Research article - Peer-reviewed, 2020
Unearthing the political: differences, conflicts and power in participatory urban design
Calderon, CamiloAbstract
This paper aims to advance the development of participation in urban design from a substantive standpoint. It departs from a prevailing focus on ideals of participation and describing participatory methods and processes. Instead, the paper stresses the need to acknowledge 'the political' nature of public spaces and how this challenges participatory urban design processes. This leads to a substantive exploration of differences, conflicts and power in the planning and design of public spaces, i.e., unearthing the political. The case of a participatory process in a neighbourhood of Barcelona illustrates the theoretical discussion. This helps bring forward a much-needed critical and reflective, rather than idealistic, theorization and practice of participation in urban design.Keywords
Involvement; local communities; public space; participation; urban design; decision-making processesPublished in
Journal of Urban Design2020, volume: 25, number: 1, pages: 50-64
Authors' information
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Urban and Rural Development
UKÄ Subject classification
Landscape Architecture
Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified
Publication Identifiers
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13574809.2019.1677146
URI (permanent link to this page)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/102176