Often city development in its many forms is seen as top down job exclusively done by professionals in many fields such as infrastructure, policy, architecture, etc. However, lesser known and increasing in practice, are those processes that make the citizen the expert and main agent of transformation.
Be it planning and designing for public spaces or allocating local budgets, participatory approaches to urban panning are changing cities and the way we engage with them.
Participatory urban planning and design are not without criticism as the citizen may not always holds the answer or know what they want; after all we’ll always need that structure engineer to build that bridge across the road right?
Join us this Wednesday, 20 August at 7pm GMT along with Future Cape Town and Next City as we discuss participatory planning and our future cities, and whether it is us the citizen who will shape our urban surroundings in the years to come.”
Photo: Darwin Initiative
The Social Library that Transformed a Berlin Street (And Community)
