How participatory regional policies could contribute to the emergence of post-carbon economic models

[amelia]

I mentioned this in response to @jakobskote’s research project on the platform here – this question of citizen participation is central to my doctoral thesis, and something I’m really interested in:

@amelia

So potential research questions abound. My work is trying to ask/show a) how people are ALREADY participating, if you pay enough attention (to participation as interacting with the city itself, not just as responding to a feedback questionnaire or coming to sessions structured by interests of the planners) and b) how we can incorporate that kind of participation into planning.

It’s not enough to just say “citizens should be more active” – more work has to go into imagining how they might want to participate and how this is already happening.

The issue, at least in the area of smart cities, is twofold: one is what you mention @alberto : when people do participate, their thoughts are only incorporated in limited ways. A lot of going through the motions. So people decide – not worth my time. And rightly so.

The second issue is even when citizen engagement/participation as an abstract concept is valued, people don’t know how to do it in a way that actually works for the citizens. It’s a funny synchronicity, @alberto, but my main argument is actually that we have to see engagement as action, not as voice in a democratic public sphere. If you attend to the latter, you won’t find much (because of point 1). But if you look for the former, you’ll find people doing what they want and need to do to live their lives. You have to look at what people are doing, not (just) what they’re saying. Then bring the engagement to them.