Participation and Infrastructure Planning

in NewcastleJohn Mackenzie

Planning for PeopleCommunity Charter for Good

Planning

Expansion of Participation in Planning

• Expansion of the scope of democratic involvement

• Represented as a reversal: – from top-down to bottom-up – from a technical to a dialogic approach

– from a closed to an open process– from professional to personal expertise

The Nightmare of Participation

“In the nightmare of participation, political subjects become caught in the logic of an iconic participation, a representative participation that has been exaggerated to the point of hollowness.”

“The power of this participation is the power of the mesmerizing icon: it sustains the nightmare that we cannot wake up from, and it compels us to go on playing our assigned roles. Why has participation become a nightmare?”

“In the Western political model, participation has emerged as a legitimizing force — a significant step in the evolution of our political theater.”

“It is participation as instrumentalized political practice. Participation becomes a scripted scenario of liberal democracy, into which you insert the necessary actors, props, lighting, cameras, and mechanized monsters.”

POSTSCRIPT (FROM THE NIGHTMARE OF PARTICIPATION, MARKUS MIESSEN) By Jeremy Beaudry and Bassam El Baroni, 2011

VicRoads Director of Road Operations Dean Zabrieszach said pushing the button sends a signal that people are waiting to cross, but it won’t make it go green any faster.

“The timing of the activation of the green walk sign depends on the flow of vehicle traffic and the status of signalling in adjacent intersections.”

News Limited, 28 August 2014

The ‘Spect-actors’ of Participation

A term created by Augusto Boal to describe those engaged in improvised theatre.

It refers to the dual role of those involved in the process as both spectator and actor, as they both observe and create dramatic meaning and action in any performance.

Planning Assessment Commission

An independent panel appointed to review and determine state significant planning decisions via public hearings.

– Insulates the Minister for Planning from ministerial responsibility

– Masks the determining involvement of the Department of Planning

– Consumes, exhausts and mollifies community concerns– Extinguishes the right of community appeal in a court of law

The Community Charter• Separation of strategic planning from development assessment

• Establishment of a Statutory Community Board

• Development Assessment Commission (DAC)– Chaired by a judge of the Land and Environment Court

– Not just costs & benefits but alignment with regional strategic goals

– Re-instated merits appeal rights – Retaining elected representation and ministerial accountability in determining strategic plans