Urban Planning
Erfaneh Ghanbari; Mehrnaz Molavi; Saber Mohammadpour; Sahand Lotfi
Abstract
Problem Statement: Extensive economic, social, and political transformations in urban societies, along with the emergence of conflicting interests, values, and needs, have shifted urban planning approaches toward consensus and the convergence of stakeholders to achieve common benefits. Although it is ...
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Problem Statement: Extensive economic, social, and political transformations in urban societies, along with the emergence of conflicting interests, values, and needs, have shifted urban planning approaches toward consensus and the convergence of stakeholders to achieve common benefits. Although it is a prominent necessity in participatory planning, this topic does not have adequate theoretical support. Some studies have examined consensus as a part of the conflict resolution process, but it has rarely been explored as an independent and multidimensional concept. This represents one of the key gaps in the urban planning literature.
Objective: The study aims to identify the organizing themes and propose a conceptual model for achieving consensus among stakeholders in the urban planning process.
Research Method: Through a systematic search and review of the literature and employing a qualitative thematic analysis approach with an inductive, bottom-up reasoning, initial consensus themes were extracted via manual coding of the texts. The process continued until acheiving the theoretical saturation and yielding a well-defined and comprehensive set of the “organizing themes of consensus in planning.” Codes were then categorized based on their role in fostering consensus, leading to the formation of sub-themes and likwise subsequently overarching main themes. Subsequently, the themes were validated through theoretical triangulation and cross-referenced with prior studies. By elucidating the relationships and internal linkages among these themes, a conceptual model for the realization of consensus was developed.
Findings: "Facilitated participatory process," "stakeholders and actors," "discourse and communicative action," "conflict management," "power relations and dynamics," and "adaptive management" were identified as the main organizing themes of consensus, all of which are interrelated. The absence of any one of these themes may disrupt the process of achieving consensus. The validity of these themes is supported by Habermas’s “Communicative Action Theory”, Lefebvre’s “Right to the City”, contemporary “Pluralism”, Foucault’s concept of “Power”, and “Complexity Theory”.
Results: The proposed model provides a framework to guide the participatory planning process and is adaptable to various scales and diverse cultural, political, and legal contexts. By mitigating conflicts, it facilitates an effective, equitable, and sustainable consensus. According to this model, consensus necessitates a “facilitated participatory process” and the active engagement of “stakeholders and actors.” “discourse and communicative action” and attention to “power relations and dynamics” are prerequisites for the accurate identification of conflicts; neglecting these elements leads to ineffective “conflict management” and the disregard of pluralistic interests. “Adaptive management” enables critical evaluation, continuous monitoring, and learning for policy adjustment. Due to its capacity for localization and deeper analysis of latent power mechanisms, this model can support contemporary planning approaches. Despite its emphasis on theoretical aspects, its methodological and practical limitations should not be overlooked.
