Abstract
The gradual institutionalization of public participation increasingly compels local authorities to partially share their power over the transformation of urban areas. The smooth running of a participatory session is based on selecting the appropriate type of interaction, or medium, which supports the local authorities to reach and interact with a targeted public. However, local authorities often appear unfamiliar with the organization of interactive sessions with the population. This article introduces an evaluation framework that focuses on the access conditions of participants to the sessions of interaction. This novel perspective aspires to assist the local authorities in their decision to adopt a participatory medium (or method of interaction). Seven dimensions are investigated to this aim, namely accessibility, availability, adequacy, affordability, acceptability, awareness, and attractiveness (the last dimension is introduced in this article). In light of two real case scenarios that occurred in Western Switzerland, the use of the access framework is investigated for two potential purposes: (1) supporting the choice of a medium for an interactive session according to the urban project’s context and the targeted public; and (2) improving future participatory approaches by assessing the representativeness of participants attending a past session in comparison to the originally targeted public.
Highlights
Published: 19 August 2021Over the past thirty years, the necessity of public participation and its institutionalization has been a growing challenge for governments [1]
New integrated methods including stakeholders throughout projects emerge to produce local knowledge via participatory and collaborative mapping, notably in environmental management [44,45]. Besides these 2D digital mediums, Virtual Geographic Environments (VGE) and their third dimension have the potential to strongly impact the practice of urban participatory approaches
Despite the evidence that suggests that digital technologies represent one of the solutions that could bridge the gap between traditional tools and modern participatory approaches, providing a broad population with access to participatory processes does not seem entirely addressed by this digital medium
Summary
Over the past thirty years, the necessity of public participation and its institutionalization has been a growing challenge for governments [1]. To encourage the targeted stakeholders (the project’s future users) to attend a participatory session, project managers must adopt mediums (pictures, maps, digital or physical mock-ups, questionnaires, transect walks, 3D platforms, etc.) that will place the approach within the right context An increased knowledge of the relationship between methods of interaction and public access could facilitate the negotiation between planners and decision-makers in the medium selection, leading to an improved involvement of the targeted stakeholders, and their equality towards participatory approaches This framework is discussed using the examples of two participatory approaches articulated around two urban planning problems in Western Switzerland. The article examines the implied synergy between digital and non-digital mediums, besides their purposes as a vector for facilitating the engagement of the targeted public
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