Participatory education and challenges in a fragmented world A holistic approach to urban planning for a sustainable future

Year 2015, Special Issue 2015 I, 8 - 33, 30.11.2015

Barbara Dickens

https://doi.org/10.17275/per.15.spi.1.3

Abstract

In our
‘complex, fragmented urban world’ (Stoker,2000 ) ‘global problems are generated
at the local scale and should be solved there too’ (Condon,2008). Yet, neither
governments nor citizens take responsibility for the collective problems, while
political systems focus on short-term rather than long term benefits.
McIntyre-Mills argues, ‘policy and practice needs to consider social, economic
and environmental implications for all life’. The field of urban planning
exemplifies this. Key issues of democracy and participation in public policy
making at local and regional level; the role of the private sector and the
balance of markets, government and civil society; and a containerized approach
by government results in much urban planning failing to recognize future
consequences of current choices. Democracy needs to change to meet the
convergent social, economic and environmental challenges. McIntyre-Mills
recommends ‘both centralized controls to protect the global commons and
decentralized engagement to test out our ideas’. Urban planning also will only
succeed if it recognizes that ‘we need to be the subjects not the objects of
other people’s designs’ (McIntyre-Mills). However, participatory design is
complex and difficult and, while digital communication can potentially include
more voices, like any engagement it works best when complementing other
processes and ‘built around the needs, goals, and concerns of the potentially
engaged,’ (Leinghninger). Sarkissian therefore argues that urban planning needs
to take a holistic approach, ‘taking into account multiple layers and
components of social systems’ and to be long term focused. This paper explores
the means to do that.

