Medborgardeltagande som metod för demokratisering av stadsplaneringsprocesser - en fallstudie av stadsbyggnadsprojektet Amiralsstaden i Malmö

Public participation within urban planning has been a big part of academic and political discussions during the last decades, gaining even more popularity today. Due to issues within the representational democracy many stress the need for a greater inclusion of the publics knowledge and opinions within urban development and planning processes. This paper aims to examine How public participation can strengthen democracy and social sustainability within processes of urban planning. This was done through a case study of the urban project Amiralsstaden in Malmö, Sweden. The case study was structured based on four separate questions; - How has Malmö city worked with knowledge alliances in Amiralsstaden? - Which degree of public participation and citizen power can be recognized within the project? - Which obstacles, successes and learnings can be identified within the planning process of Amiralsstadens thus far? - How has participation design influenced the project and how can it contribute to extended citizen power? To examine these question data was collected through documents and interviews with three key stakeholders within the project and later analysed with theories based on inclusion and democracy, citizen power, local knowledge and participation design. By analysing Amiralsstaden I identified that democracy and social sustainability can be strengthened through public participation; this, when including a wide representation of social groups, development of common trust and collective learning. For this to be possible I also stress the need for long term collective processes, knowledge transfer and extended citizen power