CHAPTER 5 - The Participants

Abstract

This chapter analyzes citizen participation in urban and regional planning. The emergence of interest in the potential for citizen participation at the local level has bred a number of studies that reveal the principal participants, and the interactions among them. The sources of conflict and the processes of conflict resolution are as indigenous to local activity as they are to any other political or social system. It is perhaps one of the principal functions of political institutions to provide an environment that either directly renders the potential conflict of less consequence, or incidentally provides one or more forums in which the conflict is reduced to manageable proportions. The chapter examines the participants by presenting a description of the total group, the identification of important roles, the competences, motivations and responsibilities of the group (as a whole), and the interrelationships of one group with others. The chapter also discusses the role of a (local) elected representative.