Keywords

Holistic, engaging, community, complexity, creativity

References

• Australian Government. 2011a. Our cities Our Future: A national urban policy for a productive, sustainable and liveable future. Canberra: Department of Infrastructure and Transport, Australian Government.
• http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/infrastructure/mcu/files/Our_Cities_National_Urban_Policy_Paper_2011pdf.
• Australian Government. 2011b. Creating Places for People - an Urban Design Protocol for Australian Cities. Major Cities Unit of the Department of Infrastructure and Transport, Canberra: Australian Government.
• http://www.urbandesign.gov.au/
• Australian Government, 2011c. State of Australian Cities 2011. Report by the Major Cities Unit of the Department of Infrastructure and Transport, Canberra: Australian Government.
• http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/infrastructure/mcu/soac.aspx
• Australian Government. 2011d. Liveable Cities Program, Nation Building Infrastructure Investment Program Guidelines, Department of Infrastructure and Transport Audit Report 2013/14. Canberra: Australian Government.
• http://investment.infrastructure.gov.au/publications/administration/pdf/liveable_cities_guidelines_version_1.1.pdf
• Australian Government. (2009, 7 December). Capital City Strategic Planning Systems, Council of Australian Governments’ Meeting (COAG) Communique, pp8. Canberra: Australian Government.
• http://www.coag.gov.au/sites/default/files/2009-12-07.pdf
• Beck, U. 2007. World at Risk, Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Boulton, S., Cis, D., Mendonca, L., Pohl, H., Remes, J., Ritchie, H. , & Woetzel, J. 2013. How to make a city great, McKinsey Cities Special Initiative report. McKinsey & Company.
• Castells, M. 1996. The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture. Vol. 1: The Rise of the Network Society. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
• Chapman. D (ed). 1996. Creating Neighbourhoods and Places in the Built Environment. London: E. & F.N. Spon.
• Condon, P. M. 2008. Design Charrettes for Sustainable Communities. Washington: Island Press.
• Cook, A. 2012. Developing Visual Research tools to ‘do planning’ with Children. Workshop paper for the Place leaders Association (PLA) Champions’ Forum, 2-3 August, 2012. Adelaide.
• Cook, N. 2008. Enterprise 2.0 – How Social Software Will Change the Future of the World. Farnham: Gower Publishing.
• Cooper, C. And Balakrishnan, A. 2013, Citizen Science Perspectives on E-Participation in Urban Planning, In Nunes Silva, C. (Ed.) Citizen E-Participation in Urban Governance: Crowdsourcing and Collaborative Creativity. Lisbon: University of Lisbon, USA: IGI Global.
• Florini, A. 2003. The Coming Democracy: New Rules for Running a New World. Washington DC: Island Press.
• Gillin, P. 2009. Secrets of Social Media Marketing. Fresno, California: Quill Driver Books.
• Gleeson, B. 2013. Unsustainable cities a product of growth fetish. Opinion:Brendan Gleeson/The Conversation www.theconversation.edu.au In Daily. 13 May 2013.
• http://indaily.com.au/news/2014/05/13/unsustainable-cities-a-product-of-growth-fetish/
• Gordon, E. & Koo. G. 2008. Placeworlds: Using Virtual Worlds to Foster Civic Engagement. Space and Culture. Vol. 11. No. 3.
• Gordon, E. & Manosevitch, E. 2010. Augmented deliberation: Merging physical and virtual interaction to engage communities in urban planning. New Media & Society. Vol. 13. No. 1. pp.75-pp.95.
• Government of South Australia (GOSA), 2013. Better Together: Principles of Engagement. Department of Premier & Cabinet, Government of South Australia, Adelaide.
• Gunter, J. 2013. Harnessing the Power of an Open Design Community http://www.openideo.com/open/e-waste/realisation/harnessing-the-power-of-an-open-design-community/ 31 January 2013.
• Habermas, J. 2001. The Postnational Constellation, Chpt. 4. pp58-pp112. Cambridge. Mass: MIT Press.
• Held, D. 2004. Globalisation: the Dangers and the Answers. Polity Press.
• Hewett, B. 2012. In Integrated Design Strategy for inner Adelaide – Placeshaping Framework. Integrated Design Commission. Adelaide: Government of South Australia.
• Hoggett, P. 2009. Politics, Identity and Emotion. Boulder. Col. USA: Paradigm Publishers.
• Hoy, M Community engagement: keep one foot in cyberspace and one in the real world. Guardian Professional Local Government Network, posted 14 May 2013.
• Hurley, T. 2010. Place Making for People: Case studies in delivering community expectations. Sydney: Place Leaders Association Limited.
• Integrated Design Commission (IDC). 2012. An Integrated Design Strategy for inner Adelaide – Placeshaping Framework. Adelaide: Government of South Australia.
• International Association for Public Participation (IAP2). 2006a. Planning for Effective Public Participation. Student training manual for IAP2 Certificate Program in Public Participation. Denver. Colo: IAP2.
• International Association for Public Participation (IAP2). 2006b. Techniques for Effective Public Participation. Student training manual for IAP2 Certificate Program in Public Participation. Denver. Colo: IAP2.
• Johnston, S. 2012. The Adelaide Review. August 2012. Issue 390. pp27.
