ABSTRACT

Citizen dialogues and other participatory practices are basically the norm in contemporary spatial planning. Nonetheless, what happens to citizen input after it has been collected – how it is handled and utilized by planners in the continuation of the planning process – has been described as a ‘black box’, where most stakeholders lack insight. The aim of this explorative study is to open this black box and examine how citizen input is handled by local planning professionals. This practice lacks a common language and form among the studied municipalities, but the analysis reveals that it takes the form of a ‘sorting process’ in which input is categorized, evaluated and structured in preparation for its integration into final plans. The paper outlines the basic logics and considerations that guide this sorting process, and distinguishes between two modes, which have been termed ‘inclusive’ and ‘selective’ sorting. These modes determine how input is categorized and assessed. The analysis indicates that multiple micro-decisions are made throughout the sorting process, and that these decisions influence the input that reaches formal decision-making bodies, and in what form. The results reveal the power exercised by municipal planning actors and how they affect the destiny of the received citizen input.

摘要

公民对话和其他参与性实践基本上是当代空间规划的规范。尽管如此，公民意见在收集后会发生什么——规划者如何在规划过程的延续中处理和利用它——被描述为一个“黑匣子”，大多数利益相关者缺乏洞察力。这项探索性研究的目的是打开这个黑匣子，并检查当地规划专业人员如何处理市民的意见。这种做法在所研究的城市之间缺乏共同的语言和形式，但分析表明它采用“分类过程”的形式，在该过程中对输入进行分类、评估和结构化，以准备将其整合到最终计划中。本文概述了指导这一排序过程的基本逻辑和注意事项，并区分两种模式，称为“包容性”和“选择性”排序。这些模式决定了输入的分类和评估方式。分析表明，在整个排序过程中会做出多个微观决策，这些决策会影响到达正式决策机构的输入，以及以何种形式。结果揭示了市政规划参与者行使的权力以及他们如何影响收到的公民投入的命运。