Participatory Planning with Mike Ernst

by greenspacewriter 05/07/2012

* The following is a guest post from urban planner and designer, Mike Ernst *

Urban planning as a profession works to address the challenges cities face as they undergo rapid change. Working on multiple scales, planners seek to create communities that are economically viable, inclusive and sustainable.

Yet planners have had a conflicted history with the communities they’re purported to serve. Planners too often have taken on the role of experts; planning and urban design have been viewed as technical, elitist pursuits, with set rules that could be applied universally, regardless of local context or history.

The often disastrous results of projects that were given ‘expert’ sign-off have led to a general consensus that local knowledge is essential and invaluable in making successful planning decisions. Too, local knowledge is starkly different from technical expertise: it is situated and contextual; as social scientists Marian Barnes and Chris Skelcher say, local knowledge encompasses “meanings, values and beliefs as well as cognition.”

Given this understanding, planners have had to rework the decision-making process, to be more inclusive and democratic. Participatory planning aims to give people a say in the decisions that may affect them and to ensure that interventions are appropriate to the needs and preferences of those they are intended to benefit. Barnes and Skelcher note that a participatory process seeks to have citizens move from being ‘targets’ of policies to becoming deliberative partners in generating the knowledge necessary for decision-making. Too, planners shift from being technical experts to facilitators of a deliberative process.

Technological innovations allow for new and diverse forms of participation. Particularly exciting are applications that permit new ways of collecting data, gathering feedback, and democratizing decision-making. Improved information technology means that data can flow more freely than ever before. Instead of information only flowing “down” from decision-makers, data can move “horizontally”: to interested neighborhood organizations, entrepreneurs, and citizens. Location-based technology – where citizens can provide real-time feedback – is an emerging field with great potential for participatory planning.

Although technology allows decision-makers to have access to more information than ever before, the digital divide is still an on-going problem. Planners should be aware of who has access to technology.

With these themes in mind, join GreenspaceNYC and Magical Urbanism author Mike Ernst for a discussion on participatory urban planning in New York City on Wednesday, May 9, 2012. For further details and to RSVP, visit the GreenspaceNYC MeetUp page.

We have an excellent panel made up of planners, designers and activists who are doing innovative work in participatory planning. Join us for a discussion both of emerging trends in community planning, especially around digital technologies, and how they can be effectively integrated with traditional organizing and outreach efforts.

Panelists:

- Paula Z. Segal and Eric Brelsford of 596 Acres, a public education project actively mapping city-owned, vacant land in Brooklyn;
- Frank Hebbert, who leads the Civic Works team at OpenPlans, which explores how technology, planning, citizens, and government come together;
- Kaja Kühl, an urban designer, planner and founder of youarethecity, a research, design and planning practice interested in creating dialogue about the urban environment; and
- Brendan Crain, Communications Manager for the Project for Public Spaces, where he works to promote Placemaking strategies that directly engage citizens in the shaping of their public spaces.

Please join us!

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