• Lee, L. 2010. Integrated Design: Design as an Agent of Change. Place Magazine. June 2010 issue. pp. 10. Australian Institute of Architects (SA Chapter). Adelaide
• Liebrucks, C. 2010. Exploring Feasibility of a Virtual Charrette in South Australia. Adelaide: Property Council of Australia & University of Adelaide.
• Leighninger, M. 2011a. Designing the next form of democracy. Article on Deliberative Democracy Consortium Forum. Posted 7 December 2011.
• http://www.businessofgovernment.org/sites/default/files/A%20Managers%20Guide%20to%20Evaluating%20Citizen%20Participation.pdf
• Leighninger, M. 2011b. Using Online Tools to Engage – and be Engaged by – The Public. Using Technology Series Report. Deliberative Democracy Consortium Forum. http://www.businessofgovernment.org/sites/default/files/Using%20Online%20Tools%20to%20Engage%20The%20Public_0.pdf
• Mannix, L. 2014. Planning policies upset “vested interests”:Rau. Indaily 13 March 2014. http://indaily.com.au/news/2014/03/13/planning-policies-upset-vested-interests-rau/
• Marsh, S, 2013, Guardian Professional Local Government Network, http://www.guardian.co.uk/local-government-network/2013/jun/05/workshop-engaging-residents-online?goback=%2Egde_4239277_member_247676619 posted 6 June 2013.
• Marton, L. 2013, How UniSA used co-creation to engage stakeholders in the strategic planning process. Marketingmag.com. http://www.marketingmag.com.au/interviews/how-unisa-used-co-creation-to-engage-stakeholders-in-the-strategic-planning-process-46655/#! Posted 29 November 2013.
• McIntyre-Mills, J. and De Vries, D. Transformation from Wall Street to Well-being, 2013. Systems Research and Behavioural Science, Vol. 30. No. 4, July-August 2013, pp444-pp469.
• McIntyre-Mills, J. and De Vries, D. 2009. How Lemmings on Wheels can Make a U-Turn Through Social Inclusion and Democracy, Systemic Practice and Action Research, Vol. 22. No. 3, pp173-200.
• McIntyre-Mills, J. with De Vries, D. 2011, Identity, democracy and Sustainability. Litchfield Park. USA: Emergent Publications..
• McIntyre-Mills, J. 2014. The challenges for social and environmental justice in an Increasingly vulnerable and unequal world. Paper presented at the International Sociology Association (ISA) XVIII World Congress of Sociology, Japan. July 2014.
• McIntyre-Mills, J. 2010, Towards a cosmopolitan approach for social and environmental justice, New Community Quarterly, Vol. 8. No. 3. pp. 4-13.
• McIntyre-Mills, J. 2006. Systemic Governance and Accountability. London, New York: Springer.
• McIntyre-Mills, J. 2003. Critical Systemic Praxis for Social and Environmental Justice. New York: Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers.
• McIntyre-Mills. J. 2000. Global Citizenship and Social Movements – Creating Transcultural Webs of Meaning for the New Millenium. Harwood Academic Publishers.
• O’Leary, K. 2011. Instead of an overarching vision for Adelaide, Rann’s administration opted for a string of showcase developments, Adelaide Advertiser, pp18.
• Rann, M. 2012. Revitalising cities. Lecture given at University of Auckland, 16 August, 2012. Visiting Senior Research Fellow in Political Studies.
• Read, S. Rosemann, J. & van Eldijk, J. 2005. Future City. Spon Press. New York.
• Rogers, N. 2012. Building Communities. Background Paper. Department for Communities and Social Inclusion. Adelaide: Government of South Australia.
• Sarkissian, W. & Hurford, D. 2010. Creative Community Planning – Transformative Engagement Methods for Working at the Edge, London: Earthscan.
• Sarkissian. W. Hofer, N. Shore, Y. Vajda, S. & Wilkinson, C. 2009. Kitchen Table Sustainability – Practical Recipes for Community Engagement with Sustainability, London: Earthscan.
• Sarkissian, W. & Cooper Marcus, C. 1986. Housing as if People Mattered. Berkley: University of California Press.
• Singer, P. 2002. One World: The Ethics of Globalisation. Melbourne: The Text Publishers.
• Stein, D. 1993. Winning Community Support for Land Use Projects. Washington DC: The Urban Land Institute.
• Stoker, G. 2000. Pierre, J. (Ed) 2000. Urban Political Science and the Challenge of Urban Governance. Chapt. 5. Pp91-109. In Pierre. J. (Ed) 2000. Debating Governance. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• The Australian Centre for Social Innovation (TACSI). 2014. Verdicts on the Jury. Adelaide: New Democracy Foundation. http://yoursay.sa.gov.au/media/W1siZiIsIjIwMTQvMDgvMjIvMDFfNDVfNTZfMzkxX1ZlcmRpY3RzX29uX3RoZV9KdXJ5X1RBQ1NJLnBkZiJdXQ/Verdicts%20on%20the%20Jury_TACSI.pdf
• Toohey, P. 2012. The dying city: Detroit has gone from prosperity to poverty – but some still hope. Adelaide Sunday Mail. 15 July 2012. pp29.
• Twyford, V., Waters, S., Hardy, M., & Dengate, J. 2006. Beyond Public Meetings: Connecting Community Engagement with Decision-Making. Sydney: Vivien Twyford Communications Pty. Ltd.
• Weatherill, J. 2012a. About Renewal SA, Premier’s statement on launching the Urban Renewal Authority, March 2012. Renewal SA website http://www.renewalsa.sa.gov.au/AboutRenewalSA.aspx accessed 10 May 2013
• Weatherill, J. 2012b. Premier’s Keynote Address, the Australian Institute of Urban Studies Seminar 24 February 2012. Adelaide.
• Williams, T. 2013. Competing for vision splendid, The Advertiser, 8 June 2013. pp66.