Local government citizen academies : is knowledge power?

Government decision-makers and especially urban planners increasingly face difficulties engaging citizens given trends of public apathy, cynicism towards government, language and cultural barriers, and the growing complexity of government bureaucracy. As municipal governments increasingly focus on the long-term engagement of citizens, particularly special interest, advocacy, and community organizations, a key dilemma is how to create an on-going process for training stakeholders to participate in consultation and conflict resolution efforts. Many individuals and interest groups are ill prepared for participation in public planning processes and do not understand how municipal government functions, the key dilemmas it faces, or the urban planning concepts and procedures that shape economic, social and physical life. Likewise, many planners are not trained to understand and integrate "local knowledge" --the specific expertise and on-the-ground information brought by local citizens--with technical information and bureaucratic processes. As a result, communication with the public is often constrained as citizens perceive government as a "black box" that is unapproachable.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Marcus, Adam Scott

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Susan Silberberg.

• Urban Studies and Planning.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/39852

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/39852