Abstract
In this paper we outline the methodological development of current research into urban community formations based on combinations of qualitative (volunteered) and quantitative (spatial analytical and geo-statistical) data. We outline a research design that addresses problems of data quality relating to credibility in volunteered geographic information (VGI) intended for Web-enabled participatory planning. Here we have drawn on a dual notion of credibility in VGI data, and propose a methodological workflow to address its criteria. We propose a ‘super-positional’ model of urban community formations, and report on the combination of quantitative and participatory methods employed to underpin its integration. The objective of this methodological phase of study is to enhance confidence in the quality of data for Web-enabled participatory planning. Our participatory method has been supported by rigorous quantification of area characteristics, including participant communities’ demographic and socio-economic contexts. This participatory method provided participants with a ready and accessible format for observing and mark-making, which allowed the investigators to iterate rapidly a system design based on participants’ responses to the workshop tasks. Participatory workshops have involved secondary school-age children in socio-economically contrasting areas of Liverpool (Merseyside, UK), which offers a test-bed for comparing communities’ formations in comparative contexts, while bringing an under-represented section of the population into a planning domain, whose experience may stem from public and non-motorised transport modalities. Data has been gathered through one-day participatory workshops, featuring questionnaire surveys, local site analysis, perception mapping and brief, textual descriptions. This innovative approach will support Web-based participation among stakeholding planners, who may benefit from well-structured, community-volunteered, geo-located definitions of local spaces.
Highlights
Effective urban planning must reflect citizens’ experiences of socio-spatial inequalities, which relate to place-specific factors of social distinction and cultural identity (Cassiers & Kesteloot, 2012)
The investigators found that a major challenge of integration relates to the variability in volunteered geographic information (VGI) participants’ levels of engagement, confidence and skill, which we addressed through a structured workshop format
Where the capture of VGI data has presented a problem of quality and consistency in geospatial analysis elsewhere, we have found that a voluntary approach framed within a well-defined and ‘transformative’ participatory context serves to maintain quality
Summary
Effective urban planning must reflect citizens’ experiences of socio-spatial inequalities (cf. UN-Habitat, 2009, p. xxiii), which relate to place-specific factors of social distinction and cultural identity (Cassiers & Kesteloot, 2012). Xxiii), which relate to place-specific factors of social distinction and cultural identity (Cassiers & Kesteloot, 2012). Effective urban planning must reflect citizens’ experiences of socio-spatial inequalities Such inequalities are widening due to major economic and infrastructural changes in many cities around the world 83), and reveal uneven distributions of economic, social and cultural resources The effects of spatial inequalities include the urban population’s uneven levels of access to their city’s resources, resulting from both physical barriers and social exclusions The effects of spatial inequalities include the urban population’s uneven levels of access to their city’s resources, resulting from both physical barriers and social exclusions (cf. Grant, 2010, pp. 5-9)
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