THE PROBLEM

Empowering people to design their own living environment can contribute to creating better living environments. An issue then arises when there are certain parts of society who appear to be consistently underrepresented in participatory planning processes which are specifically designed to give the public a say over how their area develops - and subsequently their needs and wishes can be inadequately considered during the design of new developments.

Having a more representative sample of citizens' views presented during the participation phase of a project gives the designers and municipality the best possible chance of achieving a solution that is desirable for all citizens, as well as providing legitimacy to the decisions that are made if pleasing everyone is impossible.

Through our research we established the following five key barriers to an inclusive participation process:

The Problem: Services

ATTITUDES TOWARDS PARTICIPATION

When the public appear to show no interest in a project it is difficult to include them in the participation process - There is a perception from some municipal staff that the threshold for citizens to participate in a process for a project they disagree with is significantly lower than for a project they would be content to see completed.