A Ladder of Citizen Participation - Assignment Example

A Ladder of Citizen Participation Introduction: Tangentstudio Ltd, which was founded by Sally Daniels in 2005, and run by Lawrence Duck, Marcus Toop and other UWE structural engineering graduates, primarily works along with the University of the West of England (UWE) in terms of the Architecture and Planning Department. The studio in tandem with Tangentfield CIC supports an educational field studio that focuses on different kinds of design and construction projects, networking experienced specialists and creators not only in the field of construction and craft, but also performance as well as design. Tangent basically comprises studio practice and field practice, where the former includes architectural design and consultation, while the latter deals with design, participatory place-making, make workshops, and also planning. Both the components involve company’s work with students and professionals belong to different fields such as design, education, performance, carpentry and emergency shelter building as well as a variety of community groups. For my internship, I worked with two of my classmates as a team to provide assistance to Sally in terms of completing two projects in a deadline of three weeks, and more projects for the remaining two weeks. The majority of time was spent working at Sally’s private studio in Centrespace, while the remainder was spent working in UWE. The first project involved helping the Architecture Centre in Bristol to set up an exhibition for May 1st, in terms of celebrating Bristol’s victory of being the European Green Capital 2015. The main idea behind this event was to bring people together through the exhibition, workshops talks and other activities in order to provide a forum to discuss and come up with solutions to maintain a more sustainable future (The Architecture Centre, 2015). The second project, on the other hand, revolved around collaboration with the history department in UWE, in order to hold the event ‘Crafts Walk’ for the 7th of June. This walk that will be held within the Bristol historic centre is aimed at restoring the value of historic monuments so as to revitalize the old culture and traditions in a better light. The main focus of these projects was on different theories of planning, and after the undertaking of this internship, I have been able to gain an in-depth understanding of planning in its practical aspect. This experience has rendered good insight into the world of planning, and this will significantly help me to make up better plans and take better planning decisions in my future endeavours. Role of agency and associated operations in planning system: The execution of the projects as well as their success was largely dependent on the role of the agency as well as associated operations in the planning system involved in planning for these different projects. Tangentfield played a significant role for the collaboration with different organizations and formed effective partnerships for these projects, where the main focus was on community involvement as well as decentralizing planning. The various operations within the planning system helped in the successful execution of the planning policy, and thereby achieving not only short term but also long term policy objectives. The projects facilitated inviting people to participate in design process through different workshops that were held, thus ensuring that people would better implement the decisions that were taken since they were involved in the planning stage and decision taking. On the other hand, in addition to making decisions and finding better ways to implement them, the various discussions that were held in the planning process also helped to identify issues that hindered realisation of several projects. The primary issue that was identified was the lack of funding, due to which several projects were denied the chance to be implemented. Whereas, the projects that were carried out, sometimes failed due to faults in planning, lack of proper implementation and following traditional planning theories such as the top-down approach. The barriers to perfect implementation were also recognized and it was understood how significant it is to consider the impact external environments can have on the implementation of plans. These external environments include the socio-cultural, political, technological, legal, economic as well as natural environments, and these need to be analysed thoroughly in the planning stages. Therefore, in addition to facilitating the success of various projects undertaken, the agency and related operations also helped identify several issues that have previously occurred in planning system and thus helped explore ways to overcome them in the future. Projects: 1. City Ideas Studio Exhibition Launch: Tasks: One of the primary tasks involved in this project was explaining and discussing city ideas studio with relation to the Green Capital, that is, discussing various ideas of how to set up the exhibition in Bristol with specific focus on the fact that the city had won the Green Capital award. The City Ideas Studio programme revolved around the themes of nature, transport, resources, food and energy, where each theme’s presentation through national and international projects with the help of “local innovators and special pop-up guests” was discussed (The Architecture Centre, 2015). Another task during the planning process was to discuss different panel layout options, which would help detail the different alternatives possible for panel layout. Keeping in mind that planning is one thing and actualizing it is another, we tried to implement different ways of mapping and accordingly selected the best alternative. One of the most important tasks in this process was deciding for and confirming the best design layout and then beginning work on actual panels. The other relevant processes that were necessary to help complete the set up of the Architecture Centre exhibition from the side of UWE and Tangentstudio were discussed and planned as another task. The possible food networks were mapped out and the best one was selected, after which we focused on completing the various installation processes. Lastly, it was also our responsibility to invite people so that they could get the opportunity to share their ideas during the exhibition. For this the people within the city as well as neighbouring cities were invited, and it was a great experience where interested parties could present their ideas for sustainable future. Theory: For the successful execution of this project, implementation theory brought to fore by Dorey was applied. Dorey (2005) finds that it was the bottom up approach that propelled “the drive for comprehensive