RISCH Conference

How participation can modify urban regeneration? Some reflections about Discourse and Politics in Urban Regeneration Programmes

Jordi Bonet i Mart IGOP Universitat Autnoma de Barcelona

Participation, Urban Social Movements and Urban Change

Research on urban studies has tended to split the fields of research on:

Urban Participation linked to urban governance & community developement theories Urban Social Movements linked to social identity and new social movements theory Urban Change linked to structuralist approach & urban planning theories with little space to movements agency.

My proposal is to analyse the relationship among them in order to recognise the agency of the urban social movements through participation in the production of the urban space.

How Participation can lead us to urban change in terms of more social justice and empowered communities?

What do we understand by participation?

Mainstream definition: different mechanisms for the public/demos to express their opinions - and ideally exert influence - regarding political, economic, management or other social decisions. We could distinguish between:

Top Down Participation / Bottom Up Participation Institutionalised/non-institutionalised participation. Ladder of participation: from manipulation/transformation

Theoretical assumptions:

Consensual approach (habermasian and strong democracy) Focused on the process (how) not on the results (why).

Methodology

Comparative Case Study analysing 4 moments/kinds of urban participation in the regeneration of the Old Town of Barcelona. Collecting data:

Interviews to practicioners, activists,... Documentation Analysis:

Official Documentation (plans in the different stages) Meeting acts,... Leaflets, journals,...

Discursive approach:

Who are the actors involved? (actors network) Which discourses are expressed? (discourse network) How are the power relationships expressed? Which are the effects of the participation in the final output?

Two key dimensions:

Beyonf consensual approach Acces to Participation:

By irruption/ By invitation: Monologic-single issue / Dialogic-Heterogeneous (Kristeva, Bakhtin) Could one higher degree of multivocality/interdiscoursivity provide higher degree of incidence of the participation in the outputs? Theoretical assumptions that connects interdiscoursivity and social change: Fairclough/Wodak

Production of Multivocality/Interdiscoursivity:

My question is:

4 cases
By irruption

Hotel Illa Robadors

Forat de la Vergonya

Monologic/Hom

Multivocal/Het

Comissi Gestora de l'ARI

Pla de la Gardunya

By invitation

Ouputs: degree of incidence

By irruption

+
Monologic/Hom

++
Multivocal/Het

-By invitation

4 tipologies of Participation
By irruption

NIMBY
Monologic/Hom

Radical Democratic
Multivocal/Het

Burocratic engagament

Liberal-democratic
By invitation

4 models of Urban Participation

NIMBY
The conflict is targeted in a single issue (lost or win) Challenge only the power relationship linked to the issue. Tend to act purified community only recognise two point of view (us and them) The main aim is block or enact a policy intervention.

RADICAL DEMOCRACY
Assume the conflict as a creative force Challenge the power relationships to balance Recognise the differences points of views. The main aim is transform the conditions of life in the area.

BUREOUCRATIC ENGAGEMENT
The conflict is chanelled through bureoucratic structures Only recognise the differents points of view as a representation. The main aim is gain more power position through the process of negotiation/concertation.

LIBERAL-CONSENSUAL
Negation of the conflict Don't recognise the differences of power among actors. Dissolve the different points of views The main aim is to improve and legitimise the policy intervention.

Some questions for a critical work

Is urban participation one path to the negation of conflict (post-politics) or could be also a path to radical democracy? How could we link urban democracy to social justice and community empowerment? It's possible to transform urban participation from one model to another? And how?

THANK YOU! Questions