Enabling participatory planning

All over the world, people suffer violence and discrimination because of their sexual orientation and gender identity. Queer theory has linked the politics of identity and sexuality with radical democracy experiments to decolonize development. Queering participatory planning can improve the wellbeing of vulnerable sectors of the population, while also enhancing their political representation and participation. However, to date, there has been limited engagement with the politics of sexuality and identity in participatory planning. This paper identifies three barriers that prevent the integration of queer concerns. First, queer issues are approached as isolated and distinct, separated from general matters for discussion in participatory processes. Second, heteronormative assumptions have shaped two fields that inform participatory planning practices: development studies and urban planning. Third, concrete, practical problems (from safety concerns to developing shared vocabularies) make it difficult to raise questions of identity and sexuality in public discussions. An engagement with queer thought has potential to renew participatory planning.

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Differentiating Participation: Identifying and Defining Civic Capacities Used by Latino Immigrants in Participatory Budgeting

City and Community ◽

10.1177/1535684121993473 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 153568412199347

Author(s):

José W. Meléndez ◽

Maria Martinez-Cosio

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Citizen Participation ◽

Participatory Planning ◽

Immigrant Community ◽

Participatory Budgeting ◽

Civic Discourse ◽

Spanish Speaking ◽

Decision Making Processes ◽

Civic Skills ◽

Budgeting Process

Participatory planning has faced challenges engaging predominantly Spanish-speaking immigrants beyond the bottom rungs of Arnstein’s ladder of citizen participation. Participating at any level of the ladder requires individual civic skills, or capacities, that are integral to participatory processes. However, the specific skills necessary for collective action are less certain, due in part to a lack of clear definitions and a lack of clarity about how these capacities work in practice. Drawing on two years of data from a participatory budgeting process in an immigrant community in Chicago, Illinois, the authors identify key civic capacities that Spanish-speaking immigrants activated while engaging in civic discourse, and they explore the role these capacities played in moving ideas toward collective decision making. The authors present an organizational schema that aligns the study’s findings of 17 unique civic capacities with capacities identified in the literature as helping participants engage more meaningfully in decision-making processes.

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Participatory planning for better inclusive urbanism: Some consideration about infrastructural obstacles for people with different motor abilities

10.1063/5.0047767 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Tiziana Campisi ◽

Iva Mrak ◽

Maurizio Francesco Errigo ◽

Giovanni Tesoriere

Keyword(s):

Participatory Planning ◽

Motor Abilities

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Sustainable Spatial Energy Planning of Large-Scale Wind and PV Farms in Israel: A Collaborative and Participatory Planning Approach

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14030551 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (3) ◽

pp. 551

Author(s):

Sofia Spyridonidou ◽

Georgia Sismani ◽

Eva Loukogeorgaki ◽

Dimitra G. Vagiona ◽

Hagit Ulanovsky ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Wind Farms ◽

Field Investigation ◽

Participatory Planning ◽

Energy Planning ◽

Environmentally Sustainable ◽

Selection Processes ◽

Planning Framework ◽

Planning Approach ◽

Near Future

In this work, an innovative sustainable spatial energy planning framework is developed on national scale for identifying and prioritizing appropriate, technically and economically feasible, environmentally sustainable as well as socially acceptable sites for the siting of large-scale onshore Wind Farms (WFs) and Photovoltaic Farms (PVFs) in Israel. The proposed holistic framework consists of distinctive steps allocated in two successive modules (the Planning and the Field Investigation module), and it covers all relevant dimensions of a sustainable siting analysis (economic, social, and environmental). It advances a collaborative and participatory planning approach by combining spatial planning tools (Geographic Information Systems (GIS)) and multi-criteria decision-making methods (e.g., Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP)) with versatile participatory planning techniques in order to consider the opinion of three different participatory groups (public, experts, and renewable energy planners) within the site-selection processes. Moreover, it facilitates verification of GIS results by conducting appropriate field observations. Sites of high suitability, accepted by all participatory groups and field verified, form the final outcome of the proposed framework. The results illustrate the existence of high suitable sites for large-scale WFs’ and PVFs’ siting and, thus, the potential deployment of such projects towards the fulfillment of the Israeli energy targets in the near future.

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