Using Social Media And Mobile Technologies To Foster Engagement And Self-Organization In Participatory Urban Planning And Neighbourhood Governance
Introduction:
This editorial explores the potential of social media and mobile technologies to foster citizen engagement and participation in urban planning. We argue that there is a lot of wishful thinking, but little empirically validated knowledge in this emerging field of study. We outline key developments and pay attention to larger societal and political trends.
The aim of this special issue is:
1) To offer a critical state-of-the-art overview of empirical research;
2) to explore whether social media and mobile technologies have measurable effects on citizens’ engagement beyond traditional mobilization and participation tools.
We find that wider engagement only ‘materializes’ if virtual connections also manifest themselves in real space through concrete actions, by using both online and offline engagement tools. Another requirement is that planners do not seek to marginalize dissenting voices in order to promote the interests of powerful developers.
Public Participation And The Social Media And Mobile Technologies:
The use of social media and mobile technologies has grown rapidly over the last 10 years and has facilitated a constant increase in the number of virtual networks. The popularity of Facebook, Twitter, Google þ , Instagram, Youtube, Blogspot and other social media has spurred a demand for new forms of participatory planning and self-organizing governance by citizens. Unlike with many conventional methods, citizens are keen on using social media tools to engage with planners. Changing the relationship between citizens and government is often cited as a goal for digital government, also referred to as e-government, and new tools and social media have the potential to improve interactions with citizens through dialogue.
Beyond Technology: From Public Participation to Self-Organization:
ICT, social media and mobile technologies alter the larger context of public participation because they open up new possibilities for policy-makers, but perhaps more importantly, they empower and foster the self-organization of citizens. Social media are a powerful tool for citizen mobilization. Dramatic examples are the organized demonstrations in Arab countries such as Egypt during the ‘Arab Spring’ and riots in the English cities London and Manchester in 2011. Benign manifestations of self-organization are timely in a context of neoliberalism and welfare state retrenchment, which have shifted the economies of advanced western states and are reshaping the ways in which citizens, public, private and third sectors interact with each other.
About This Special Issue:
The Potential Of Social Media And Mobile Technologies:
Considering the aforementioned trends and context, it is now timely to critically explore the potential of social media and mobile technologies. There is much wishful thinking, but little validated knowledge on the utility, mobilizing potential and effectiveness of social media and mobile technologies applications in creating either meaningful public participation or facilitating self-organization by citizens who are taking over the reins in providing services and local regeneration efforts.
In sum, the aim of this special issue of Planning Practice and Research is twofold:
(1) To offer a critical state-of-the-art overview of theory and empirical research about the mobilizing and engaging potential of social media and mobile technologies in the context of participatory urban planning.
(2) To explore whether social media and mobile technologies have measurable effects on citizens’ engagement, self-organization and neighbourhood governance beyond traditional mobilization and public participation tools.
Conclusion:
The articles in this special issue show a clear potential of social media and mobile technologies for particular forms of citizen engagement. They offer several lessons regarding the necessary conditions for stronger citizen engagement.
Notwithstanding empowering potential of social media and mobile technologies, ultimate decisions are usually still made by local governments and other authorities, who are not by default only serving citizens’ interests. Apps such as Map Local enable wider engagement with early phases of planning processes, but may simultaneously face attempts by growth-oriented urban planners to marginalize dissenting voices in order to promote the interests of powerful developers.
Finally, we conclude that using social media and mobile technologies as tools to increase two-way interaction between citizens and (local) governments will not reduce the workload of professionals. While the discourse of active citizenship, financial austerity and government retrenchment favors citizens’ taking matters into their own hands, seeking citizen involvement through social media and mobile technologies will probably increase the workload, because agencies need to be prepared to manage new flows of information and ideas from citizens.