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Citizens as Drivers for Urban Change: Citizens’ Exhibition as Participatory Tool. The Case of Hashtgerd New Town
Abstract
This chapter presents the participative-visual method ‘citizens’ exhibition’ as a tool to foster public dialogue and discussion on energy and resource efficient behaviour and urban development in the New Town of Hashtgerd in Iran. The basic idea of a citizens’ exhibition is to publicly present the attitudes, goals and motivations of different people in an exhibition in order to spur public discussion and promote understanding among citizens and different stakeholders concerning an issue. A citizens’ exhibition is based on interviews with different actors. Pictures of the interviewees together with interview excerpts are arranged on posters, thus presenting a new and vivid view on the topic. The citizens’ exhibition described in this chapter was developed in the framework of the German-Iranian research project ‘Young Cities—developing energy-efficient urban fabric in the Tehran-Karaj region’ dealing with the question of which role New Towns can play as a planning strategy of sustainable urban development. For a more attractive development of New Towns such as Hashtgerd the involvement of citizens in issues of urban development and planning processes is essential. In order to find out about the points of view of Hashtgerd New Town’s residents on climate change, energy consumption patterns and obstacles as well as aspirations and needs for the development of Hashtgerd New Town, a survey was conducted among Hashtgerd citizens. From this survey a citizens’ exhibition was developed displaying the most important and interesting views. The chapter describes the process of this citizens’ exhibition as well as the interview results in detail.
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Through its incorporation of socio-scientific, participative and artistic elements, the "Citizens' Exhibition" is an example of how applied performative social science can be implemented. The method was created by teaching qualitative methods and community psychology approaches in courses for students of psychology in the 1990's. The Citizens' Exhibition combines qualitative methods, such as interview and text interpretation, with artistic-aesthetic methods, such as photography and film, to form an integrated concept. In the tradition of action research, the practice is applied in the exploration of societal issues. The Citizens' Exhibition supports dialogue and furthering communication processes between the stakeholders through the presentation of diverse perspectives. In this regard, the staging of the exhibition opening has a particular importance. The following article about the Citizens' Exhibition presents the practice's origin and history in the first section and, in the second section, offers an introduction to the individual methodological steps. In the third section, various Citizens' Exhibitions are described as illustrations of the method. The last section discusses the vision of the Citizens' Exhibition, its performative component, strengths and limitations, considers the results of an existing evaluation study and looks at the future uses of the practice. Particular regard should be paid here to a combination of methods that enable a long-term participation effect, the expansion of participatory possibilities for the research subjects, and experimentation with additional artistic methods.
URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0802337
The paper presents the first results of the research project “Low Emission Lifestyles – Communication and Participation Strategies for Hyderabadâ€. This project addresses the challenges of a society-wide transition towards sustainability in the context of so-called "Megacities†by taking into account their complex social and economic characteristics. The project is part of an Indo-German research project “Climate and Energy in a Complex Transition Process towards Sustainable Hyderabadâ€. The aims of the project are to develop adaptation strategies (“manage the unavoidableâ€) and mitigation strategies (“avoid the unmanageableâ€) by changing institutions, governance structures, lifestyles and consumption patterns. The geographic focus of the project is the Indian city of Hyderabad, capital of Andhra Pradesh, a southern state of India. The objective of the research project is to integrate methods of public awareness raising, participation and communication in the local context, for example web-based and direct interactive forms of dialogue (online dialogue, citizens’ panels) as well as participatory methods like citizens’ exhibitions, citizens’ juries and citizens’ forums. One of them, the citizens’ exhibition, is presented in detail in this paper.
This article traces the history of Iran's population policy from the establishment of a family planning (FP) policy in 1967 to the present. Context for the discussion is provided by a review of population growth in the country since 1900. Indicators for 1966, 1976, and 1986 show population size growing from 25.7 million to 33.7 and 49.4, respectively, as the crude birth rate fluctuated from 49 to 42.7 to 47.6, and the total fertility rate changed from 7.7 to 6.3 to 7.0. These figures reflect changes in population policy which promoted the use of effective contraceptive methods among urban women in the period 1967-79 but which led to only 11% acceptance by 1977. From 1979 until 1988, the newly established Islamic Republic allowed family planning programs to disintegrate. In 1988, the results of overpopulation could be seen, and a new program was established in 1989 with the full concurrence of religious authorities. This program is attempting to 1) encourage birth spacing of 3-4 years, 2) discourage early and late pregnancies, and 3) limit family size to three children. Government support for this program is evident in financing commitments and in the creation of disincentives to have more than three children. Services are provided in 400 centers which emphasize sterilization and provide a range of contraceptive options including Norplant and injectables. Data from the 1976-77 Iran Fertility Survey (IFS) and the 1992 Contraceptive Prevalence Survey (CPS) show that, in 1976, 85% of women had heard of oral contraceptives. The CPS revealed 90% knowledge of at least one method and more than 70% approval of FP. The IRS showed 35.9% of all currently married women using contraceptives; the corresponding CPS figure was 64.6%. The urban-rural gap in knowledge and use which existed in 1976 also narrowed by 1992, but the popularity of certain methods varied by urban-rural residence. Positive determinants of contraceptive use for both periods include literacy and number of living children. Preliminary data reveal that the new program has led to a significantly reduced growth rate as well as a decline in the total fertility rate and in the number of registered births. These declines may also be due to a significant increase in marriage age from 1986 to 1991. Iran's new FP program has been successful because it has the support of religious leaders and operates with the moral authority of a fatva issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini. Other Islamic countries could create successful programs in a similar way.
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