ObcePRO website as a Signpost to Methodological Materials for Municipalities, by Ivana Svojtková, Martin Kolmistr
The Ministry of Regional Development has created a web application which has been already in operation for the tenth year in a row and which helps municipalities to process, implement and evaluate their development programmes. However, the ObcePRO website, whose target group is primarily municipalities, also provides its users with various methodological materials in one place.
Participation in Czech Cities as a Source of Incentives for Urban Planning: Limits and Expectations, by Terezie Lokšová
Top-down involvement of residents in urban development represents a fairly established practice in Czech cities. Participation is usually provided by multidisciplinary teams, participation consultants or urban planners themselves. How urban planners are involved in shaping the space for the participation and how they continue to work with the outputs of participation has so far remained outside the scope of professional debates. The possibility to influence the plan is crucial for the residents to motivate them to participate: it is, therefore, important to reflect on this dimension of professional work as well and not to leave it out of attention [compare Eriksson et al., 2021].
The study draws on two sources of data collected between 2014-2022: interviews with urban planners who engage residents in their own capacities and content analysis of media coverage of Czech participatory projects. Through these, it contributes to understanding as well as creates space for reflection on the epistemic cultures of urban planning [Knorr-Cetina, 1999; Kurath, 2015]: established and usually tacit methodologies, tools, processes and forms of interaction with residents.
The research shows that residents are perceived in participatory processes mainly as bearers of individual needs, which are usually related to their demographic characteristics, while distinctions by class, ethnicity, etc. are missing. The legitimacy of participation is based on the fact that the planned project should affect the participants who live, work or are otherwise active in the location. If the organization of participation is motivated by an interest in information, planners subsequently treat it more intuitively. The relevance of the information gathered is based primarily on the longer-term relationship with the location (information about seasonal functioning and the past) and on the concept of needs (information about the personal values and preferences of residents). At the same time, there are more or less fixed limits to what can be contributed. Apart from the fact that they tend to be set by pre-negotiated parameters of the project (where residents are not involved in defining), they do not allow lay participants to seek solutions. Informants do not seek to create consensus; rather, they seek to obtain a wide range of information and subsequently examine often conflicting data. Urban planners see themselves as experts on complexity and the future, with ambitions for individuality and originality of projects, while the information gathered through participation serves more or less to prioritise sub-problems, fill in predictable blank spaces or enrich a project.
Participatory Planning and Its Position Within Framework Development of Spatial Planning Paradigm, by Matej Jaššo
Spatial planning as a legacy of organized modernity has undergone many paradigmatic changes during the last decades. Since its birth in the early 1990s, participatory (collaborative/communicative) planning has transformed the planning process and opened it up to a number of non-professional actors. Since the turn of the millennium, we have been following a paradigm shift fostering the continuous proliferation of consensus oriented and cooperative patterns of behavior, bringing synergetic effects which are enriching traditional methods and procedures with the necessary added value. Nowadays, the substantial redefinition of traditional ties between participants in the spatial planning process is generally considered as something that characterizes all intelligent approaches. The permanent and continuous feedback between these participants greatly influenced all democratic planning cultures that emerged from this paradigm shift. Balanced, sustainable and successful management of spatial development requires cultural continuity and value compatibility, based upon a democratically achieved societal consensus. The integration of different value hierarchies, underlying beliefs and ideological lines into a coherent spatial-planning concept is currently an attractive challenge for the spatial planners worldwide. This contribution offers a short analysis of the causes of this gradual paradigm shift, their ideological and philosophical roots as well as a critical reflection of the theoretical and methodological background of participatory planning.
Participatory Planning – Being Halfway? by Milan Brlík
The article focuses on participatory planning in the Czech Republic from its origins to the present, from the point of view of the Participatory Office of the Prague Institute of Planning and Development. The office has developed the Planning Coordinator’s Manual, which is still in use today and started to look for a systemic and Prague-wide solution that would embed the know-how in participatory planning in the urban district offices. The findings resulting from the pilot project have been incorporated into a citywide programme of coordination of planning and development with the urban districts of the Capital City of Prague.
The Role of Facilitator in Participatory Spatial Planning Processes, by Martin Nawrath
It can be said that the question of whether citizens in the Czech Republic have the right to enter into decision-making processes ceases to be repeatedly asked. Where we look for good participation practice is mainly hidden in the extent, efficiency, tools used and the capacity which cities are willing to devote to it both at the staff and financial levels. An external facilitator can become a key tool to help them do this. His or her role can range from "pure facilitation", i.e. mainly managing a single discussion meeting or process, to a slightly consultative role, where he or she is much more in charge of the set-up of the whole participatory process, to, for example, the role of a community coordinator, where he or she becomes an expert on the space in which the participatory process is embedded to create the best possible bridge in communication between the needs of the residents and the possibilities, opinions, experiences and intentions of the public administration representatives.
Participatory Planning – Conditions and Future, by Lukáš Vacek
The article reflects on the usefulness and applicability of participatory planning with regard to its conditions. It presents the basic historical and legal framework with an evaluation of the participatory planning introduction in the Czech Republic. It summarizes the conditions for successful participation and the prerequisites and risks of the process together with the requirements for their provision in the main part. At the same time, it draws attention to the risks associated with the inappropriate use of the participatory approach in case of poor timing of the process, especially in the practice of its usual use in already escalated controversial situations, when the possibilities of consensual solutions are highly limited. Finally, it raises the question of the wider use of participatory planning in modelling future development scenarios, especially concerning the time factor in the summary. The emphasis is put on the issue of the "usability" of the participatory process for quality planning, not on its social background and impacts, which participation theory addresses in considerable detail and depth.
PARTICIPACE NA ÚZEMNÍM PLÁNU MĚSTA VÍDNĚ (WIENER MASTERPLAN PARTIZIPATION) – OSVĚDČENÝ SOUBOR ZÁSAD PRO PARTICIPACI NA ÚZEMNĚ PLÁNOVACÍCH PROCESECHParticipace na územním plánu města Vídně (Wiener Masterplan Partizipation) – osvědčený soubor zásad pro participaci na územně plánovacích procesech, by Andreas Baur, Alexandra Rupp-Ebenspanger
Tento článek prezentuje rámcový náhled na participativní územní plán rozvoje města, který upravuje neformální participaci občanů na procesech územního plánování a tvorbě územního plánu města Vídně. Pravidla zajišťují možnosti participace a včasný přístup k informacím. Participativní územní plán byl dosud uplatněn u více než 70 projektů a návrhů, bylo uspořádáno 165 akcí pro občany a osloveno 1,3 milionu obyvatel.
Boskovice Belt: The Journey from the Housing Estate Park Passage to the Community Gallery, by Vladimír Mikeš
People express their interest in the development of the municipality where they live by caring for public space. Moreover, if the residents of a city or municipality decide to plan and improve a space based on the do-it-yourself principle, this can result in improvements that have the direct support of the residents from the beginning, thanks to activity from bottom-up. The Boskovice Architecture Development Society (SRAB) has transformed part of a housing estate park near the train station in this way.
