Public defence in Spatial Planning and Transportation Engineering, M.Sc. (Architecture) Saana Rossi

Title of the thesis: Towards Systematic Integration of Participatory Knowledge in Land-use Planning Practice

Thesis defender: Saana Rossi
Opponent: Professor Simin Davoudi, Newcastle University, UK
Custos: Professor Marketta Kyttä,Aalto University School of Engineering, Department of Built Environment

The dissertation studies how municipalities use participatory knowledge in land-use planning and decision-making.

Citizen participation has been formalized in Finnish legislation and planning practice, however, it remains unclear how local knowledge and opinions gathered through participation influence land use planning and decision-making in practice.  

This dissertation studies how participatory knowledge has been utilized in the planning and political decision-making in Finnish municipalities. The goal of the research is to increase municipalities’ capabilities to systematically utilize the knowledge and opinions they collect through participation. Additionally, the goal is to study how participatory knowledge influences planners’ and politicians’ practice and decision-making. 

The studies scrutinize participatory knowledge both on a general level and by focusing specifically on place-based experiential knowledge gathered with the Public Participation GIS (PPGIS) method. The researched has been conducted as part of the Nordgreen project as an action research process in collaboration with the municipalities of Espoo and Ii. Together with local planners and experts, new ways of sharing, integrating and utilizing knowledge gathered through map-based surveys were developed for a variety of land-use planning cases. 

A key challenge for systematic participatory knowledge integration is making tacit knowledge explicit: mobilizing diverse knowledges from diverse stakeholders remains a subject of continuous renegotiation of power and the value of participatory knowledge. PPGIS can contribute with large-scale, distributed mapping of experiential local knowledge at the initiation of planning processes, ideally used as a foundation to be deepened by case-specific participation. 

The development of systematic participatory knowledge integration requires localized and iterative development which promotes individuals’ agency and mutual organizational learning. It should aim to increase trust between stakeholders. The conditions for systematic integration and use of participatory knowledge include: 1) an accessible technical knowledge sharing infrastructure; 2) sufficient organizational and individual capabilities; 3) organizational culture where participatory knowledge is valued by leadership; and 4) agency for action and development for the better use of participatory knowledge in planning processes.

Keywords: Participatory knowledge, Urban planning, Planning practice, Public Participation, Planning organizations, Public organizations, Planning policy, PPGIS

Thesis available for public display 10 days prior to the defence at Aaltodoc. 

Contact information: saana.rossi@aalto.fi, +358 415454191