the tools and techniques of e-participation in the context of urban planning. It has been described as "a socio-cultural, ethical and political practice which takes place offline and online in the overlapping phases of the planning and decision-making cycle, by using digital and non-digital tools". Participatory e-planning research has generally focused on incorporating forms of participation with existing governance and urban planning processes. Some participatory e-planning programs involve the use of relatively simple digital tools like online questionnaires, surveys, and polls to consult citizens. Other programs have used information and communications technologies that were designed for everyday use — such as mainstream social media — to seek out more widespread and open-ended public input. Often, the public engages with planners through social media outlets even if their input is not directly solicited, indicating that e-planning has the potential to foster organic bottom-up participatory planning. Other participatory planning processes have used existing digital technologies like virtual reality, and interactive games to increase participation. Some digital tools have been designed specifically to encourage public participation in urban planning.
Participatory geographic information systems Participatory Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are an increasingly widespread tool for participatory e-planning. Traditional GIS are computerized tools that organize a wide variety of geographically referenced information. This information is generally displayed on a computerized map. Since the 1990s there have been attempts to develop Participatory GIS systems. These systems are diverse, applied in a wide range of contexts, and have incorporated different ways of asking for public participation, such as Participatory 3D Modelling. Often, participatory planning practitioners will create a detailed interactive map of a community using a GIS program, and then ask for public input using the interactive map as a tool. Several planning programs have combined Participatory GIS Software with large interactive touchscreens, so a large group of stakeholders can stand around an interactive map and manipulate it to give their input. GIS technology has also been integrated with other kinds of Information and Communications Technology such as Decision Support Systems, to create interfaces to bring about public participation.
Theory A range of scholars, theorists, and urban planners have suggested different theoretical models to emphasize citizen participation in the planning process.
Non-hierarchical planning