- What’s Arabic for ‘Charette’? Public Participation in the Baniyas neighborhood of Abu Dhabi   1389 kb by    Chakravarty, Surajit & Meera Mansoori, Meera & Meera Shehadeh, Meera | surajitusc@gmail.com    Short Outline The paper reports findings from the Baniyas Park public participation project in Abu Dhabi, UAE, conducted by the authors between August 2012 and May 2013. Recommendations based on the community input received are presented along with insights regarding substantive and procedural aspects of participation in contexts such as Abu Dhabi. Abstract In most developed country contexts public participation is a widely accepted (and often legally-mandated) requirement for the planning process (Healey, 1992; Innes and Booher, 2004). Participation is not without criticism - not least the contention that it tends to favor the elite, or the problem of conducting participation in contemporary megacities etc. In developing countries, particularly those with strong central control, local governments are still in the early stages of practicing participation. In Abu Dhabi, UAE, public agencies have begun holding “workshops” and “charettes” in the last few years, which are prominently displayed on their respective websites. But what does participation mean in a non-democratic planning context? How can it be reconciled within the practices of local governance in an Islamic state? This paper reports a participation exercise, conducted by students, under the aegis of the Abu Dhabi Municipality. The Baniyas community was one of the earliest planned communities in Abu Dhabi, having been constructed in the 1960s and 1970s. Parts of this suburban town are now in disrepair, yet other parts of the community are growing fast, with new villas and blocks being added every year. Baniyas Park is the main recreational facility in the neighborhood. Abu Dhabi Municipality, concerned with the relatively low number of users, wants to undertake improvements to encourage use. The student-led participation process involved workshops in various locations of the Baniyas community, 300 surveys, and in-depth interviews with various key informants. Conclusions from the Baniyas Park participation project are presented at two levels. First, we share recommendations for the park, as have emerged from the participation process. Second, we provide insights regarding substantive and procedural aspects of participation in Abu Dhabi. Peculiarities of the local planning culture and the ways in which meaningful participation can be encouraged within such contexts are discussed. It is found that the government and social institutions are open to participation, and that participatory planning has a well-defined basis in Islamic thought. However, important caveats limit the meaning and scope of participation. For truly understanding and describing the planning practices in cities like Abu Dhabi, it is important to make space for planning theory grounded in the local political and cultural environment. References Healey, P. (1992). Planning Through Debate: The Communicative Turn in Planning Theory. The Town Planning Review, 63(2), 143-162. Innes, J. and Booher, D.E. (2004). Reframing Public Participation: Strategies for the 21st Century. Planning Theory and Practice, 5(4), 419- 436. 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