Enhancing citizen engagement in urban planning processes through mobile participation (mParticipation) [original]

Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin)- Institute for Urban and Regional Planning

Enhancing Citizen En gagement in
Urban Planning Proce sses throu gh
Mobile Participation
(mParticipation)

Dissertation; DDC710; Stadtplanung

Arman Fatheja lali
First Supe rvisor: Prof. E lke Pahl-Weber
Second Supervisor: Pro f. Dr.-Ing. Kla us Selle

Enhancing C itizen Engag ement in
Urban Plann ing Processes throu gh
Mobile Partici pation (mP articipa tion)
vorgelegt v on
M.Sc.
A rman Fathejalali
geb. in Teheran
von der Fakultät VI Planen Bauen Umw elt
der Technischen Universität Berlin
zur Erlangung des akadem isc hen Grades
Doktor der Ingenieurw issenschaften
- Dr.-Ing. –
genehmigte Dissertation
Promotionsausschuss:
Vorsitzender: Prof. Dr. phil. Gabi Dolff -Bonek ämper
Gutachterin: Prof. Elke Pahl-W eber
Gutachter: Prof. Dr.-Ing . Klaus Selle
Tag der wissenschaftlichen Aussprache: 6 D ezember 2016
Berlin 2017

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

Abstract
T he Interne t as a low-thresho ld communication channel provides the po ssibilities to
exchang e knowledge , communicate with each other and a ct outside of the traditional
frameworks to nearly everybo dy around the g lobe . Therefore, digitalization process es ,
resulted b y diffusion o f information a nd communication tech nologies, might have massively
transformed th e co ntemporary u rban sett ings. The essential elemen ts in this co ntemporary
urban setting a re flow of communication and information e xchange that are happenin g
through n etworks. Recently, the widespread of smartphones and tablets wi th th eir unique
features (e.g. embedded sensors, multi -channel communication, high -spe ed m obile In ternet ,
intuitive design and portability) have changed th e interaction of citizens in and wi th the urba n
environment . Fu rthermore, the new science of cities u nd erstands cities as d ynamic se ttin g
embedde d with flows and netwo rks between individua l actors and the ur ban e nvironment,
which enta ils urban planning as a co llective proce ss. This indicates that the plan nin g
approach has experience d that beside to p-do wn approach es, b ottom-up pe rspective in
decision making p rocesses is occurring. Given th is fact, today it is no lon ger the question
whether the pu blic shou ld be involved, but rat her with which meth ods a broader spectrum of
citizens can cooperate in planning p rocesses. Thus, the pa rticipatory metho ds sho uld be
evolved aligned with th e ne w characteristics of the conte mporary urba n se ttings and utiliz e
the potentials offe red by m obile technologies to enh ance the citizen engagement processes
in urban planning . Hence, this project ’ s goal is to investigate a relatively new emerging form
of participation as Mobile Participation (mParticipation) , which refe rs to the u se of m obile
devices (mobile p hones, smart p hones a nd tablet s) in participatio n processes.
This research, at th e first step, endeavors to study the relevance , advanta ges ,
disadvan tages and specific charact eristics of mParticipation. In the next step, the influe nc e
of utilizing mobile technolog ies on communication between different acto rs, flow o f
inf ormation as well as citizens’ network (as the essentia l elemen ts in the contemporary urban
settings) are studied. Finally, th e influence o f utilizing mobile technologies (smart pho ne s
and ta blets) on the outp ut and quality of o utput is investiga ted. Doing that, a comprehensive
literature revie w on cu rrent debates in digitalizatio n in urban settings (smart cities), citizen
engag ement in u rban plann ing discourse (collabo rative planning ) a nd characteristics of
citizen engagement in the age of information and t echnolog y (electronic participation mob il e
participation) h as b een condu cted. In orde r to investigate the mParticipation from practical
aspects and processes, several mParticipation projects from USA as well as Europe ar e
evaluate d an d field tests (using F lashPoll applicatio n) are carried out in Be rlin. The se
analyses are enriched b y 15 expert interviews (from USA and Germany) . The results of thi s
research proje ct elaborate the potentia ls, li mitatio ns and characte ristics of mParticipation in
urban planning . In addition, the influences of mParticipation on info rmation flow,
communication betwee n sta keholders, the network of citizens and quality of participation
outpu ts are clarified. Alth ough, mParticipation offers ne w and un ique opportunities to u rba n
plannin g p rocesses, the results of this research shows that there is still room for knowledge
generat ion in this field of study. In addition, the continu ous technolog ical advancemen t in the
field of mob ile technolog ies shape s mParticipation field a s a dyna mic field o f research.

