Democracy to become reality: Participatory planning through action research

2007-09-01
Ataov, Anh
Different approaches in participatory planning stem from argumentation that stresses a certain model of democracy. While each model promotes participatory conditions, they do not always become reality. The needs of today's communities and the complex political system require a different approach for participatory planning to operate in a democratic way. This paper argues that five conditions are salient and illustrates the empirical consequences of this position by using the experiences of participatory movement in Kocaeli, Turkey, where the history of democratization goes back to 30 years, and furthermore enters a new phase with the recent participatory planning intervention conducted with an Action Research (AR) strategy. Research shows that the past participatory planning attempts and civil movements in Kocaeli fostered two conditions including active citizen participation and enabling mechanisms for this. Given this ground, the recent participatory planning intervention conducted through AR led to change towards a democratic society by applying the other three conditions of democracy: taking a position in the process of formulating livable agreement, enhancing effective participation of stakeholders of diverse interests, and translating thoughts into action.
HABITAT INTERNATIONAL

Suggestions

Globalization and urban governance in Istanbul
Uzun, Cemile Nil (Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2007-03-01)
Since the 1980s, the topic of governance has been extensively investigated in parallel with the effects of globalization on policy issues. Meanwhile, there has been an increasing fragmentation of responsibilities in the urban arena. Now, the main focus is on new institutional relations and the policy process in which different constituents and agencies participate at both the national and the local level. As a result of the rescaling process of the state, networked forms of governance constitute a new form ...
Sustainability of urban regeneration in Turkey: Assessing the performance of the North Ankara Urban Regeneration Project
Korkmaz, Cansu; Balaban, Osman (Elsevier BV, 2020-01-01)
The increasing environmental footprints of cities necessitated the integration sustainability principles into urban planning and development frameworks. The growing attention on urban sustainability also influenced the policy and the practice of urban regeneration. The quest for new methods for regenerating existing urban quarters in sustainable manners resulted in the concept of sustainable urban regeneration. The concept aims to develop urban regeneration projects in line with the three key pillars of sus...
Imagineering: a model approach for futuristic design thinking in urbanism
Çalışkan, Olgu; Yavuz, Irmak (Thomas Telford Ltd., 2020-02-01)
Under the prevailing condition of uncertainty that postulates the impossibility of predicting the long-term future of the contemporary urban societies, spatial planning and design seemingly require new methodologies for an effective future perspective on the human settlements. Used to rely on forecasting as an extrapolation technique projecting no further than 15-20 years ahead in practice, the profession largely falls insufficient to suggest a forward-thinking approach, today. To transcend such settled 'sh...
Local Entrepreneurialism and State Rescaling in Turkey
Bayırbağ, Mustafa Kemal (SAGE Publications, 2010-02-01)
The paper examines the links between the rise of local entrepreneurialism and state rescaling in a neo-liberal context. The thrust of the article is that the agency of localities, increasingly manifested in the form of local entrepreneurialism, emerges through the political activism of a local bourgeoisie, in pursuit of a multiscalar local accumulation strategy. The article focuses on the spatial interest representation strategies of the local bourgeoisie introducing the concept of scalar strategies of repr...
Historical analysis of state intervention into spaces of social opposition: the case of Ankara
Suher, Banu Melis; Ersoy, Melih; Department of Urban Policy Planning and Local Governments (2014)
Urban space is the ultimate source for examining the contradiction between political authority and social opposition. As an efficient ground for manipulating social processes, urban space is subjected to a number of interventions of political power directly or indirectly. Hence, the authority leads the process of depoliticization on space via two channels. Firstly, it transforms the physical configuration of the place by public policy instruments. Thus, the reflection of hegemony on spatial ground becomes p...
Citation Formats
A. Ataov, “Democracy to become reality: Participatory planning through action research,” HABITAT INTERNATIONAL, pp. 333–344, 2007, Accessed: 00, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/64019.