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Public and Stakeholder Engagement and the Built Environment: a Review

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Abstract

Purpose of review: We review 50 articles from 2015 and 2016 that focus upon public and stakeholder engagement as it pertains to the built environment. Our purpose is to understand the current state of the literature and approaches being used to better enable public and stakeholder engagement. As part of this review, we consider whether recent digital and mobile technologies have enabled advances for stakeholder and public participation. Recent findings: The literature suggests some positive and some challenging developments. Researchers clearly suggest that most policy-makers and planners understand, and to some extent, aspire toward enabling more inclusive participatory planning processes. That said, there is far less consensus as to how to make meaningful inclusive participatory processes possible even with digital, as well as more traditional, tools. This lack of consensus is true across all academic disciplines reviewed. We discuss these issues as well as current solutions offered by many scholars. We find that no single solution can be applied to different situations, as contextual factors create different problems in different situations, and that the participation process itself can create biases that can-intentionally or unintentionally-benefit some participants over others. We conclude with a series of questions for practitioners and researchers to consider when evaluating inclusive engagement.
BUILT ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH (MJ NIEUWENHUIJSEN AND AJ DE NAZELLE, SECTION EDITORS)
Kevin M. Leyden
1
&Amanda Slevin
2
&Thomas Grey
3
&Mike Hynes
4
&
Fanney Frisbaek
5
&Richard Silke
6
Published online: 5 August 2017
#Springer International Publishing AG 2017
Abstract
Purpose of Review We review 50 articles from 2015 and 2016
that focus upon public and stakeholder engagement as it per-
tains to the built environment. Our purpose is to understand
the current state of the literature and approaches being used to
better enable public and stakeholder engagement. As part of
this review, we consider whether recent digital and mobile
technologies have enabled advances for stakeholder and pub-
lic participation.
Recent Findings The literature suggests some positive and some
challenging developments. Researchers clearly suggest that most
policy-makers and planners understand, and to some extent, as-
pire toward enabling more inclusive participatory planning pro-
cesses. That said, there is far less consensus as to how to make
meaningful inclusive participatory processes possible even with
digital, as well as more traditional, tools. This lack of consensus
is true across all academic disciplines reviewed.
Summary We discuss these issues as well as current solutions
offered by many scholars. We find that no single solution can
be applied to different situations, as contextual factors create
different problems in different situations, and that the partici-
pation process itself can create biases that canintentionally
or unintentionallybenefit some participants over others. We
conclude with a series of questions for practitioners and re-
searchers to consider when evaluating inclusive engagement.
Keywords Built environment .Stakeholder .Engagement .
Public participation .Planning .Urban
Introduction
Engaging stakeholders and the public is hard work yet, over-
all, it is worth it. This is the fundamental gist of the literature
from 2015 and 2016 we reviewed on public and stakeholder
engagement as it pertains to the built environment. The good
news is that most municipal or state governments in demo-
cratic countriesaround the worldsee value in enablingthe
participation of stakeholders and, usually, that includes the
public. But how to enable this participation effectively is still
very much a puzzle. And, efforts to engage all stakeholders
This article is part of the Topical Collection on Built Environment and
Health
*Kevin M. Leyden
kevin.leyden@nuigalway.ie
Amanda Slevin
amanda.slevin@nuigalway.ie
Thomas Grey
tom.grey@tcd.ie
Mike Hynes
mike.hynes@nuigalway.ie
Fanney Frisbaek
fanneyf@seeesolutions.com
Richard Silke
r.silke1@nuigalway.ie
1
School of Political Science and Sociology, National University of
Ireland, Galway, 313 Aras Moyola, Galway, Ireland
2
School of Political Science and Sociology, National University of
Ireland, Galway, 220 Áras Moyola, Galway, Ireland
3
TrinityHaus Research Centre, School of Engineering, Trinity College
Dublin, TrinityHaus, 16 Westland Row, Dublin 2, Ireland
4
School of Political Science & Sociology, National University of
Ireland, Galway, Room 323, Áras Moyola, Galway, Ireland
5
SEEE Solutions Ltd, Sjobergvegen 7, 2066 Jessheim, Norway
6
School of Political Science and Sociology, National University of
Ireland, Galway, Ireland
Curr Envir Health Rpt (2017) 4:267277
DOI 10.1007/s40572-017-0159-7
Public and Stakeholder Engagement and the Built
Environment: a Review
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
... The analysis conveyed here links two key strands of literature: participatory planning for urban resilience (Cattino and Reckien 2021; Leyden et al. 2017;Luyet et al. 2012;Wilker, Rusche, and Rymsa-Fitschen 2016) and transformative agency (Novalia et al. 2020;Westley et al. 2013). It draws on the findings from five cases of NbS in Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Latvia, framed within the EU-Interreg funded Augmented Urbans project. ...
