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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 can—intentionally
or unintentionally—benefit 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 countries—around the world—see 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) 4:267–277
DOI 10.1007/s40572-017-0159-7
Public and Stakeholder Engagement and the Built
Environment: a Review
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