Conference reveals need to empower local community

Planning, 15 August 2008

The DCLG's recent empowerment white paper Communities in Control - Real People, Real Power seeks to pass power to local communities. The key issues it focuses on include being active in the community, access to information, having an influence, challenging and redressing issues, standing for office, and ownership and control.

It aims to give local people a greater say in the system and commits funding to support community engagement in planning. There is a lot of good practice but lessons can be learnt from other sectors.

The issues it raises will be part of a wider discussion at a conference from 27 to 29 August with the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2). The theme is the why and how of participation and corporate social responsibility. It will look at definitions, current practice, international challenges and the latest research in participation.

The conference will offer a forum for communities, industry, government, non-governmental organisations and academics from around the world to share views on engagement. Keynote speakers include Reidar Kvam of the World Bank, Alan Young of Scottish and Southern Energy, Doreen McBarnet of the University of Oxford, Richard Douthwaite and Martin Neureiter.

This is the first time that the IAP2 conference will be held in Europe. It will be hosted by the Scottish Centre for Sustainable Community Development at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.

The IAP2 is driven by core values. It sees public participation as the process of involving the public in problem-solving and decision-making. It outlines a spectrum of participation from consultation to collaboration. This process needs to be understood across both the public and corporate sectors.

The white paper recognises community empowerment as an urgent task. It concludes that unless citizens are given similar choices in our democratic system to those in their everyday lives, we will see an erosion of participation in democracy. But this can be prevented with skilled intervention. The IAP2 can provide a valuable contribution.

Tanya Burdett works for Essential Planning Ltd and is a corporate member of the Planning Institute of Australia. Geoff Fagan is IAP2 president-elect and works for the Scottish Centre for Sustainable Community Development. To register for the conference, please email diane.coyle@strath.ac.uk.