Partizipation und Ko-Gestaltung

Participation plays a central role in how societies envision, shape, and claim their urban spaces. This becomes especially pronounced as urban sites, towns, and entire regions undergo profound transitions. This module looks at both formal and informal types of participation, encompassing public participation and participatory processes involving different stakeholders such as institutions, organizations, and interest groups. Students will learn about the political and social foundations of participation and explore the roles, interests, strategies, tactics, and agency of diverse social groups and institutional actors involved in these processes. In light of current governance innovation and transition-oriented planning debates, the course draws on experiences from European research projects such as DUST (Democratising just Sustainability Transitions) or PSUGO (Participatory Skills for Sustainable Urban Governance) that demonstrate how participatory practices can foster inclusive urban and regional development. Upon successful completion of the module, students will be able to assess the suitability and effectiveness of different participatory approaches and formats within planning and decision-making contexts. They will develop the skills to design and support participatory processes (or their individual components) tailored to specific urban development challenges, with attention to issues of social inclusion, power asymmetries, and context sensitivity. In this regard, they will also learn to recognize and address participation barriers, especially those affecting underrepresented groups across plural categories of difference. Students will become familiar with a range of moderation techniques, participatory formats, and evaluation methods for stakeholder engagement and participation, gaining insight into their respective strengths and limitations. This includes design-led and territorial approaches aimed at empowering civic engagement in urban transitions, as well as methods that engage critically with urban experiences, such as participatory storytelling (including digital formats), embedded collaborative action research, urban living labs, community champions networks, futures literacy, media analysis, and practices of insurgent public space. Finally, students will be equipped to critically reflect on participation within the broader context of urban transformation, sustainability transitions, and multi-level governance. They will be able to situate these debates within the wider framework of urban and regional development, understanding participatory practices as embedded in dense material realities – realities that are socially produced through material and social practices, shaped by multiple identities and histories, and carved by the needs and aspirations of diverse publics.

- Seminar presentation and discussion (50 %) - Group project involving the collaborative design of a participatory process (50 %)

Arnstein S. (1969) Ladder of Citizen Participation. Journal of the American Institute of Planners 35: 216–24. Chilvers, J./ Longhurst, N. (2016) Participation in transition(s): Reconceiving public engagements in energy transitions as co-produced, emergent and diverse. Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning 18(5): 585-607. DUST Consortium (2023–2026) Project Deliverables – Democratising jUst Sustainability Transitions (DUST) . Horizon Europe. A curated selection of project reports, methodological frameworks, and case-based findings relevant to participatory governance, citizen engagement, and just sustainability transitions. Available at: https://www.dustproject.eu/releases Forester, J. (1999) The deliberative practitioner: Encouraging participatory planning processes . Mit Press. Healey, P. (1997) Collaborative Planning: Shaping Places in Fragmented Societies . Macmillan Press Ltd. Hillier, J. (2003) ‘Agon’izing Over Consensus: Why Habermasian Ideals cannot be `Real’. Planning Theory 2 (1): 37-59. Hou, J. (2010) Insurgent Public Space: Guerrilla Urbanism and the Remaking of Contemporary Cities . Routledge. Mouffe, C. (2000) The Democratic Paradox . Verso. Rosen, J./ Painter, G. (2019) From citizen control to co-production: Moving beyond a linear conception of citizen participation. Journal of the American planning association 85(3): 335-347. Recommended readings will be provided throughout the semester.

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