How Do We All Participate?

(Bottom-Up Planning Mindset Series- Part 2 of 4)

Happy mid-July Sunday to the Project Planning Green family! We hope everyone has recovered well from 4th of July festivities and is ready to dig into more materials on community planning! In this post we will continue discussing the Bottom-Up Planning Mindset and how to activate those at the bottom of the social pyramid to participate. Also don’t forget, today is also the launch of our first full-length podcast!! (Awesomeness and stars) Tune in on your favorite podcast platform or check it out at the end of this blog post. We would love to know what you think!  

To start, Participation in planning is crucial and it starts with each and every one of us. In planning, Participatory Planning is a term used to describe strategic and management processes that involve the whole community. Because it is generally agreed upon in the modern era that broad public involvement is necessary for community plans, there has been a lot of experts that have studied how to activate as much participation as possible, these experts include Sherry Arnstein, Saul Alinsky, and Paul Davidoff. Bringing out those at the bottom of the social pyramid has become a forefront issue for community planners because of the realization that effective participation from everyone is essential for the success of projects and plans. 

Effective participation by individuals requires knowledge and an understanding of the political structure in a community. Effective participation does not happen when individuals simply show up to community meetings or attend city events, effective participation happens when people show up, understand the issues, and voice their opinions to help steer the projects or conversation on the local plans. Individuals at the bottom level of the social pyramid typically lack one or both of these attributes for effective participation. They also face additional barriers such as lack of transportation to attend public meetings, lack of flexibility from jobs that they absolutely need, and lack of preparedness for these community meetings. All of the attributes mentioned are basic essentials for effective participation.

Because of the gap between the top of the social pyramid and the bottom of the social pyramid, the people on a project have to provide more outreach and additional incentives to bring out people that are disadvantaged by their circumstances. 

In our next blog post, we will dig deeper into the different types of participation and engagement methods that are used in urban planning, and maybe, we can also add some new ones to the list. 

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Please note our next podcast will conclude the Bottom-Up Planning Mindset mini-series on Sunday, July 28th. Our next blog will be released next Sunday, July 21. Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter to stay on top of our releases and tell your friends about us so we can all discuss these social issues together. 

Thank you for tuning in! 

Project Planning Green