Understanding the Implications of Technology-Enabled Urban Planning Participation for Practice
Lead Research Organisation:
Newcastle University
Department Name: Sch of Architect, Planning & Landscape
Abstract
The history of planning is a story of changing priorities and influences, with it constantly undergoing reform in its role, ideological stance and political preferences. Early approaches to planning ruled with a heavy hand, with 'all-knowing planners' applying art, and later science, to understanding and solving urban problems. This structure, however, could not accommodate the increasing questioning by the public of planners' decisions and the recognition by planners of the need for citizen input.
Current participation methods, however, are unsuitable and unwieldy for many people. It is widely accepted that citizens should have more say in shaping local areas, an agenda developed academically for over thirty years through communicative and collaborative planning theories. However, although the sentiments of enhanced planning participatory forms are often agreed upon, translation of the principles into established political and professional practices is much more difficult to achieve.
The bulk of planning participation methods are non-digital and tend to mirror offline methods despite widespread recognition over the last ten years of the opportunities for more citizens to become engaged in the planning system by embracing technology for meaningful participation. Digital systems for urban planning sit at the interface of human computer interaction (HCI) and democratic opportunities for citizen engagement, resting on issues concerning place, politics and communication.
In my doctoral research I assessed the degree to which new digital technologies can be designed and deployed to enhance citizen engagement within urban planning and identify ways to overcome some of the challenges with citizen engagement. Through designing, deploying and evaluating speculative digital technologies, the research explored the role of technology in facilitating enhanced citizen participation in planning.
The research has already been impactful. ChangeExplorer (a technology developed during my PhD) was implemented and researched as part of central government's 'Future of Statutory Notices Pilot' to understand how site notices could be improved. A paper describing the project is currently the second most downloaded paper in Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science (with over eight-thousand downloads). The work was also recognised in two Connected Places Catapult 'Future of Planning' reports. A second technology, JigsAudio was noted by Nesta and deployed in a number of impactful projects across the region and internationally.
Further work is needed to consolidate the vital conceptual development of this work, and to reinforce the impact of my work to date. This will be done through four intersecting aims:
- Build on my track-record of high-quality publications in the social sciences to consolidate my doctoral research through publications: the first brings together the conceptual arguments across my research case studies; with the second reporting on the wider issues that planners experience with new technologies for engagement.
- Using my current networks of practising planning professionals, such as my links to the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI), Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA), and other professional organisations, develop key pathways to impact through targeted engagement with professional audiences.
- Disseminate the results at national and international conferences to bolster the impact of my doctoral research and widen my practitioner and researcher networks.
- Cement my transition towards an independent researcher by developing an application for ESRC's New Investigator Grant towards the end of the fellowship.
Current participation methods, however, are unsuitable and unwieldy for many people. It is widely accepted that citizens should have more say in shaping local areas, an agenda developed academically for over thirty years through communicative and collaborative planning theories. However, although the sentiments of enhanced planning participatory forms are often agreed upon, translation of the principles into established political and professional practices is much more difficult to achieve.
The bulk of planning participation methods are non-digital and tend to mirror offline methods despite widespread recognition over the last ten years of the opportunities for more citizens to become engaged in the planning system by embracing technology for meaningful participation. Digital systems for urban planning sit at the interface of human computer interaction (HCI) and democratic opportunities for citizen engagement, resting on issues concerning place, politics and communication.
In my doctoral research I assessed the degree to which new digital technologies can be designed and deployed to enhance citizen engagement within urban planning and identify ways to overcome some of the challenges with citizen engagement. Through designing, deploying and evaluating speculative digital technologies, the research explored the role of technology in facilitating enhanced citizen participation in planning.
The research has already been impactful. ChangeExplorer (a technology developed during my PhD) was implemented and researched as part of central government's 'Future of Statutory Notices Pilot' to understand how site notices could be improved. A paper describing the project is currently the second most downloaded paper in Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science (with over eight-thousand downloads). The work was also recognised in two Connected Places Catapult 'Future of Planning' reports. A second technology, JigsAudio was noted by Nesta and deployed in a number of impactful projects across the region and internationally.
Further work is needed to consolidate the vital conceptual development of this work, and to reinforce the impact of my work to date. This will be done through four intersecting aims:
- Build on my track-record of high-quality publications in the social sciences to consolidate my doctoral research through publications: the first brings together the conceptual arguments across my research case studies; with the second reporting on the wider issues that planners experience with new technologies for engagement.
