Extracting or Empowering?

Abstract

Citizen participation is a critical process in most landscape architectural work involving the public domain. As a result of developments within the planning and design fields over the past 40 years, the question is no longer if citizen participation should be part of the planning and design process in public works, but rather who should participate, which methods should be employed, what type of knowledge will be produced, and how will that knowledge be integrated into the process. This paper draws from the literature of international development as well as design and planning to identify theoretical frameworks for participation that are useful in considering these questions. Participatory processes can vary by the degree to which they merely display participation or seek meaningful action, and the degree to which they extract information for decisions that empower participants to plan for themselves. Different purposes for citizen participation call for different methods, so explicit recognition of the intent of the participatory professional is paramount. A case study of participatory activities in the city of El Monte, California, analyzes how various activities assist community residents to articulate issues, and sustain action over the long term. Results suggest that issues of access to participants, power dynamics within the community, understanding of data needs, and nurturing community capacity to translate results to substantive change are critical dimensions to consider in designing a participatory approach.