Constructing Participatory Spaces: Involving Citizens into the Urban Development Planning from the View of Planners

The work deals with constructing of participatory spaces in the process of urban development planning. The topic of involving citizens into planning is viewed from the point of planners. A concept of participation in this text is conceived in the sense of invented spaces built from above. The research perspective is an interpretative one, anchored in the constructivist epistemology. Therefore the main question is: How do planners reflect involving citizens in the planning? Firstly, the authoress demonstrates the importance of her topic by putting it into the context of wider social dynamics related to the crises of representative democracy and emerging of sub-politics. She reveals that the trend of building participatory opportunities is strengthening. The important question is formulated: How is the role of public in the strategic planning constructed? On the base of analytical induction of semi-structured interviews with planners, the authoress creates her own typology of ideal-type approaches to participation. These types of approaches came out from a distinction of the extent and the aim of spaces of participation. The involvement of citizens can be seen either as building of community, activation of elites, mapping of public preferences or as consultation with local experts