Seminar 5: The Communicative Turn in Planning Theory and Its Implications for Spatial Strategy Formation

In this seminar there was a strong discussion made by the presenters on how to get a community involved in planning how to start up a discussion between planners and the community. One of the main ideas that the presenter’s discussed was inclusive and non-inclusive forums and arenas for discussion. Examples of inclusive forums and arenas were online posts, letters to the editor, postal submissions, phone surveys and community forums. Examples of non-inclusive were workshops, focus groups and community venue visits. But after the seminar we all thought it would be better to say less inclusive than non-inclusive because many of the examples included public input. The seminar also looked at styles of discussion such as formal and informal. Formal discussions would be reports, editorials and group/organisation submissions. Informal discussions would be online surveys, workshops and online submissions such as ones through twitter. Both of these are interesting ways of looking at how a person can communicate with the public about new ideas and concepts can be created for an area.

There was also a guest speaker who spoke about planning practice in Canberra. One of the major ideas he talked about was that it is hard to create large urban renewal projects in Canberra because of its history. Meaning that other cities have large disused industrial areas they can renew, while Canberra does not have these kind areas to make change. He also gave an example of how important it is to discuss the plans you have for an area with the community. The example was Fortitude Valley in Brisbane and how people were not told properly about the plans for building high rise buildings in the area therefore did not want the project to happen. But after the community were told and actually got an explanation many people liked the idea. This is just one example of why it is important to have a discussion with the public when planning.