Community participation in planning practice : analysis of Sydney Metropolitan Strategy 2005

Effective participation of local urban communities in urban planning is considered fundamental to promote social justice, sustainability and democracy in contemporary urban planning practice. Despite many decades of such practice, the needs and concerns of local communities remain largely unaddressed. Consequently, an important question which emerges is how it can (and should) engage with local communities in such a way that the decisions are made and implemented by placing the needs and concerns of local communities at the centre, not at the periphery. The aim of the thesis is to understand and help improving the effectiveness of community participation in urban planning practice. To address this aim it is hypothesised that effective community participation must empower local communities, particularly disadvantaged community groups within communities; and this empowerment must meet at least two basic requirements: a) the representative participation of local communities in the participation process, and b) the accountability of government agencies towards the local community. To investigate this hypothesis, community participation in the Sydney Metropolitan Strategy was analysed in terms of process, outcomes and the stakeholders involved. The study was designed using a mixed method approach. Data collection methods included sending a mail-out questionnaire survey (163 persons completed the questionnaire), conducting 35 semi-structured interviews, attending community participation workshops and analysing documents. The analysis of the results indicates that the limited representation and downward accountability resulted in the current urban planning not achieving empowerment for local community groups. The thesis argues that the community participation process is operated in a way which centralises decision making, exploits opportunities for the purpose of serving capital and marginalises community groups. This thesis maintains that in order to further the effectiveness of community participation, there is need to emphasise why community participation is critical and to engender cultural and systemic changes in the existing political and economic environments