Where spatial capacity building and spatial decision making meet. Publically debating participatory spatial planning via a newspaper.

Abstract

This article reports on the in-between results of a Participatory Design research process in spatial planning in Godsheide, a small village in the Belgian Region of Limburg. The research explores how the language of newspapers enables citizens, policy makers, property developers and local organisations to build capacities (cfr. spatial capacity building) in ‘scripting’ their reflections on, but also actions in spatial change. In the heads of our participants, there existed a duality between - on the one hand - the participatory process wherein collective reflections can take place and - on the other hand - the actions of making these reflections concrete in decision-making (e.g. on the design, policy making, assigning responsibilities etc.). To provide a more nuanced view on this apparent duality, this article presents a literature study on spatial capacity building, decision making and scripting and an evaluation of a year of fieldwork. It discusses how the participatory scripting of spatial reflections and actions in the form of a newspaper, facilitated a closer relation between spatial capacity building and the process of spatial decision making on concrete matters of concern by paying explicit attention to publically debating spatial change.