Deconstructing gendered power relations in participatory planning: Towards an empowering feminist framework of participation and action

This article uses a feminist poststructuralist framework to analyse and critique the way in which gendered power relations are produced and enacted in community participation processes through the discourses and ideologies in texts about these processes. I argue that these discourses and ideologies work to limit women's participation and marginalise or delegitimise the contribution of feminist theories. A preliminary framework for participation is developed, which draws on feminist methodologies, feminist poststructuralism and other feminisms, and emancipatory and action-oriented models of education, planning, and community development. This article aims to inform strategies to address the complex and contradictory issue of gendered power relations in participatory planning processes for sustainable development