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

Table of Contents
Chapter I - Intr oduction ...................................................................................................................... 7
1.1 Problem rationa le ............................................................................................................. 8
1.2 State of the art and necessity for the research ................................................................ . 9
1.3 Objectives an d res earch ques t ions ................................................................................ 10
1.4 Research desi gn and method ology ................................................................................ 11
1.5 Limitation of the re search ............................................................................................... 13
Chapter II- Mobil e Participation in part ic ipatory urban plann ing of smart cities ................................ 14
2.1 Citizen participat ion in smart cities discourse as future form o f urban transfor mati on .... 15
2.1.1 Smart cities or “Buzz” w ord? Conceptu al definition s of smart cities and criticisms .... 15
2.1.2 Identifying main characteristic s and dimensio ns of smart cities ................................ . 19
2.1.3 Importance of citizen parti cip ation in smart cities ....................................................... 22
2.2 Citizen participat ion in urban plannin g: recent debates in part ic ipatory ur ban planning . 23
2.2. 1 Communicative tur n in urban planning ................................................................ ....... 23
2.2.2 Definition, ben efits, obstacl es and new di le mmas of citizen participation .................. 28
2.2.3 Levels of citi z en partic ip ation ..................................................................................... 33
2.2.4 Forms of citizen participation (Face- to -Face, ePart ic ipatio n, mParticipation) ............ 35
2.3 Citizen participat ion in the age of infor mati on and communication: ePart ic ipation ......... 36
2.3.1 Obstacles and li mitati ons of tr adi tional for m of citizen partici pati on ........................... 36
2.3.2 Networked so ciety and its im pl icati ons for participatory urban planning .................... 38
2.3.3 Definitions an d objectives of eParticip ati on ................................................................ 41
2.3.4 Tools (eTools) ............................................................................................................ 42
2.3.5 Challenges an d opportunities of ePartic ipation .......................................................... 46
2.4 Mobile Participat ion (mParticipation): Fu ture of participation? ....................................... 47
2.4.1 Ubiquity of Inter net and mobile s ociety ...................................................................... 47
2.4.2 Definition of mP articipation and related con cepts ...................................................... 47
2.4.3 Smartphones an d tablets as main element s of mParticipation .................................. 49
2.4.4 Characteristic s of mParti c ipati on ................................................................................ 51
2.4.5 Challenges an d opportunities of mParti c ipation ......................................................... 52
2.5 Summary ........................................................................................................................ 53
Chapter III- mPar ticipation pra ctic es in the real world (case s tudies ) .............................................. 55
3.1 Reviewing and an alyzing the mPartic ipation pra ctices in glo bal perspect ive ................. 56
3.2 Ty pology of the re vie wed mParticipation proje c ts .......................................................... 69
3.3 Experimenting mParticipa tion i n Berli n (testin g FlashPoll as the polling type) ............... 74