education” in England and Wales, as opposed to the top down initiative (p.53) Similarly, the same design when applied to the planning process of this project can be found to serve a greater purpose as it based on the “involvement of users in the design and planning of their environment” (UN-Habitat, 2009, p.66). The practice of this theory makes the people feel included, and thus, they can help in better following and implementation of the plan since they are an integral part of the planning process. Being driven by communities and enacted by city planning departments, this participatory design aims at “social justice,” and thus positively influences the population to be better involved with the implementation of sustainable plans (p.17). Our project combined different neighbourhoods and did not hold any kind of discrimination against a particular neighbourhood, and thus encouraged positive participation by providing all people with detailed information, encouraging questions and giving relevant answers (Arnstein, 1969, p.220). Based on the theory that “citizen participation is citizen power,” we helped the people understand how they could gain a better control and power over the future of the city, provided they take more active participation (p.216). The decentralized planning helped in terms of delegating power to the “resident dominated groups” and prevented any racism from creeping into the decisions (p.222). Different networks of people, although good for the event due to the varied ideas they could provide, seemed to raise the problem of the inability to accept all ideas. Although we welcomed all ideas, the difficulty was in making the people realize that some of these ideas could not be accepted. However, ultimately, the project was a grand success due to the effective planning system that guided it. The picture below shows what we set up for indicating different city ideas related to the project: 2. Bristol historic crafts project: Task: For this project, we started out by producing a map based on a 1910s directory in order to create the Crafts Walk for people to come and enjoy, thus providing them with a way to relive history. The map was formed after analysing as well as zoning the different crafts in the city of Bristol. It was highly important to develop the map in a way that could incorporate as much possible historic monuments as possible, however, without taking much long routes so as not to exhaust the people. The Crafts Walk integrated the old historic monuments whose walls speak of rich culture and scenic views from the modern world that primary included the lush greenery. Thus, the walk was that of historic and natural beauty, and the event was quite a success since it drew upon historic monuments of the centre and efficiently brought back the historic background into life of the modern citizens of Bristol. Theory: This project also used the participatory design or the bottom up approach and integrated the Arnstein’s ladder of citizen participation, with importance placed on informing, consultation, placation, partnership, delegated power and citizen control phases (Arnstein, 1969, p.217). Arnstein finds that negotiation held between citizens and public officials can provide better opportunities for citizens to achieve the dominant decision making authority in relation to a particular plan or program (p.226). This decentralization of power, according to Arnstein puts the citizens in power, thereby ensuring their maximum participation. Although the project included different networks of people, there were not too many difficulties experienced, since all the citizens were ready to take part in the event and pay homage to the legacy of their city. However, the partnership between the history department of UWE and the Tangentstudio although produced significant results in the end, faced few problems during the execution of the project. These issues happened due to lack of effective communication between the two departments. The main problem here was that in the end there were three maps produced, since the history department was not aware that we were working on this project. Certain other students also took up on the same project; however, the advantage was that we were able to select the best map. Keeping aside some issues with time management, the overall project was quite a success. 3. Earth Project-designing a cob building for the asylum seekers’ allotments on Speedwell rd. Tasks: The main tasks involved in this project were first and foremost visit of the site were the cob building was supposed to be built. Visiting the site enhanced knowledge and helped develop better ideas based on the place and the environments of the place. Several workshops were kept so that teenagers could share their ideas, and furthermore there was a production of site models and site plans for people to work on. A research booklet on cob was produced and, furthermore, relevant design guidelines were formulated. Research was also conducted on the different policies involved in permitted development of this project. Theory: The planning of this event also greatly involved the partnership, delegated power and citizen control stages that presented the citizens with more power. Therefore, using the participatory design, several workshops were set to invite people to participate and present their ideas with regard to the project at hand. Using Arnstein’s ladder of citizen participation, we were able to effectively induce partnership of the community delegate power to them, thereby ensuring citizen control (1969, p.217). The community engagement is highly important for an undertaking as this; thus, the different sections of the community were encouraged to help realise this project. It was realized that funding was a major problem for most resources since there was a lack in funding, however, in order to fund for this project, the theory of access to resources was used, which validated the relationship and link between people and institutions and how they are “positioned differently” in relation to resources at various “historical moments and geographical scales” (Ribot and Peluso 2003, p.154). Conclusion: References Arnstein, S. R. 1969. A Ladder Of Citizen Participation. Journal of The American Planning Association, 35(4): 216-224. doi:10.1080/01944366908977225 Dorey, P. 2005. Developments in British public policy. London: SAGE. Ribot, J. C., & Peluso, N. L. 2003. A Theory of Access. Rural Sociology, 68(2): 153–181. The Architecture Centre. 2015. The Architecture Centre - City Ideas Studio. Retrieved from http://www.architecturecentre.co.uk/Ideas-Studio UN-Habitat (United Nations Human Settlements Programme). 2009. Planning sustainable cities: Global report on human settlements 2009. London: Earthscan. Read More