Nature Big and Small

Abstract

This article reflects on 23 years of participatory professional practice, university teaching, and applied research conducted in Los Angeles at various and increasing scales with a wide range of participants. It describes the players and techniques used to engage them in the material and speculates as to the need for the practice to refocus as the region’s population changes. The piece concludes with a discussion of the de facto adaptive participation process to illustrate how community design and planning require many modes of practice.