Participatory Planning (ABPL90315)

Urban governance and citizen participation influence both the structure of the planning process (e.g. who participates, and how and when they participate) and the built environment outcomes produced from this process. All practitioners who work in local and regional environments (built, natural, social) need to be aware of the strategies and techniques that can be employed to elicit involvement from the public and private sector, and the modes of governance that shape citizen and stakeholder participation at different scales of government and at different points in the planning process.  This subject will impart to students the skills involved in encouraging and managing participation in the overall governance and planning of urban regions.

These skills include:

• Understand the concept of urban governance 
• Understanding the influence of different forms of urban governance on processes of citizen participation 
• Understand the nexus between the public and private sectors and civil society in planning for and managing cities 
• Understand the role of local, State and Commonwealth government, the private sector and civil society in delivering and financing infrastructure and services
• Encouraging and managing citizen engagement using different participatory tools 
• Understanding and assessing different characteristics of urban conflict 
• Negotiation, mediation, consensus-building between government, the private sector and civil society in complex situations with deep value differences 
• Have insight into comparative governance contexts through case studies from other countries 
• Evaluation of citizen participatory processes

There will be considerable reliance on hand-on exercises based on case studies from Melbourne and around the world. The subject aims to be relevant to urban and social planners, landscape architects, urban designers, architects, property professionals, community developers, and environmental activities. 

This subject replaces ABPL90315 Urban Governance, and was previously known as Participation and Negotiation.