Concepts of Public Participation
- Participation is a rich concept that means different things to different people in different settings. For some, it is a matter of principles; for others , a practice; and yet for another, an end in itself. All these intrepretations have merit.
- Participation could mean information: merely telling people what is planned; consultation: offering options and listening to feedbacks; deciding together: encouraging other options and ideas, and providing avenues for joint decision-making; acting together: deciding together on what to do and forming partnership to carry out decisions; or supporting independent community interests: supporting local groups or organizations to develop their own agendas within guidelines. Opportunities for participation are wide-ranging, perhaps even more so if those involved have a common understanding and share a common language.
- There are various concepts of public participation. Kamaruddin Ngah (1991) has stated that Lomas (1966) has emphasized on the term "volunteerism" in public participation, while Arnstein (1968) has connected public participation to the power of citizens. Grove and Procter (1966) have perceived public participation as an active involvement of the public together with the planning authority to solve some environmental problems. Fagence (1977) has highlighted the variety of terms related to public participation including bottom up planning, grass roots planning, public involvement, participatory planning, democratic planning and colaborative planning. Despite the different definitions on public participation, every definition rightly directs towards the same goal, that of harnessing public invovement in planning and decision-making.
- According to Alterman ( 1982), there are six main goals in public participation, which are as follows:
- To further democratic value,
- To achieve planning goals that are attuned to the needs of different groups,
- To educate the public,
- To enable social or personal change,
- To recruit support, obtain legitimacy and avoid opposition,
- To promote political change.
Resource: Nurwati Badarulzaman,...[etc.], The University in a garden, participatory planning process, Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia, 2006.
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