A Taxonomy of Bottom-Up, Community Planning and Participatory Tools in the Urban Planning Context

Abstract

The last fifty years of urban transformation has generated impressive “know-how” in urban studies in Europe. However, making our cities increasingly attractive through ambitious urban plans of transformation and renovation has also led to issues such as gentrification, degradation of heritage, social tensions, mass tourism and even exclusion. Inherited from the 1970s, processes of participation, which are directly related with reclaiming the city, are now re-emerging in urban and architectural processes in democratic cities. Sustainable, resilient, urban regeneration means working with inhabitants when cities are transformed, giving them the opportunity to collaborate in the city’s creation. Complex, ready-to-use participatory methodology is required for urban planners and landscape architects to work in an interdisciplinary way with other specialists. This research proposes the creation of methodology for participatory action using new and traditional tools (information and communications technology, mapping, big data cartographies, tactical planning, and opinion polls among other techniques), through their classification into a taxonomy. This paper shows the taxonomy generated through an analysis of several historical and recent case studies in which the real stakeholders in urban planning—its users—co-designed the project. By combining the tools, we should be able to build a methodology or a guide for co-creation workshops.