Epilogue

Abstract

When we began this inquiry in 1979, we assumed that public officials and citizen activists in the United States would find recent participatory efforts in western European cities instructive. We also assumed that the lessons learned in Europe could be applied in the United States, even though cultural differences and political traditions make direct transfer of tactics and strategies difficult. Finally, we assumed that a team of researchers with different views and disciplinary backgrounds could study a range of communities and cultural contexts and still find an effective means of pooling their findings. Now, in 1981, as our work draws to a close, it appears that all three assumptions were correct.