Participatory Urban Governance Research Articles

A Participatory Urban Governance Framework for Transitioning Cities Towards Sustainability: Linking the Protection of Urban Ecosystems’ Functions and Circularity Principles

The purpose of this research is to provide an urban governance framework that can aid decision-makers to transition cities towards more sustainability and resilience. Our premise is that such transition will take time, iterations and adaptations and will benefit from using a governance framework that is both participatory and that also highlights the ecological, economic and social dimensions of sustainability all at once. In order to do so, we suggest considering the city itself as an ecosystem that delivers environmental functions (production, sink, amenity and regulation) through its activities. Using an accounting representation that links urban activities to these functions, we are then advocating building sustainable urban strategies based on the protection of these functions and on minimising non-re-usable waste or by-products. Encouraging such circularity requires negotiation amongst stakeholders who need to know how production processes could be connected to minimise the overall generation of waste. It also promotes cooperation amongst producers and consumers, and generates collective learning and co-creation. The article shows that adopting an ecosystemic representation can help in understanding circularity as a regenerative approach that goes beyond an accounting balancing exercise. We suggest to integrate design thinking to enhance negotiations based on the information provided by the accounts. The research illustrates how such method could be operationalised by focusing on food system activities, stakeholders, and security as core to urban resilience, using Lisbon Metropolitan Area food strategy as a case study.

Youth participation in cultural heritage management: a conceptual framework

ABSTRACT The management of cultural heritage is no longer exclusive to heritage professionals. The engagement of various stakeholders, particularly underrepresented groups in communities, is crucial to promote inclusiveness in heritage management practices. As future decision-makers, youth are vital to be engaged, yet their participation remains at a low level due to the underestimation of youth capacities and a lack of motivation among youth. Little research has been done to comprehensively conceptualise youth participation and frame it in the context of cultural heritage management. To fill this gap, an integrative literature review was conducted using academic and grey literature from participatory urban planning, design, governance, and heritage management fields. The results show that existing theories have made valuable insights into approaching youth participation by identifying the definition and roles of youth, levels of participation, and methods of engagement. However, they have so far failed to fully address the fluid nature of youth engagement and lack reflections from youth perspectives towards their initiatives to participatory practices. Drawing on the results, we propose a new conceptual framework consisting of four dimensions: purpose, positioning, perspectives, and power relations, which define youth participation theoretically and methodologically in cultural heritage management.

The role of Design Thinking to promote a sustainability transition within participatory urban governance: Insights from urban agriculture initiatives in Lisbon

This article contributes to research into new forms of participatory urban governance aimed at creating more sustainable cities. Focused on food security, which has, like ‘sustainability’, economic, ecological and socio-political dimensions, our research examines how urban agricultural initiatives have been promoted in Lisbon and how connecting and integrating them in urban planning strategies could contribute to the progressive transformation of the city into a more sustainable one. This integration is viewed as a complex, ‘wicked’ problem in that it encompasses various interdependent problems that are hard to solve due to the conflicting goals of involved actors. For this reason, we suggest that Design Thinking could help urban planners in addressing it, since it offers flexible, iterative and participatory ways of generating development insights based on users’ needs and contexts. The way this methodology is used is illustrated here to carry out the literature review on these issues in Lisbon. From this, the centrality of food systems in concerns related to urban sustainability emerged, as well as suggestions on ways to adjust urban planning so that it takes better account of them in the future. Our research aligns with recent studies on the use of Design Thinking in urbanism, some of them dealing with the food-energy-water nexus, and provides, through urban agriculture, a practical focus of study that urban citizens might feel more capable to comment and participate on.

The Role of Information Technology in Improving Urban Governance

The rapid development of information technology has a significant impact on various fields of human life, including urban governance. In the context of urban governance, information technology can be used to improve efficiency, transparency, and community participation in the decision-making process that has an impact on the quality of life of city residents. The purpose of this research is to explain the role of information technology in improving urban governance because it is important in the context of increasingly complex urban development and requires appropriate and efficient decision-making. The focus of this research is qualitative. Methods for gathering information included paying close attention and taking detailed notes, with subsequent analysis including data reduction, visualisation, and inference. The study arrived at the conclusion that the role of information technology in improving urban governance is crucial and requires special attention from the government and relevant stakeholders. By improving access and quality of information technology services, enhancing digital literacy and information technology skills, increasing community participation in urban governance, and improving data security and privacy, the application of information technology in urban governance can become more effective and efficient in improving urban governance.

