- From top down to bottom up -a somersault?   2042 kb by    Heyning, Helena Chaja & van der Bruggen, Wilma | hheyning@xs4all.nl    Short Outline Faced with the financial and economic crisis in The Netherlands and its aftermath and the ongoing decentralization process municipalities have great difficulties to cope with the demands and needs of citizens. Housing and planning are in the heart of the financial problem. Abstract Faced with the financial and economic crisis in The Netherlands and its aftermath and the ongoing decentralization process municipalities have great difficulties to cope with the demands and needs of citizens. Housing and planning are in the heart of the financial problem. Community and stakeholder engagement, civic action, might be part of the solution as real change can’t come any more from government alone (Big Society, Civic Economy). The case area is an urban renewal environment in The Netherlands where landowners take the initiative of regeneration. We will investigate citizen’s resilience in this arduous period and explore the possibilities of the landowners (civil society) to give tangible shape to their spatial development until recently the prerogative of the local authorities and in their wake the almighty private urban developers. We will explore under what conditions people are willing to be co-producers and investors (and venture risks: stakeholders) instead of just consumers and how the necessary trust can be built between the participants during the process. We will also investigate the shareholders benefit: what is in it for all participants. Likewise we will scrutinize the role of the local authority as the present situation brings about a shift in policy processes: from top down ‘government’ to bottom up ‘light governance’ –a somersault? The heart of the matter is the expertise and ability of the urban planners to team up with citizens in the ultimate processes of public participation, i.e. highest step Arnstein ladder and to create the context wherein real win-win situations won’t be a dream. Engaging citizens and actively supporting them in their task requires new standards of planning education, above all process skills in order to be effective in the process of co- creation next to the well-known urban toolkit – there can’t be a bigger contrast. What tools and methods can we borrow from humanities or organization & management schools and how are they customized for the urban planner? Keywords Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2013: Frontiers of Planning - Evolving and declining models of city planning practice   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper