The Myth of Participation, or how participation will deliver the Right to the City

THE MYTH OF
PARTICIPATION
U
URBANISM
SPS
SpatialPlanning&StrategyTUDelft

THE DOWNSIDE OF PARTICIPATION
CRITICS OF PARTICIPATION SAY IT’S…
‣ EXPENSIVE
‣ TIME CONSUMING
‣ INEFFECTIVE
‣ LIP-SERVICE
‣ FOR OLD RETIRED MEN
‣ DIFFICULT TO IMPLEMENT
‣ “NOBODY CARES ABOUT PARTICIPATION: WHAT EVERYBODY WANTS IS EFFICIENCY”
‣ IT IS A TOOL FOR MANIPULATION: IT IS A PUBLIC RELATIONS TOOL FOR THE POWER
HOLDERS (ARNSTEIN, 1969)
‣ IT IS A DEVICE FROM THE RIGHT TO JUSTIFY THE END OF THE WELFARE STATE
‣ IT IS A DEVICE FROM THE LEFT TO JUSTIFY THE PROPAGATION OF ITS IDEOLOGY

THE UPSIDE
A-CRITICS OF PARTICIPATION SAY, IT’S
‣ THE SOLUTION FOR ALL OUR PROBLEMS
‣ ANYTHING TOP DOWN IS NECESSARILY BAD, SO
EVERYTHING BOTTOM UP IS NECESSARILY GOOD

HTTP://LITHGOW-SCHMIDT.DK/SHERRY-ARNSTEIN/LADDER-OF-CITIZEN-PARTICIPATION.HTML
THE LADDER OF PARTICIPATION (SHERRY ARNSTEIN, 1969)
CITIZEN
ENGAGEMENT
CITIZEN
PARTICIPATION
CITIZEN
MANIPULATION

WHO HAS POWER WHEN
IMPORTANT DECISIONS
ARE BEING MADE?
Arnstein, S. (1969). "A Ladder of Citizen Participation." JAIP 35(4): 216-224.

THE ILLUSION OF
CONTROL

CITIZEN PARTICIPATION IS (OR COULD BE) THE
REDISTRIBUTION OF POWER THAT ENABLES
(DISADVANTAGED) CITIZENS TO BE
DELIBERATELY INCLUDED IN DECISION
MAKING PROCESSES.

PARTICIPATION IS A KEY
ELEMENT TO ACHIEVE
SPATIAL JUSTICE

SPATIAL JUSTICE
TERRITORIAL OR SPATIAL DYNAMICS OF
DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH, GOODS AND
OPPORTUNITIES
EMPHASIS ON SOCIAL ECONOMIC
RELATIONSHIPS HAPPENING IN SPACE

TWO MAIN
‘TYPES’ OF
JUSTICE

DISTRIBUTIVE
JUSTICE
PROCEDURAL
JUSTICE

Distributive Justice
Fair allocation of resources and services throughout
the urban territory.
In other words, resources, services and opportunities
must be fairly “distributed” by planning urban space.

Justice or injustice can found in the planning
processes themselves.
Justice is in the “procedures”.
Procedural Justice

SPATIAL JUSTICE IS
INTIMATELY RELATED
TO THE CONCEPT OF
THE RIGHT TO THE
CITY

Plato’s
The
Republic: 
the just
man
inhabiting
the just
city
Copy of Silanion - Marie-Lan Nguyen (User:Jastrow) 2009, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7831217

By A.Savin (Wikimedia Commons · WikiPhotoSpace) - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27948211
Polis is the space of  
shared decision-making,  
otherwise known as ‘politics’.

By After Lysippos - Jastrow (2006), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1359807
Aristotle: “man is a political
animal” 
 We can only achieve the good life by living as
citizens in organised societies. In doing so we
become fully human (as opposed to animals in a
state of nature).

THE SPATIAL DIMENSION OF POLITICS
City: the shared political and physical
space, where decisions must be taken by
citizens together. http://timelines.latimes.com/occupy-wall-street-movement/

HANNAH
ARENDT
Active citizenship =
Civic engagement and
collective
deliberation about all
matters affecting the
political community.
Creative commons: Ben Northern Flickr. Some rights reserved.

THE ‘POLITICAL COMMUNITY’
IS THE SPACE OF
THE CITY

The political space of the city: 
the ‘social contract’ that
establishes rights and duties and
where government is legitimised
by the consent of the citizens.
https://02varvara.wordpress.com/2011/10/19/19-october-2011-occupy-wall-street-becomes-“occupy-the-world”-why-is-the-
us-corporate-media-silent/00-01l-occupy-wall-street-19-10-11-vancouver-bc-canada/

THE RIGHT TO THE CITY= 
ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP
*right to take part in the affairs
of the city
*to make decisions about one’s
own living environment
*realize one’s full potential as a
human being

THE RIGHT TO THE CITY IS THE RIGHT TO ACTIVELY SHAPE
THE CITY TO ONE’S NEEDS AND DESIRES, THUS
EXERCISING ONE’S FULL CITIZENSHIP
By Robert Crc - Subversive festival media, FAL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27132002

THE RIGHT TO THE CITY 
 
…is far more than the individual liberty to access
urban resources: it is a right to change ourselves by
changing the city. It is, moreover, a common rather
than an individual right since this transformation
inevitably depends upon the exercise of a collective
power to reshape the processes of urbanisation. The
freedom to make and remake our cities and ourselves
is, I want to argue, one of the most precious yet most
neglected of our human rights (Harvey, 2008)

Participation through electoral systems
Author: Staff Sgt. Christopher Allison.
Public domain

Disparity of power
CIVIL SOCIETY
PUBLIC SECTOR PRIVATE SECTOR

…designing and planning the built
environment are  
profoundly political activities in which
power relationships must be continually
exposed and power must be
distributed.
Active citizenship is not granted, but
rather conquered through struggle.  
 
Photo by Arlette. Arlette Reloaded on Flickr and Instagram. Reproduced here with special permission.

PARTICIPATION
ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP
RIGHT TO THE CITY
SPATIAL JUSTICE

WAIT! ARE YOU SAYING
PARTICIPATION WILL DELIVER
THE RIGHT TO THE CITY?
IT IS NOT THAT SIMPLE! HOWEVER, IT IS
UNDENIABLE THAT ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP
IMPLIES PARTICIPATION AND ACTIVE
CITIZENSHIP IS A FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENT
TO ACHIEVE THE RIGHT TO THE CITY.

SO, IN DEFENCE OF
CITIZEN PARTICIPATION…

WILL ALLOW YOU TO GATHER
INFORMATION & KNOWLEDGE THAT
IS NOT OTHERWISE AVAILABLE

WILL INCORPORATE
COMPLEXITY IN DECISION
MAKING

WILL BYPASS THE MANY
COGNITIVE BIASES WE
SUFFER FROM

IS MORE LIKELY TO DELIVER
‘JUST’ OUTCOMES
(BECAUSE OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF POWER)

WILL DELIVER STRONGER
COMMUNITIES AND
DEMOCRACY-AWARE CITIZENS
WILL STRENGTHEN
DEMOCRACY IN THE LONG RUN

HAS THE POTENTIAL TO
DELIVER THE
RIGHT TO THE CITY

THE FALL OF
PUBLIC SPACEHOMESTEAD, FLORIDA, IS ONE
OF A NUMBER OF GATED
COMMUNITIES IN THE US. THEY
HAVE BECOME MORE POPULAR
NOT ONLY FOR CELEBRITIES
BUT FOR MIDDLE-CLASS
HOMEOWNERS FEARFUL FOR
THEIR SAFETY. PHOTOGRAPH:
SIPA PRESS/REX

THE PROFOUND CULTURAL
ABYSS BETWEEN CITIES,
SUBURBS AND RURAL AREAS
CLINTON WON ALMOST 90
PERCENT OF URBAN CORES,
WHILE TRUMP WON THE VAST
MAJORITY – BETWEEN 75 AND
90 PERCENT – OF SUBURBS,
SMALL CITIES AND RURAL
AREAS. THOUGH THESE LATTER
GEOGRAPHIES ARE MORE
SPARSELY POPULATED, THEY
WERE HOME TO THE MAJORITY
OF VOTERS THIS ELECTION.

HTTPS://WWW.WASHINGTONPOST.COM/GRAPHICS/POLITICS/2016-ELECTION/HOW-ELECTION-MAPS-LIE/

THANKS FOR WATCHING
THIS PRESENTATION.
SHOULD YOU HAVE ANY
QUESTIONS, PLEASE
WRITE TO:
R.C.ROCCO@TUDELFT.NL

TEXT
EXPANDED BIBLIOGRAPHY
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AENDT, H. 2004. The origins of totalitarianism. New York, Schocken Books.
ARISTOTLE, et al. 2001. Politics. Blacksburg, VA, Virginia Tech,: 14 p.
AVRITZER, L. 2010. Living under democracy: Participation in its impact on the living conditions of the poor. The Journal of the Latin American Studies Association, 45,
166-185.
BERG, A. G. & OSTRY, J. D. 2011. Inequality and Unsustainable growth: Two Sides of the Same Coin? IMF Discussion Note. In: IMF (ed.) IMF Discussion Note. Washington:
IMF.
CRICK, B. 2002. Democracy: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
DAHLGREN, P. 2009. Media and Political Engagement: Citizens, Communication, and Democracy. In: BENNETT, W. L. & ENTMAN, R. M. (eds.) Communication, Society and
Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
European Council of Spatial Planners 2015. European Charter on Participatory Democracy in Spatial Planning Processes. Brussels, European Council of Spatial Planners.
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HARVEY, D. 2008. The Right to the City. New Left Review, Sept/ Oct, 23-40.
HARVEY, D. 2012. Rebel cities : from the right to the city to the urban revolution, New York, Verso.
HOLSTON, J. 2009. Insurgent citizenship : disjunctions of democracy and modernity in Brazil, Princeton, N.J. ; Woodstock, Princeton University Press.
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UN-HABITAT 2013. Urban Equity in Development: Cities for Life, Draft Concept paper. In: UN-HABITAT (ed.). Nairobi: UN-Habitat.
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