The interplay between citizen initiatives and invited participation in urban planning: An interaction research project

Research Project, 2010 – 2012

The aim is transdisciplinary production of knowledge about the role of citizen initiatives in local governance and how current design and planning practices may be developed in order to more fully use these initiatives as resources for sustainable urban development. This approach requires a reflective process involving both research and practice in a concrete planning situation. As we are specifically interested in responses to urban deprivation, we will perform a case study in a Swedish suburban area suffering from socio-economic stigmatisation. The project is designed to carry three phases: Mapping, Interactions, Synthesis. The interactions aim at opening interplaces where different stakeholders meet. The main target groups are researchers, planning practitioners at municipal and regional levels, and participating inhabitants and other local actors. We expect outcomes primarily on three levels: first, by papers in international academic journals; second, through a website, information material, lectures and a national conference on participatory planning methods; and third, through capacity-building among the participating actors, which may play an important role for how the local area develops both in a short-term and in a long-term perspective.