Urban consolidation process and discourses in Sydney: unpacking social media use in a community group’s media campaign

Abstract

Community resistance to urban consolidation has been the subject of much research. However, dialogue through social media between citizens and planning agencies is rarely captured and analysed. Using discourse analysis we explore the discourses employed by local government, a state planning agency, an independent expert panel, journalists and a self-organised community group to either support or oppose a proposed development. Due to the significant use of social media by the community group and other stakeholders, we include Twitter dialogues in our discourse analysis. Three key findings emerge; first, a central strategy mobilised by all stakeholders was the tendency to appropriate the arguments of other stakeholders in order to support their own arguments. Second, the community group’s knowledge of the planning process improved to the extent that they developed a strong awareness of a larger planning system which broadened the scope of their social media strategy. Third, social media’s provision to the public of an open and expeditious channel of communication strained the internal processes of a planning agency.

Keywords:

• Public participation
• urban consolidation
• discourse analysis
• social media
• Australia

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank the editors and the four anonymous reviewers for their interest in this topic and insightful comments on previous versions of this paper.

Notes

1. See www.rsl.org.au.

2. The JRPP was established in 2009 to determine development applications with a capital investment value greater than $20 million that have been lodged with councils. Panels consist of five independent experts that are appointed by the Minister for Planning (jrpp.nsw.gov.au).

3. The PAC was established in 2008 to provide advice to the Minister on a range of development matters and assumes a determination role for major project applications delegated to it by the Minister. Panels consist of two or three independent experts that are appointed by the Minister (www.pac.nsw.gov.au).