Exploring Citizen Participation in Smart City Development in Mexico City: An institutional logics approach

We explore smart city development, with a focus on the modalities of citizen participation, using an institutional logics approach. Taking Mexico City as our case study, we describe the presence and dynamics of several logics influencing smart city development. At an organizational level we identify the bureaucratic and technocratic logics underpinning the practices of the governmental agency leading smart city development. Characterized by centralization and the pursuit of efficiency, and framed by a discourse of austerity and financial control, these logics promote a modality of citizen participation that is limited and unidirectional in nature, with citizens positioned largely as users. At a supra-organizational level, we identify a logic of active citizen participation in urban governance that is formalized in city laws. However, this logic is itself entangled in a logic of clientelism and patronage, manifested through networks of power. These logics work synergistically to limit broader, inclusive citizen participation in, and realization of benefits from, smart city agendas. We conclude that a richer understanding of institutional logics enhances the analysis of the social construction of the smart city in particular, situated contexts.

Private urbanism and the spatial rationalities of urban governance

Many cities across Africa are characterised by poor planning, housing deficit, waste management challenges and land-use conflicts. Government efforts to address these challenges remain inadequate, with increased private sector participation in urban governance which in recent times has taken the form of privatised cities. Deploying governmentality – the distributed and subjectified statehood – as an analytical frame, and with data produced through interviews, observation and review of various documents, this article analyses spatial rationalities of private city development in Ghana. Rationalities are viewed as drawing boundaries and producing order to foster correct comportments in analysing the logic underlying actors’ approach to private city development. For the state, private city projects provide a quick fix to the urban planning and governance challenges by providing critical infrastructure and development control. Investors view private city developments as profitable ventures that offer the so-called ‘ideal cities’ that can respond to urban governance challenges. The discourses regarding privatised cities are focused on technocratic notions such as tenure security, development control and service delivery. It is, however, argued that the focus, target and strategies of privatised cities are piecemeal and limited in scope and cannot address the urban governance challenges confronting African cities.

From parochial to policy advocate: Examining policy advocacy among neighborhood councils in Los Angeles

With the neighborhood seen as the ideal unit for participatory modes of governance, many cities in the United States have established formal systems of neighborhood councils to increase civic participation, improve service delivery, and enhance democracy. Founded in 1999, Los Angeles boasts the most extensive neighborhood council system in the country. Through an ethnographic study of two neighborhood councils in LA this study investigates how neighborhood councils influence land-use and policy decision making. It finds that political capital, negotiation, and associational leverage are the most important tools for these councils in exerting influence. In doing so, the authors suggest that the oft-cited justifications for pursuing formalized modes of participatory urban governance do not take into consideration the sociopolitical dimensions of urban governance and urban regimes.

Bringing Transition Management to Cities: Building Skills for Transformative Urban Governance

Cities are open to trialing new approaches for advancing their planning and urban governance practice. Evidence from urban research and practice shows that transition management has been widely and diversely applied for strategic planning for climate mitigation and adaptation, regeneration, as well as sectoral (energy, water, waste) and social cohesion agendas. Despite the amounting evidence of the applications of transition management, the research has not identified what it is required in terms of skills to apply such a governance framework for participatory governance in cities. In this paper, we respond to this gap by providing evidence from 11 cities across Europe that applied transition management as an approach to participatory urban governance for unpacking what transformative actions are required to strengthen urban resilience in deprived neighborhoods. Our multi-case study research and analysis reveals that a multitude of vocational and academic skills are required for the application of transition management approach including systems thinking, creativity, theory-to-practice application skills, diplomatic skills for forging partnerships and learning alliances and openness to learning-by-doing during experimentation. Transition management application in cities in the Resilient Europe project brought about positive outcomes in terms of developing new skills, embedding new knowledge about urban resilience and transition management in planning.

Human Intervention for Protecting Urban Green Cover: Case of Nagpur, India

The important roles played by green spaces are social, economic, cultural and environmental aspects of sustainable development. Indian urban areas are developing at a very fast pace; simultaneously there is a rapid growth in population too, which impacts the ratio of demand and supply of basic services resulting to sustainability issues. This influences the interfaces between urbanization, population and the environment, as the surroundings are at the receiving end, leading to overexploitation of natural resources especially breathing spaces as parks, gardens and small forests on the name of infrastructural development. The situation augments due to absence of citizen participation in urban governance especially Urban Local Bodies (ULB). Though the 74th Constitution Amendment Act in India has given this opportunity to strengthen the links between the citizens and local democratic governance by way of public participation, the ground realities are different reducing the transparency of accountability of ULB. Based on this, the paper presents the case study of city of Nagpur, 2nd capital of state of Maharashtra, India, how environmental NGOs and citizens fought an eleven month struggle, venture to save a green patch of Nagpur, the Bharat Van from the clutches of local government bodies saving the ill effects on environment. This study is an attempt to highlight the necessity of an integrated approach regarding that the planning, monitoring, designing and maintaining of urban green spaces is required for improving the environmental sustainability in cities in different countries.

