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Citizen Participation. Urban Development for and by the People

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Urban Visions

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Abstract

The idea that ‘it is the people who make the city’ has been remarked on by many authors such as Churchill, Jacobs, Alexander, Gehl, and others, who considered that human scale and the conduciveness of a determined space to sociality should be the main ingredients of urban design. This article reviews the design of urban space from its human dimension and with active participation by citizens, discussing concepts as neighbourhood, processes for participation and real involvement by residents, mechanisms of empowerment, selfish attitudes so-called NIMBY, or marginalisation. And it goes a step further: the mobilisation of an organised civil society, establishing its own networks for information, decision-making and strategic alliances, and the activation of urban life are needed to guarantee the survival and success of our cities.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Refer to Boa Mistura website: http://www.boamistura.com/luz_nas_vielas.html.

  2. 2.

    NIMBY: Not In My Back Yard.

  3. 3.

    In his interesting article “When people have a say… Reflections on the Renaissance of Direct Democracy in Germany”, Frank Eckardt found from the sociological analysis of the most recent citizen participation processes in Germany that greater participation does not necessarily lead to establishing a more democratic base for urban planning (Eckardt 2011).

  4. 4.

    In addition to a strategy for reducing the cost of upkeep for gardens, these aspects of the participatory design experience that have led to the building of public squares that work well for their users, while providing the identification and appropriation of the spaces for them (Dascal 1994).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Engineering and Architecture (EINA), University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain

    Pablo de la Cal

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  1. Pablo de la Cal
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Correspondence to Pablo de la Cal .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Engineering and Architecture, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain

    Carmen Díez Medina

  2. School of Engineering and Architecture, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain

    Javier Monclús

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de la Cal, P. (2018). Citizen Participation. Urban Development for and by the People. In: Díez Medina, C., Monclús, J. (eds) Urban Visions. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59047-9_16

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