- Using my current networks of practising planning professionals, such as my links to the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI), Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA), and other professional organisations, develop key pathways to impact through targeted engagement with professional audiences.
- Disseminate the results at national and international conferences to bolster the impact of my doctoral research and widen my practitioner and researcher networks.
- Cement my transition towards an independent researcher by developing an application for ESRC's New Investigator Grant towards the end of the fellowship.
Publications
Strohmayer A
(2020)
"We come together as one...and hope for solidarity to live on"
Burrows R
(2021)
Bunkering down? The geography of elite residential basement development in London
in Urban Geography
Wilson A
(2022)
COVID-19 and the rise of digital planning: fast and slow adoption of a digital planning system
in Town Planning Review
Wilson Alexander
(2021)
Digital Participatory Planning: Citizen Engagement, Democracy, and Design
Weise S
(2020)
Reflections on Deploying Community-Driven Visualisations for Public Engagement in Urban Planning
in Urban Planning
Description | The award gave me an opportunity to develop my PhD work into a new book, published by Routledge. The book outlines developments in the field of digital planning and designs and trials a range of technologies, from the use of apps and digital gaming through to social media, to examine how accessible and effective these new methods are. It critically discusses urban planning, democracy, and computing technology literature, and sets out case studies on design and deployment. It assesses whether digital technology offers an opportunity for the public to engage with urban change, to enhance public understanding and the quality of citizen participation, and to improve the proactive possibilities of urban planning more generally. The book presents an exciting alternative story of citizen engagement in urban planning through the reimagination of participation that will be of interest to students, researchers, and professionals engaged with a digital future for people and planning. A paper, associated with the work undertaken during the funding period, has generated new findings on both the long-term (from 2000) and short-term (since COVID) adoption of digital technologies by local planning authorities. |
Exploitation Route | Both the book and the paper can be understood and taken forward by both practitioners and academics. The book outlines current and future practices for practitioners, while the paper outlines the opportunities digital technologies present, and charts the use of them by local planning authorities in England. |
Sectors | Government, Democracy and Justice |
Description | During the work I was involved in a project that engaged people on the design of the Tyne and Wear Metro. In 2020, colleagues from Open Lab and I were appointed to lead the Metro Futures 2020 consultation, which received over 23,000 public engagements across our website, social media, and webinars and workshops we hosted. This work, as well as being widely reported, was recognised through Nexus being awarded for 'Best Technical Innovation in Rolling Stock' at the Global Light Rail Awards. |
First Year Of Impact | 2020 |
Sector | Transport |
Impact Types | Policy & public services |
Description | Acid Attacks in North East England: A Victim-Centred Perspective |
Amount | £45,756 (GBP) |
Organisation | National Institute for Health Research |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2022 |
End | 09/2023 |
Title | Dataset |
Description | The digital methods used by local planning authorities as noted within their SCIs. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | https://data.ncl.ac.uk/articles/dataset/Dataset/16955308 |
Title | Metro Futures 2020 Website Data |
Description | These files contain data submitted by visitors to the Metro Futures website (metrofutures.co.uk) as part of the Metro Futures public consultation on new trains for Tyne and Wear Metro in 2020. This data was exported in CSV format from the database where website responses had been stored. Data was submitted to the website in September and October 2020, and exported in 2021.Every website visitor was assigned a unique session cookie ID. Data are listed as every datapoint entered, grouped by session ID (sessid). There are four files according to four tables in the database relating to three website sections plus demographics questions all visitors were asked.demographics-all-datapoints.csvLists responses (response) to demographics questions along with timestamp (createdAt), ordered by question ID (questionid).21-04-28-configure-datapoints-by-sessid.csvLists design option choices (response) and comments (comment), along with timestamp (createdAt), in the Configure website section, ordered by question ID (questionid).21-04-28-explore-datapoints-by-sessid.csvLists comments (comment) and rating responses (likert), along with timestamp (createdAt), in the Explore website section, ordered by 360-degree image hotspot name (hotspotName).21-04-28-journey-datapoints-by-sessid.csvLists comments (comment), rating responses (likert), and design option choices (option), along with timestamp (createdAt), in the Journeys website section, ordered by persona name (personaName) and stage within a persona scenario (stageid). |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2021 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
URL | https://data.ncl.ac.uk/articles/dataset/Metro_Futures_2020_Website_Data/15772029 |