Socio-Psychological Factors Affecting Participatory Planning Processes At Interactional Level

Abstract

Today, it is widely accepted that communities need to collaborate when making decisions on behalf of the individual, society and the environment. Hence, planners engaged in participatory initiatives need to understand how best to design and carry out a participatory planning process. In order to answer this question, all factors affecting participatory processes need to be determined, since only then can steps be taken to design and execute the best participatory process for each stakeholder in every unique context. By focusing particularly on the factors affecting participatory processes at interactional level, this study aims to determine the socio-psychological dimensions of participatory planning processes, the aim being to bring to light some hitherto unexplained factors involved and thus help to improve these processes. Based on previous discussions in participation literature, the ultimate aim of this study is to provide subsequent researchers and those involved in participatory planning practices with a framework on the socio-psychological dimensions, namely communication, power, attribution, relationships and persuasion, of participatory processes at interactional level.