Community participation in housing development : the Boystown informal settlement project

[摘要] One of the problems with development planning is a lack of communityparticipation. This is due to the top-down approach that dominates developmentplanning. To improve chances of sustainable development there is a need toshift from a top-down approach towards a bottom-up approach. The bottom-upapproach promotes people-centred development. People-centred developmentfocuses on people and enhances their capacity to influence the direction andimplementation of the development process. Communities can only influence thedevelopment process through their participation.International bodies such as the United Nations and the World Bank support theconcept of community participation in development planning. The South Africanpolicy framework also provides for community participation. The change agentsshould utilise this opportunity by sharing knowledge and by learning from theindigenous knowledge of the community. This knowledge exchange between thecommunity and the change agents creates a platform for social learning, capacitybuilding and empowerment. It is through this platform that sustainabledevelopment could be achieved. This kind of development processaccommodates the building blocks of development.This study examines the level of community participation in a housingdevelopment project at the Boystown informal settlement. It was found that thereis a lack of community participation in this project and that the project could be asuccess if there is a higher level of participation by the beneficiaries.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University