Participation in Urban Planning

Abstract

The city development is determined partly by spontaneous processes generated by the capitalist market economy and also by urban policy and planning. As a consequence of these processes some groups of the society gain advantages while others suffer damages. When we try to analyse sociologically the urban policy and planning our focus is not on realised physical results, but on the system of explicit or hidden social interests, power relations and conflicts. (How it is related to external interests and power structures, how much it is capable of autonomous it functioning and representing its own ethos, when and how much it serves or is exposed for the stronger power structures around it.) In this study we start to unfold this very complex issue – for the sake of simplicity called: the sociology of urban planning – with the research of publicity and public participation.