The Relevance of Contemplative Studies and Practices for Improving Participatory Urban Governance

ABSTRACT Evidence suggests that substantial and robust community engagement is essential to local urban governance. In this paper, we reflect on the importance of a more comprehensive approach to community engagement that values both the cognitive and the affective, the technical and the relational, and the outer and inner dimensions of human experiences. The intangible and inner dimensions receive little attention in public administration and political science fields, or in governance processes themselves. The paper aims to make a start in addressing this gap by engaging ideas from the emerging field of contemplative studies. This field brings attention to the inner worlds of people, and the importance of valuing affective and embodied experiences. We explore how community engagement processes could potentially embody these insights to strengthen participatory urban governance, and reflect on some of the risks and limitations.

Urban Governance in Russia: The Case of Moscow Territorial Development and Housing Renovation

This essay considers how the tensions inherent to authoritarian politics structure urban governance in the city of Moscow. The focus here is on urban development policy and the housing renovation programme introduced in 2017. The essay demonstrates a flexible governance arrangement that responds to the interests and ideas of the country’s leadership and involves city-level bureaucratic decision-making, the accommodation of economic interests and expert opinion, and consultations with the public. Such consultations have recently become more significant because of intensive protests paired with the city administration’s belief in participatory urban governance.

Disrupting Dialogue? The Participatory Urban Governance of Far-Right Contestations in Cottbus

This article investigates how municipal governments negotiate far-right contestations through the format of citizens’ dialogues and contemplates to what extent they disrupt established assumptions about participatory urban governance. In doing so, I want to contribute to emerging scholarship on reactionary responses to migration-led societal transformations in cities via scrutinising their effects on institutional change in participatory practices. Building on participatory urban governance literature and studies on the far right in the social sciences, I argue that inviting far-right articulations into the democratic arena of participation serves to normalise authoritarian and racist positions, as the far right’s demand for more direct involvement of ‘the people’ is expressed in reactionary terms. I will show how this applies to two prominent notions of participation in the literature, namely, agonistic and communicative approaches. This argument is developed through an explorative case study of two neighbourhood-based citizens’ dialogues in Cottbus, East Germany, which the municipal government initiated in response to local far-right rallies. While a careful reading of these forums reveals productive potentials when the issue of international migration is untangled from context-specific, socio-spatial problems in the neighbourhoods, my analysis also shows how the municipality’s negotiation of far-right contestations within the citizens’ dialogues serves to legitimise far-right ideology. I find that to negotiate today’s societal polarisation, municipal authorities need to rethink local participatory institutions by disentangling these complex dynamics and reject far-right contestations, while designing dialogues for democratic and emancipatory learning.

Can Deliberative Democracy Work in Urban India?

India faces extensive challenges of rapid urbanization and deficits in human well-being and environmental sustainability. Democratic governance is expected to strengthen public policies and efforts towards sustainability. This article presents a study in Pune, India, which aimed at exploring perceptions about public participation in urban governance and the potential of high-quality public deliberation to meet deficits. The research reveals disaffection of the public with government decision-making and government-led participation. Further, it shows that people are interested in participating in community life and seek to be partners in civic decision-making, but find themselves unable to do so. The study illustrates that high-quality public deliberations facilitated by an independent third party can provide a satisfactory space of participation, learning, and developing balanced outcomes. Citizens expressed readiness for partnership, third-party facilitation, and support from civic advocacy groups. Challenges with regard to government commitment to deliberative democracy will need to be overcome for a purposeful shift from conventional weak to empowered participation of ordinary citizens in civic decision-making. We anticipate that while institutionalization of high-quality public deliberations may take time, civil society-led public deliberations may help raise community expectations and demand for induced deliberative democracy.

Grassroots refugee community organizations: In search of participatory urban governance

ABSTRACT Grassroots refugee community organizations (RCOs)—run by and for resettled refugees—are often small, informal, and financially unstable, and thus commonly forgotten in urban governance networks. Nevertheless, RCOs facilitate the integration of refugee communities in urban settings. We interviewed 42 leaders of 35 RCOs in 35 U.S. cities and conducted four focus groups with community leaders of Bhutanese RCOs. Findings suggest that federally contracted NGOs and local governments have frequently denied RCOs’ requests to participate in governance. Notably, only one RCO reported successful insertion in an urban governance network. Phase two of the study identified and conceptualized the inclusive practices that a Midwestern city adopted, such as hiring a cultural planner and building a consortium to support refugees in urban governance. This article provides a roadmap toward the successful integration of RCOs in urban governance. Even small and midsize cities can develop strategies for the inclusion of RCOs in the urban planning process.

