Community Consultation
As a part of our regular classes, today we had a guest speaker come to deliver a talk on community consultation. Michael Pilbrow is currently working on the West Belconnen development in the north of the ACT, the project is interesting for several reasons, but from the point of view of a planning student, the fact that is straddles a sub-national boarder makes it particularly interesting.
While not himself a planner, Michael has worked in a diverse range of fields closely related to planning, and I think his background gives him a unique insight into the process of community consultation. This got me thinking about the way that we conduct consultation here in the ACT and how representative it actually is.
On one hand, we have the long established process whereby 'community councils' are the prime point of consultation for planners, I argued in class that these groups can be unrepresentative and not always indicative of the thoughts and opinions of the broader community.
Conversely, at the other end of the consultation continuum, we have the Time to Talk report, Canberra 2030. A very detailed and thorough examination of what Canberrans thought of their city and the direction they would like to see it move in. However this process takes considerably more time and resources, and the outcomes of such reports can often be fluffy and overly broad - this is not to discount the fact that they do serve a purpose.
So how do we reconcile these two very different ways of consulting communities?
The next logical step in my mind took me to social media. It's a buzzword that's thrown around a lot, but I can see it filling the current gap in the consultation spectrum. There would be several obvious issues around how such consultation is conducted and the ability for groups to manipulate outcomes, but I think it shows a lot of promise in a world that is increasingly connected in every way imaginable.
Tuesday, 9 September 2014
Monday, 18 August 2014
Why do we plan?
What is planning? Why do we do it? Who ought to be doing the planning?
This has been a hotly contested issue for some time now, and was at its most lively in the 1930's and 40's, and by the 1950's had apparently been resolved. The arguments for planning in my mind are simple. Planning is a mechanism by which we can marry up all the economic, political, and social levers at our disposal to create the kind of society we all want to live in. In my mind however, the debate has merely evolved and taken on a new form - what are we planning for?
But what kind of society is it that we all want to live in? It is in the politically charged question that most of the arguments for and against planning tend to manifest themselves today. Everyone has their own view and opinion of what they want for their society, it is the job of the planner to reconcile these differences and plan for a shared future.
If we have a look at the Australian context, with Canberra in mind specifically as it is a rather unique example in this country, the main argument behind the planning of Canberra was a political rationale. Canberra was to embody our grand vision for a brave new world, our ideals and values of what we thought a society should look like and how it should function.
Walter Burley Griffin saw in Australia what he thought of as "the ideal democracy", and explained by adding that, "I entered this Australian event to be my first and last competition, solely because I have for many years greatly admired the bold radical steps in politics and economics which your country has dared to take, and which must for a long time, set ideals for Europe and America ahead of their possibility of accomplishment".
Canberra was to embody the Australian Democracy.
http://www.griffinsociety.org/Lives_and_Works/a_canberra.html
What is planning? Why do we do it? Who ought to be doing the planning?
This has been a hotly contested issue for some time now, and was at its most lively in the 1930's and 40's, and by the 1950's had apparently been resolved. The arguments for planning in my mind are simple. Planning is a mechanism by which we can marry up all the economic, political, and social levers at our disposal to create the kind of society we all want to live in. In my mind however, the debate has merely evolved and taken on a new form - what are we planning for?
But what kind of society is it that we all want to live in? It is in the politically charged question that most of the arguments for and against planning tend to manifest themselves today. Everyone has their own view and opinion of what they want for their society, it is the job of the planner to reconcile these differences and plan for a shared future.
If we have a look at the Australian context, with Canberra in mind specifically as it is a rather unique example in this country, the main argument behind the planning of Canberra was a political rationale. Canberra was to embody our grand vision for a brave new world, our ideals and values of what we thought a society should look like and how it should function.
Walter Burley Griffin saw in Australia what he thought of as "the ideal democracy", and explained by adding that, "I entered this Australian event to be my first and last competition, solely because I have for many years greatly admired the bold radical steps in politics and economics which your country has dared to take, and which must for a long time, set ideals for Europe and America ahead of their possibility of accomplishment".
Canberra was to embody the Australian Democracy.
http://www.griffinsociety.org/Lives_and_Works/a_canberra.html
My name is Jacob White, I'm a third year planning student at the University of Canberra, in Australia. This blog will form part of an ongoing learning experience that will be used to tease out and expand upon my own thoughts and ideas about planning in the national capital of Australia. Specifically, this blog will seek to examine the narrative that planning has followed in Canberra, and how Canberra has acted as a petri dish for planning ideas and solutions over the one hundred years of its history. Please enjoy!
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