Human Capital

There has been much discussion about the communicative aspects of spatial and economic planning. This aspects reflects the changes of local economies and society towards open, globally reaching relationships and increasing concerns for local environments.

The human and social capital of urban inhabitants is an vital potential for revitalization (especially in terms for restructuring an already established urban city).

George Town requires much more public participatory planning then never before due to the newly awarded UNESCO Heritage Site.

With the increasing public participation it had becomes an efficient tool for avoiding social exclusion which is always the main concern when related to restructuring local economies and unemployment.

New innovative methods and processes are required to realize the potential for public participatory urban planning, it is also necessary not to neglect the "Silent group" (Children, youth, elderly people, people of minority ethnic origins.)

Public Participatory planning processes need resources: time, organization effort, communication and clear commitment from all the involved actors.

Public Participatory planning processes provide opportunities for directly influencing decision-making. Traditionally, representative democracy (resident vote for their representative to help protect and assist them)

You choose so that they can choose for You.

and the more direct public participatory democracy, where residents directly communicate with decision makers or planners offer different opportunities. A common practice in smaller municipalities is direct commenting (suitable for smaller urban area that involves lesser amount of actors).

Urban Planners from local authorities discussing planning strategies with public representative.

These different and perhaps new channels of co-operation between a city and its residents
contrast with the current situation, where administration takes place between the city council, representing the older representative democracy, and direct feedback from residents.

What does Public Participatory Planning means.

Public Participatory planning is an urban planning paradigm which emphasizes involving the entire community in the strategic and management processes of urban planning or community-level planning processes, urban or rural. It is often considered as part of community development processes.

Origins

In the UN Habitat document Building Bridges Through Participatory Planning, Fred Fisher, president of the International Development Institute for Organization and Management, identifies Participatory Reflection And Action (PRA) as the leading school of participatory planning.

He identifies Paulo Freire and Kurt Lewin as key pioneers, as well as claiming planning fathers Patrick Geddes and Lewis Mumford as participatory planners. Freire’s belief that poor and exploited people can and should be enabled to analyze their own reality was a fundamental inspiration for the participatory planning movement. Lewin’s relevance lay in his integration of democratic leadership, group dynamics, experiential learning, action research and open system theory, and his efforts to overcome racial and ethnic injustices.

In general PRA has been supplanted by Participatory Learning and Action (PLA), which emphasizes the links between the participatory process and action. Related work has been done on community-based participatory research (CBPR).

Principles

Robert Chambers, whom Fisher considered a leading icon of the movement, defines PRA according to the following principles;

• Handing over the stick (or pen or chalk): facilitating investigation, analysis, presentation and learning by local people themselves, so they generate and own the outcomes and also learn.
• Self-critical awareness: facilitators continuously and critically examine their own behavior.
• Personal responsibility: taking responsibility for what is done rather than relying, for instance, on the authority of manuals or on rigid rules.
• Sharing: which involves the wide range of techniques now available, from chatting across the fence to photocopies and e-mail.

Methods

PRA and PLA methods and approaches include:

• Do-it-yourself: local people as experts and teachers, and outsiders as novice
• Local analysis of secondary sources
  
• Mapping and modeling
• Time lines and trend and change analysis
• Seasonal calendars
• Daily time-use analysis
• Institutional diagramming
• Matrix scoring and ranking
• Shared presentations and analysis, and
• Participatory planning, budgeting, implementation and monitoring.

(sources and information taken from wikipedia)