An investigation into the elusive concept of smart cities: a systematic review and meta-synthesis

ABSTRACT Despite almost two decades of research, authors have disagreed about the concept of smart cities. In this article, we provide a systematic review and a meta-synthesis analysis of smart cities. We find a convergence in the literature on the following primary characteristics of smart cities: (a) advanced ICT Technology, (b) sustainability, (c) innovative and high-skilled society, (d) high-tech governance and citizen participation, and (e) knowledge-based economy. Based on these findings, we suggest a new notion: A smart city engenders an innovative and qualified society, oriented towards the development of the knowledge economy, which makes advanced ICT technologies aimed at promoting sustainability and participatory urban governance. Our study robustly offers an understanding of smart cities and presents a creative perception encompassing these five principal characteristics worthy of further investigation.

Participatory urban governance under the microscope: A qualitative study of high-functioning neighborhood councils in Los Angeles

ABSTRACT With the neighborhood seen as the ideal unit for participatory modes of governance, many cities in the United States have established formal systems of neighborhood councils to increase civic participation, improve service delivery, and enhance democracy. Los Angeles boasts the most extensive neighborhood council system, which was founded in 1999, in the country. Through a qualitative study of two neighborhood councils in LA, this study investigates how neighborhood councils influence land use and policy decision-making. It finds that political capital, negotiation, and associational leverage are the most important tools for these councils in exerting influence. In doing so, the authors suggest that the oft-cited justifications for pursuing formalized modes of participatory urban governance do not take into consideration the sociopolitical dimensions of urban regimes, and suggest three propositions for future research on neighborhood governance systems.

Capitalizing on Community: Affordable Housing Markets in the Age of Participation

This article examines the affordable housing market to develop a new way to understand the problem of co-optation in participatory urban governance. Through a case study of the Chicago metropolitan area, it uses data from 105 in-depth interviews—supplemented with ethnographic, archival, and secondary data—to shed light on the circumstances in which poverty-managing organizations compete for the resources necessary to house marginalized populations. Findings show how community-based groups, which have long housed the poorest neighborhoods and residents, are systematically excluded from access to development capital in favor of other “grassroots for hire” organizations more amenable to the elite co-optation of grassroots empowerment—a process referred to as co-optation by cohort replacement. The article discusses implications of these findings for the study of urban development, participatory governance, and the changing social safety net.

Participatory urban governance: Multilevel study.

Constraints and stakeholder theories are used as a theoretical framework to explore civic engagement and participatory practices in cities. Based on data gathered in Gdansk, Poland, hierarchical level modelling examines the socio-psychological mechanism that underlies an individual stakeholder’s intention to participate in the operation of a facility run by a municipality-owned company. It conceptualizes this interaction as location-dependent and nested. Results indicate that stakeholder attitude to the facility and their perception of influence were—unlike their perception of voice—positively related to their intention to participate in its functioning while location proved to be negatively related.

Urban governance in Ghana: the participation of traders in the redevelopment of Kotokuraba Market in Cape Coast

ABSTRACT This article contributes to the discourse of participatory urban governance through a qualitative analysis of the redevelopment of a market infrastructure in Cape Coast, Ghana. It demonstrates that problems arise with the quantity, distance and size of trading spaces when traders are not made to participate at the construction phase of market redevelopment. The responses of the municipal authorities and the market traders in Cape Coast to these problems are discussed. The wider implication of the findings of this study is that citizens should be engaged from the conception through planning to the implementation of urban regeneration.

Suitability of Eye Tracking in Assessing the Visual Perception of Architecture—A Case Study Concerning Selected Projects Located in Cologne

This article discusses the visual perception of selected buildings located in the historic centre of Cologne, Germany, that have been designed by outstanding architects. It presents eye-tracking research, both from a theoretical perspective and that of its application potential in, among other fields, psychology, management, architecture and urban planning. It also presents an experiment which was performed to evaluate the suitability of eye tracking in the assessment of the visual perception of architecture and its surroundings, utilising the case study method and members of Generation Z as the subject population. Analysis of the experiment’s results enabled the authors to formulate commentary on findings concerning typically observed attractors and distractors in the perception of architecture and its surroundings depending on context-specific conditions. The study provided evidence of the suitability of eye tracking in the assessment of the visual perception of works of architecture and indicated the possibility of continuing research concerning the assessment and shaping of the state of awareness and knowledge of architecture and urban planning, which can significantly affect public participation in urban governance.