The theory and practice of community participation in provision of urban structure

[摘要] The thesis develops a new approach to community participation, for application toinfrastructure provision projects in developing cour..rles, based upon socialsurveys and case studies of negotiations in five South African communities. Existingapproaches to community participation are analysed and shown to be unsuitable forinfrastructure provision. The thesis compares the characteristics ofinfrastructure projects with those of other types of development projects anddemonstrates how these characteristics can be used to situate a given project withina project environment defined in terms of two variables: the openness ofgovernment to community involvement in decision-making, and project complexity.Social .urveys carried out in Soweto and KwaThandeka showed the centrality ofinfrastructure to social change in South Africa. Existing urban managementsystems were unable to cope with the stresses placed upon them. Four facets ofurban management were identified as being under stress: institutional capacity,legitimacy, affordability, and user convenience. These stresses cha,nge the nature ofinfrastructure provision from the supply of end products into a complex process.Central to this process are: an increased number of actors influencing C:....cisions, theenhanced role of technical professionals, and the social implications of differentlevels of service

[发布机构] University of the Witwatersrand