IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i19p11006-d649747.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Citizen Engagement in Spatial Planning, Shaping Places Together

Author

Listed:
  • Lummina G. Horlings

    (Department of Spatial Planning and Environment, Faculty of Spatial Sciences, University of Groningen, Landleven 1, 9747AD Groningen, The Netherlands)

  • Christian Lamker

    (Department of Spatial Planning and Environment, Faculty of Spatial Sciences, University of Groningen, Landleven 1, 9747AD Groningen, The Netherlands)

  • Emma Puerari

    (Department of Spatial Planning and Environment, Faculty of Spatial Sciences, University of Groningen, Landleven 1, 9747AD Groningen, The Netherlands)

  • Ward Rauws

    (Department of Spatial Planning and Environment, Faculty of Spatial Sciences, University of Groningen, Landleven 1, 9747AD Groningen, The Netherlands)

  • Gwenda van der Vaart

    (Department of Spatial Planning and Environment, Faculty of Spatial Sciences, University of Groningen, Landleven 1, 9747AD Groningen, The Netherlands)

Abstract

This paper explores the roles and practices of collective citizen engagement in spatial planning. Drawing on a selection of core articles in planning scholarship, it investigates how citizens (re-)shape urban places by responding to perceived flaws in how spatial planning addresses societal challenges. Formal planning interventions are often spatially and socially selective, ineffective, or even non-existent due to a lack of institutional capacities and resources. Consequently, citizens take on roles that they consider as missing, underperformed or ineffective. The paper shows that this results in a variety of practices complementary to, independent from, or opposing formal planning actors and interventions. Five dilemmas citizens face are identified, highlighting the tensions that surface on exclusion, participation, and governmental responsibilities when citizens claim their role in urban governance.