... Participatory approaches adopted in planning for sustainability and resilience indicate that users should no longer be passive participants but be acknowledged as those transforming spaces 'from below' through their engagement (Leyden et al. 2017), i.e. integrating deeper forms of participation, from information and consultation to collaboration, co-decision and empowerment (Luyet et al. 2012). 1 Now adapted to the era of sustainability planning, studies of NbS and green infrastructure alike have aimed for deeper participation from below (e.g. Wilker, Rusche, and Rymsa-Fitschen 2016), based on the principle that the knowledge and agency of citizens could therefore actively contribute to more sustainable outcomes. ...
... While participatory planning indicates an openendedness of the process and raises expectations of having a substantial say in the direction of the outcome, planning for ecological resilience strives towards a clear direction. Former studies have phrased this tension as the prevalence of result-oriented over process-oriented translations of resilience (Petrescu, Petcou, and Baibarac 2016) and consequently called for a stakeholder involvement at the very early stages of resilient planning where objectives are decided (Högström, Balfors, and Hammer 2019;Leyden et al. 2017). Based on an ecological focus of resilience, the renewal projects started from set objectives to (1) keep urban greenery and protect urban nature against other land use pressures on contested urban space (e.g. ...
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Participatory planning and planning for resilience figure as major trends in striving towards urban sustainability. Yet, recent studies problematize citizen participation in planning for resilience, indicating the need for closer research on surrounding processes and the limits planners face in leading participants to sustainable outcomes. Providing a basis for cross-case learning, the paper examines five urban planning projects in Northern Europe that attempted to involve stakeholders in enhancing urban resilience via nature-based solutions. Considering structural factors that limit planners’ agency in the Nordic and (post-socialist) Baltic context, the results convey tensions between inclusivity and resilience as common challenges across cases that manifest in conflicts over landscape aesthetics, neoliberal contestations of space, and diverting priority setting of stakeholders. The paper argues that these challenges triggered creative strategies which unleashed potentials for transformative planning agency including attempts to gain legitimacy and stakeholder support, build environmental awareness and knowledge among stakeholder groups, and facilitate conflict resolution in stakeholder interactions.
... We identified eight other relevant reviews with some areas of overlap but differing focus to our work. These reviews focused on: community engagement initiatives (Attree et al. 2011); involvement strategies in environmental projects (Luyet et al. 2012); pathways from control to health inequalities (Whitehead et al. 2016); community capability (George et al. 2016); public and stakeholder engagement in the built environment (Leyden et al. 2017); community engagement (Brunton et al. 2017); the impact of joint decision-making on community well-being (Pennington et al. 2018); and opportunities to engage the public in local alcohol and other decision-making (McGrath et al. 2019). While these provided valuable findings regarding potential pathways to outcomes, studies had often been included which did not give opportunities for public influence and control. ...
... Recommended activities included: using graphics (Kimberlee 2008); virtual tools, social media, geographical information systems and decision support systems (Leyden et al. 2017); and publishing newsletters and establishing a communication plan (Lewis et al. 2019). Establishment of mechanisms for sharing information with the wider community was key (Heritage and Dooris 2009), with clear feedback and demonstration of commitment required (Parker and Murray 2012). ...
... Papers highlighted that approaches should involve a differing set of activities depending on the context (de Andrade 2016; Curry 2012; Markantoni et al. 2018;Garnett et al. 2017) and intended breadth, depth and reach (Lewis et al. 2019). While much public involvement tends to be 'top down' (Leyden et al. 2017;McGrath et al. 2019;Froding et al. 2013;Fitzgerald, Winterbottom, and Nicholls 2018), literature emphasised the importance of starting from the communities' agendas and not the organisations' (de Andrade 2016; Curry 2012; Carlisle 2010), and avoiding aspirations of involvement turning into a cosmetic exercise (Leyden et al. 2017). ...
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Creating conditions to empower local people is an important determinant of health, and crucial in addressing health inequity. Yet, experimentation with initiatives to support public participation at a local level is threatened by enduring global economic instability. A better understanding of how different participatory approaches might address the social determinants of health would support future prioritisation of actions and investment. We reviewed recent literature and theories on initiatives to increase peoples’ influence in local decision-making and on social determinants of health. Our synthesis found little detail about the form and function of initiatives, but diverse factors deemed influential in achieving outcomes. Studies highlighted that pressure on resources undermines individual and community capacities to participate, and requires organisational leaders to think/act differently. Suggested priorities for local governance are: supporting capabilities and relationships between organisations and communities; creating safe and equitable spaces for interaction and knowledge-sharing; and changing institutional culture.
... Coined by Lefebvre (1968) and Harvey (2003), this debate focuses on the exclusion of urban residents from the city's resources, decision-making and common narratives, thereby raising the question of whose city it is (Mayer 2017) and urging for inclusion. This question has informed discussions on participative urban planning since the 1960s (Leyden et al. 2017). For the field of green spaces, this means that the traditional dichotomy between a green space supply (architects, planners, city councils) and demand side (users) is gradually overcome by involving other stakeholders such as developers, investors or green space managers and maintainers (Clark 2016; for an exemplary case study; see: Bonow et al. 2020). ...
