People Building Better Cities

Deconstructing the Challenge

Dr. Renu Khosla

Director, Centre for Urban and Regional Excellence (CURE)

Can People Build Better Cities? Can Planners Humanize Cities?

Why Community?

self-organized network .. of people who, regardless of the diversity of their backgrounds .. communicate effectively .. and .. work together towards goals identified as being for their common good; or who collaborate by sharing ideas, information, and other resources. Geo-spatiality, Territorial or local nature; Socio-cultural-ness, Commonality of characteristics, Identity or place attachment, Reciprocity

Why Community Participation? Community Participation is the glue that underpins society

powerful organizing ideal.for advancing communitarian agenda process by which individuals, families, or communities assume responsibility for their own welfare and develop capacity to contribute to their own and the communitys development process whereby beneficiaries influence the direction and execution of development projects rather than merely receive a share of benefits Builds  social capital - institutions, relationships, norms that shape the quality and quantity of social interactions  solidarity, commitment, mutuality and trust  resilience or capability  sense of belonging

Why Social Capital?

Creates awareness, information so communities can resolve problems collectively, cooperatively and advance smoothly Creates equal-ness in an unequal community

What is Community Organization and Development?

Enables implementation of programmes Organize for collective/collaborative action, by assessing needs, finding local solutions, building consensus, implementing, contributing and managing services Creates neighbourhood capacity to set own priorities, selfrepresent, negotiate and decide

The Logic

Distressingly unequal: Social quotient is informal, no legal identity or land rights or formal livelihoods, - imprint is eviction and exploitation, erodes abilities to survive or invest in future Spatial-Economic-Social Justice: Deeply invisible, Informal signature resonates with formal economy, obligatory and makes good economic and social sense Democratize Local Actions and catalyse people-centred development with shared responsibility, trust, ownership, durability and resource efficacy.

Making Community Participation Real and Meaningful

Ladder
Continuum is complex and influenced by contexts, experiences, type and quality of information. Levels are interconnected. May have several entry points, ordinal movement, speed. Communities may also move down the ladder (social capital dissipation) Consultation Manipulation and Information Non participation Tokenism Peoples Power

Citizen Control Delegation of Power

Partnership

Process

Initiation Planning Design Implementation Maintenance

Initiation
Needs Priorities

Planning
Community

Strategic
Information

Design

Design
Cost Contribution Construction

Implementation

Implementation

Management
Oversight Sustainability Representation Negotiation Access to Resources

The Challenges

Similar-ness or Divergence 1. The Paradox

a clear, identifiable and homogenous group or a mere umbrella under which shelter a multitude of varying, competing and often conflicting interests

Invisible Boundaries and Exclusion

Boundaries and segmentations - formal and informal - visible or invisible become basis of inclusion or exclusion for benefits, power or gating

Operational or Strategic
beneficiary and user of services or representative of local opinions, engaging in activities or long-term partners in redevelopment process

Casual understanding

2. Why this Box Ticking?

Perceived threat from power sharing/ dismantling traditional power structures Massified - unbroken- congenial - affiliated communities that can be managed by singular, customary and fixed options Time for community engagement Outputs not very easily measurable or tangible Limited capacity among facilitators of community participation

Representativeness - Including the Usually Excluded

3. Gate keepers

Upper poor and early adopters Formal neighbourhoods on resource sharing Territorial issues between local authorities (and their street bureaucrats) Political representatives Decision making by all excluded are adequately represented

4. Capacity

Facilitator City Community

Not phoney or signatures on preagreed plans that denigrate a peoples knowledge and wisdom and do not delegate real power to people. Unwillingness and/or lack of understanding dis-incentivises peoples participation

5. Institutions Policies Legislations Norms

Adaptability of Institutions and Systems - Community Dynamism - Dehumanized planning without adequate diagnosis leads to conventional and common solutions. - Inclusive planning helps dig deeper, reason backward, adopt new filters and bring greater specificity to a plan - Integrate demand / made-to-order solutions Policy Analysis to erase contradictions

One size usually never fits all but public programmes as a rule strive to achieve the lowest common denominator !

6. City Scale: On the Fast Track

Expansion of ideas, innovations, practices, outputs, products Reaching the golden moment when a critical mass of community initiatives force transition from state-led policy to people-centred programming. Predicating a project on a strong community is not essential . having a sense of community that can grow during the course of the project makes for a good start Hamdi

7. An Expensive Luxury?
An elaborate process of community mobilization needs time to nurture and mature, to inform and walk the groups through the decision-making process and to create space within traditional policy making structures for the voices of the people. In particular, it needs commitment from local bodies for such partnerships to happen and contribute to development planning.

Grow Organically

A community-based approach has its own vernacular, shape and architecture that is an expression of peoples socio-spatial priorities and context. Organic growth needs strategic and supportive partnerships between people and local government Trust in peoples capability to take good, mature, collective decisions for the benefit of all Make it a two-way street; not just quizzing and mining community data and un-fuzzying crucial pieces of information to inform the discourse so people could make smart choices. Poorly taken decisions have only served to reinforce public mindsets.

The practice of community participation is a skilful art designed to make things happen; recognise the similarities, differences, inequalities among people and open up an opportunity for voice.The challenge is to capture the intelligence that we find on the streets of slums, enable structures to emerge, encourage innovations and liberate resources for development action. Nabeel Hamdi