Seminar Three: A Ladder of Citizen Participation

This article by Sherry Arnstein illustrates the deepening problem of planning development implementations in regards to the participation of citizens in many major cities (Arnstein used some major American cities as examples to her arguments). She has gone further on her criticism of this issue by developing what she called 'The Eight Rungs of citizen participation'. This ladder created by Arnstein can be seen as a form of hierarchy which illustrates eight levels of citizen participation; from the lowest form which is 'non-participation' of manipulation and therapy  (which she sees as those who are seen by the upper half of the hierarchy as uneducated and therefore needed to be cured of their ignorance) to the highest level of 'citizen power' consisting of citizen control and delegated power. She sees the highest form as the ones who generally 'obtain the majority of decision-making'. These people are generally of higher status or simply just wealthy. She has also argued about the growing hyperplaurism in some American cities. I have to agree with Arnstein's statement that many groups or community factions are overpowering government's functioning ability because their growing influence is actually hard to contain considering many citizens want to participate and have their voices heard. It is to my belief that this is perhaps the most sensitive topic of discussion of planning because one of the most fundamental aspects of planning, as planners, is to listen very carefully to citizen demands. The problem is that the citizen power of participation, who have the greater influence on decision making, are likely to have not visited a development site which is of discussion. Us planners need to be very aware that participation, regardless of where citizens sit on this 'rungs ladder', is very crucial when deciding on which is more suitable and acceptable when coming to development proposals. We cannot allow ourselves to distinguish citizens based on this ladder because the final development may not suit client requirements. Might as well go back to medieval times and plan according to merchant demands and leave out the voices of the majority who are of middle or poor class statuses.