... Using the term "epistemic justice" (cf Anguelovski et al. 2020), the dominance of top-down expertise and nomothetic methodologies of "knowing" spaces is questioned, which sheds light on excluded voices, forms of knowledge and its productiona central issue of recognition in interactional justice (Svarstad and Benjaminsen 2020). While participative decision-making has become a trend in urban governance in general and green space planning in particular (Leyden et al. 2017), the studies convey problems on the field of procedural justice, by the marginalisation of (Loewen et al. 2022) and criminalisation of activists' views (Pikner 2022) in decision-making process, or the disregard of (privileged) residential concerns to limited green space access and ecosystem health as NIMBYism (Berglund 2022;Smith et al. 2022). ...
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The chapter provides an overview of the objectives, structure, content and results of this joint volume. Starting from the paradox of well-known green space benefits on the one hand and multiple challenges to their fair provision on the other hand, the book argues to put green space contestations and environmental justice concerns into focus when striving for a sustainable city development. As the edited volume unites interdisciplinary and multi-method studies on green space use and planning, it enriches environmental justice studies by widening the understanding of green space access, critically evaluating cases of procedural injustice and providing in-depth studies on the contexts of injustices in urban greening. Based on the results of these studies, a future research agenda is proposed in this introductory chapter.
... Through its integration into standard planning processes, it can indeed provide policymakers with a contemporary decision-making tool for selecting projects and evaluating outcomes associated with their investments in urban space. Moreover, it can support them in achieving meaningful forms of citizen engagement, in alignment with the latest trends in urban regeneration strategies (Leyden et al., 2017). This implementation could foster a virtuous cycle of engagement, monitoring, and evidencebased public evaluation. ...
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Urban environment design profoundly influences citizens'health and well-being. Despite the aim of urban regenera-tion initiatives to enhance community well-being and socialconnections, they often struggle to ensure a balance ofpower among stakeholders, effectively involve citizens, andaccurately assess subjective urban experiences. New meth-odological approaches in community-based participatoryresearch (CBPR) are advocated to facilitate interactionsamong social actors and overcome the digital versus realdichotomy. This article introduces the Experiential Environ-mental Impact Assessment (exp-EIA) method as a novelresearch and intervention tool to address these challenges.Grounded in psychology, exp-EIA aims to integrate emo-tional, cognitive, and community identity dimensions to cap-ture the nuanced experiences of urban environments.Through digital data collection and visualization tools, exp-EIA could facilitate participatory decision-making processesacross various stages of urban regeneration projects. Fur-thermore, its adaptability enables significant integrationwith existing participatory methods, fostering inclusiveengagement and innovative design solutions. The theoreti-cal framework of exp-EIA, its application in CBPR, and itspotential to bridge the gap between technological innovation and citizen engagement in urban regenerationprocesses are discussed. A blended case study conducted inthe metropolitan area of Milan (Italy) is presented, highlight-ing a promising pathway towards more inclusive and effec-tive approaches to community revitalization.
... Wellstead and Biesbroek (2022) explained that successful climate change policy will depend on balancing stakeholder engagement and bureaucratic autonomy. Leyden et al. (2017) asserted that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for stakeholder engagement due to contextual factors presenting distinct challenges in each scenario. Furthermore, the participation process, in and of itself, has the potential to introduce biases that may advantage certain participants, whether intentionally or unintentionally. ...
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The adoption of a stakeholder approach to public engagement within the public sector has been extensive. However, there remain critical gaps in the understanding of stakeholder participation arising from hidden disparities that contribute to unequal access to communication channels, information, and hence ultimately knowledge and decision making. The term “epistemic injustice” has been used to describe such inequality of access and consequently, the outcome that ensues. Epistemic injustice is much overlooked in stakeholder theory. This article shows how epistemic injustice can act as a barrier to effective stakeholder engagement and hence to successful public policy formulation and implementation. We use the case of vaccine hesitancy among Scotland’s African, Caribbean, and Black (ACB) communities to illustrate this problem of unequal participation. The study drew on primary data involving 85 participants and secondary data sources from extant literature and explored salient factors shaping barriers to vaccine uptake during the recent pandemic. The findings demonstrate how the failure to grasp epistemic injustice undermines the effectiveness of the stakeholder approach, even with the most well-intentioned efforts. We argue that epistemic injustice is a critical barrier to effective stakeholder approaches.
... As a case in point, public participation connotes the integration of stakeholder engagement within the Public Administration (PA) (Leyden et al., 2017). Public participation defines a relationship between institutions and the community that allows citizens, individually or in an associated form, to contribute to the decision-making and the planning activity of the public administration at various levels of intensity and with different roles (Cittalia, 2016). ...
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... Recently, there have been some attempts to embed user responses within a conventional transport policymaking framework (e.g., Erkul et al. (2016)). However, Leyden et al. (2017) note that a framework to ensure user engagement within the decision-making process, is still lacking. ...
... To further bridge the gap between professionals and local communities, knowledge exchange and transfer through stakeholder engagement is key to sustainable rural regeneration [28]. Although stakeholder engagement is a time-consuming process, our experience with the RURITAGE knowledge exchange methodology, in line with Leyden et al. [29], suggests that it is worth the time and effort put into it. We demonstrated how knowledge exchange can be enabled for rural communities through a consistent approach. ...
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