Behavioural model of collaborative urban management: extending the concept of Arnstein's ladder

Abstract

The aim of the article is to present a behavioural model of collaborative urban management. It draws on the discussion about the public engagement in urban management processes. We have been inspired by Sherry Arnstein's participation ladder, and we are using her categories of non-participation, tokenism and citizen power. However, in the course of our research, we came to the conclusion that our model should be extended to include the categories of disorder, awakening, radicalisation, civil disobedience and rebel action. The appearance of this new categories is triggered by recent changes in the socio-political conditions, associate with the fall of communism, decline of civil rights and deeper social changes connected with the ongoing globalization. The first stage of model-building involves distinguishing three basic collaboration actors: the inhabitants, urban movements and local authorities. The second stage is the construction of the scales of activity of the three actors. Finally, at the third stage, we established a coincidence of their behaviour patterns and categorised them into those of disorder, non-participation, tokenism, awakening, citizen power, radicalisation, civil disobedience and rebel action. We also present selected results of empirical research conducted in Poznan.