Participation in a Hostile State: How do Planners Act to Shape Public Engagement in Politically Difficult Environments?

Abstract

This paper investigates planners' approaches to public participation in states that are generally hostile to public involvement in governance. Using case studies from South Africa and Egypt, I show how public participation is shaped by the way planners act as individuals with political values, working within the limited opportunities provided by politicized governance structures. Moreover, ‘cultural’ factors are also significant; that is, the prevailing political and social norms and expectations that structure both the governance context and planners' own values. I conclude that even in very hostile political settings there is still room for politically-inspired agency on the part of planners, and that training and education in participation should support this.

Acknowledgments

I gratefully acknowledge the financial assistance of the British Academy, which funded the research visit to Egypt on which this paper is partly based. I also very much appreciate all the assistance given to me by the South African and Egyptian planners, as well as the insightful comments made on the original version of this paper by two anonymous reviewers.

Notes

1. I use the terms ‘(global) South’ and ‘(global) North’ to refer to the world's poorer countries (the South), many of which are significant targets for development assistance from its wealthy countries (the North). Like all such classifications, these are highly contestable and impossible to identify unambiguously on the ground (Williams et al., 2009). However, this nomenclature is preferable to ‘First/Third World’ or ‘developed/developing world’, which carry unhelpful implications of Southern inferiority and progress towards a desirable (i.e. ‘developed’, liberal, western, democratic) norm.

2. My interest here is thus not in how planners might act independently of the state on behalf of ‘community groups’ or others as part of participatory processes. Such individuals can be important, but were not the focus of this research.

3. Johannesburg comprises 109 wards, each sending a single councillor to the City Council. Councillors are supported by appointed ward committees, whose 10 or so members are representatives of various groups such as women's and youth organizations, trades unions, and so forth. See Oldfield (2008) for details.