Suggested Citation

  • Lummina G. Horlings & Christian Lamker & Emma Puerari & Ward Rauws & Gwenda van der Vaart, 2021. "Citizen Engagement in Spatial Planning, Shaping Places Together," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-15, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:19:p:11006-:d:649747
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/19/11006/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/19/11006/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rebecca Sandover & Alice Moseley & Patrick Devine-Wright, 2021. "Contrasting Views of Citizens’ Assemblies: Stakeholder Perceptions of Public Deliberation on Climate Change," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(2), pages 76-86.
    2. Patsy Healey, 2015. "Citizen-generated local development initiative: recent English experience," International Journal of Urban Sciences, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2), pages 109-118, July.
    3. Annica Kronsell & Dalia Mukhtar-Landgren, 2018. "Experimental governance: the role of municipalities in urban living labs," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(5), pages 988-1007, May.
    4. Udo Pesch & Wouter Spekkink & Jaco Quist, 2019. "Local sustainability initiatives: innovation and civic engagement in societal experiments," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(2), pages 300-317, February.
    5. Hendrik Wagenaar & Patsy Healey & Giovanni Laino & Patsy Healey & Geoff Vigar & Sebastià Riutort Isern & Thomas Honeck & Joost Beunderman & Jurgen van der Heijden & Hendrik Wagenaar, 2015. "The transformative potential of civic enterprise," Planning Theory & Practice, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(4), pages 557-585, October.
    6. Liisa Horelli & Joanna Saad-Sulonen & Sirkku Wallin & Andrea Botero, 2015. "When Self-Organization Intersects with Urban Planning: Two Cases from Helsinki," Planning Practice & Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(3), pages 286-302, June.
    7. Johannes Novy & Claire Colomb, 2013. "Struggling for the Right to the (Creative) City in Berlin and Hamburg: New Urban Social Movements, New ‘Spaces of Hope’?," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(5), pages 1816-1838, September.
    8. Kees Biekart & Kees Biekart & Alan Fowler, 2013. "Transforming Activisms 2010+: Exploring Ways and Waves," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 44(3), pages 527-546, May.
    9. Saskia Bisschops & Raoul Beunen, 2019. "A new role for citizens’ initiatives: the difficulties in co-creating institutional change in urban planning," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 62(1), pages 72-87, January.
    10. Andreas Faludi, 2002. "Positioning European Spatial Planning," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(7), pages 897-909, October.
    11. Peschl, Markus F. & Fundneider, Thomas, 2008. "Emergent Innovation and Sustainable Knowledge Co-creation. A Socio-Epistemological Approach to “Innovation from within”," MPRA Paper 10215, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Emma Puerari & Jotte I. J. C. De Koning & Timo Von Wirth & Philip M. Karré & Ingrid J. Mulder & Derk A. Loorbach, 2018. "Co-Creation Dynamics in Urban Living Labs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-18, June.
    13. Kurt Iveson, 2013. "Cities within the City: Do-It-Yourself Urbanism and the Right to the City," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(3), pages 941-956, May.
    14. Tore Sager, 2016. "Activist planning: a response to the woes of neo-liberalism?," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(7), pages 1262-1280, July.
    15. Stefano Cozzolino & J. Polívka & R. Fox-Kämper & M. Reimer & O. Kummel, 2020. "What is urban design? A proposal for a common understanding," Journal of Urban Design, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(1), pages 35-49, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Christian Scholl & Joop de Kraker, 2021. "The Practice of Urban Experimentation in Dutch City Labs," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(1), pages 161-170.
    2. Wim Bosschaart & Noelle Aarts & Riyan J.G. van den Born, 2020. "Towards a Sustainable Landscape: Constructing Identities and Ambitions in a Citizen Initiative in the Making," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-20, October.
    3. Buijs, Arjen & Kamphorst, Dana & Mattijssen, Thomas & van Dam, Rosalie & Kuindersma, Wiebren & Bouwma, Irene, 2022. "Policy discourses for reconnecting nature with society: The search for societal engagement in Dutch nature conservation policies," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    4. Candel, Melissa & Paulsson, Jenny, 2023. "Enhancing public value with co-creation in public land development: The role of municipalities," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    5. Miguel Lopes & Fernando Alves, 2021. "Digital Tools to Foster Inclusiveness: Porto’s System of Accessible Itineraries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-16, May.
    6. Bisschops, Saskia & Beunen, Raoul & Hollemans, Daniël, 2023. "Institutionalizing ideas about citizens’ initiatives in planning: Emerging discrepancies between rhetoric and assurance," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    7. Nguyen, Huong Thu & Marques, Pilar & Benneworth, Paul, 2022. "Living labs: Challenging and changing the smart city power relations?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    8. Anil Engez & Seppo Leminen & Leena Aarikka-Stenroos, 2021. "Urban Living Lab as a Circular Economy Ecosystem: Advancing Environmental Sustainability through Economic Value, Material, and Knowledge Flows," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-17, March.
    9. Peschl, Markus F. & Bottaro, Gloria & Hartner-Tiefenthaler, Martina & Rötzer, Katharina, 2014. "Learning how to innovate as a socio-epistemological process of co-creation. Towards a constructivist teaching strategy for innovation," MPRA Paper 66539, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Federico Cuomo & Stefania Ravazzi & Federico Savini & Luca Bertolini, 2020. "Transformative Urban Living Labs: Towards a Circular Economy in Amsterdam and Turin," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-19, September.
    11. Esin Özdemir & Ayda Eraydin, 2017. "Fragmentation in Urban Movements: The Role of Urban Planning Processes," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(5), pages 727-748, September.
    12. Adams, Clare & Frantzeskaki, Niki & Moglia, Magnus, 2023. "Mainstreaming nature-based solutions in cities: A systematic literature review and a proposal for facilitating urban transitions," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    13. Lindsay P. Galway & Charles Z. Levkoe & Rachel L. W. Portinga & Kathryn Milun, 2021. "A Scoping Review Examining Governance, Co-Creation, and Social and Ecological Justice in Living Labs Literature," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-16, December.
    14. Stefano Bloch, 2015. "Book review: Street Art, Public City: Law, Crime and the Urban Imagination," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(13), pages 2500-2503, October.
    15. Pallagst, Karina & Dörrenbächer, H. Peter & Weith, Thomas, 2022. "Theories of cross-border cooperation: Explanatory approaches from European integration, regionalism and governance," Arbeitsberichte der ARL: Aufsätze, in: Pallagst, Karina & Hartz, Andrea & Caesar, Beate (ed.), Border Futures - Zukunft Grenze - Avenir Frontière: The future viability of cross-border cooperation, volume 33, pages 33-45, ARL – Akademie für Raumentwicklung in der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft.
    16. Ari-Veikko Anttiroiko, 2021. "Digital Urban Planning Platforms: The Interplay of Digital and Local Embeddedness in Urban Planning," International Journal of E-Planning Research (IJEPR), IGI Global, vol. 10(3), pages 35-49, July.
    17. Hugo A López & Pedro Ponce & Arturo Molina & María Soledad Ramírez-Montoya & Edgar Lopez-Caudana, 2021. "Design Framework Based on TEC21 Educational Model and Education 4.0 Implemented in a Capstone Project: A Case Study of an Electric Vehicle Suspension System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-22, May.
    18. Amrita Chhachhi & Eli Friedman, 2014. "Alienated Politics: Labour Insurgency and the Paternalistic State in China," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 45(5), pages 1001-1018, September.
    19. Gregor Wolbring & Fatima Jamal Al-Deen, 2021. "Social Role Narrative of Disabled Artists and Both Their Work in General and in Relation to Science and Technology," Societies, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-23, August.
    20. Lina Berglund-Snodgrass & Dalia Mukhtar-Landgren, 2020. "Conceptualizing Testbed Planning: Urban Planning in the Intersection between Experimental and Public Sector Logics," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(1), pages 96-106.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:19:p:11006-:d:649747. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.