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

3.3.1 Description of FlashPoll Mobile Par ticipation Tool ..................................................... 74
3.3.2 West Moabit quarter: status quo and current deve lopment ........................................ 76
3.3.3 Implemented poll s (tests) and their res ults ................................................................ 79
3.4 Summary ........................................................................................................................ 90
Chapter IV- Anal y sis of t heoretical reflections and field experiment s .............................................. 91
4.1 Theoretical ref lection ...................................................................................................... 92
4.1.1 Expert interview s ........................................................................................................ 92
4.2 Qualitative ana lysis metho d using ATLAS.ti ................................................................ ... 94
4.3 Discussion of re sults from expert inter v iews .................................................................. 95
4.3.1 Positioning mParticipat ion in p articipatory urban p lanning discourse ........................ 95
4.3.2 mParticipation, co llaborative u rban planning and networked society ....................... 126
4.3.3 Influences of mPart icipation on partic ipation pro c ess out come ............................... 136
4.4 Discussion of fi ndi ngs fro m fi el d experiment ................................................................ 139
4.5 Summary ...................................................................................................................... 142
Chapter V- Summary, Conclusion and Reflections: mParticipation as an enhancement conc ept for
urban planning in t he new millennium ................................ ............................................................ 143
5.1 Theoretical fra mework for mP articipation in the con tex t of ur ban planning .................. 144
5.2 Co -creation as the new form of collaborati ve planni ng in the age of information and
communication .......................................................................................................................... 149
5.3 mParticipation and its implicati ons to urban p la nning pro cesses and outputs .............. 152
5.4 Critical refle ctions on mParti cipation ............................................................................ 154
5.5 Outlook: Smar t cities, sm art (and networked) ci tizens and s mart participation ............ 155
References .................................................................................................................................... 157
Annex VI ................................................................................................................................ ........ 169
6.1 Annex 1 ........................................................................................................................ 170
6.2 Annex 2 ........................................................................................................................ 173
6.3 Annex 3 ........................................................................................................................ 174
6.4 Annex 4 ........................................................................................................................ 178

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

List of Figures
Figure 1 Researc h design (process) ................................................................................................ 12
Figure 2 Frequent terms used in defi ning smart city concept .......................................................... 18
Figure 3 Distin ctions with in sm art ci ties definition s and the rol e of ICT ........................................... 18
Figure 4 Frequent ly repeated terms in describ ing dimensions of s mart cit ies ................................ . 22
Figure 5 Collabor ati ve networ k paradigm for cit izen p articipation .................................................... 32
Figure 6 Spectru m of public participation dev eloped by IAPP ......................................................... 34
Figure 7 Divers it y, interde pendence, and authenti c dialogue netw ork dynam ics ............................. 40
Figure 8 Bürgerbaut stadt project in Ber lin and Buildingeye pr oj ect in San Fra nsisco ...................... 69
Figure 9 Typology of the reviewed mPartic ip ation pra ctices ............................................................ 70
Figure 10 Lo ca lData appli cation ...................................................................................................... 71
Figure 11 Visually-r ic h and w ell-structured des ign of MetroQuest project s for tablet s ..................... 71
Figure 12 CityVoi c e project in South Bend (USA) ............................................................................ 73
Figure 13 Devel oped App in the Project Ne xtHamburg ................................................................... 73
Figure 14 General scenario of using Flas hPoll tool ......................................................................... 75
Figure 15 QM’s ar ea of West Moabit ............................................................................................... 76
Figure 16 Result of second question of the first poll ........................................................................ 81
Figure 17 Result of fi rst que stion of the first poll .............................................................................. 81
Figure 18 Result of forth question of th e first poll ............................................................................. 81
Figure 19 Result of third question of th e fi rst pol l ............................................................................. 81
Figure 20 Advertisment for the first poll for the evening event (left) and on the QM's Facebook page
(right) ............................................................................................................................................... 82
Figure 21 Resul t of fifth que stion of the first poll ............................................................................. 82
Figure 22 Neighb orhood celebration a nd Fl ashP oll pro moti on ....................................................... 83
Figure 23 Promot in g FlashPo ll on Facebook pag e o f QM We s t Moabit ......................................... 84
Figure 24 Resul t of first qu estion of the sec ond poll ....................................................................... 84
Figure 25 Resul t of third que stion of the second poll ...................................................................... 85
Figure 26 Resul t of second q uestion of the second p ol l ................................................................ . 85
Figure 27 Resul t of fourth que s tion of the sec ond po ll .................................................................... 85
Figure 28 Resul t of sixth ques ti on of the se c ond poll ...................................................................... 85
Figure 29 Promoting FlashPoll on the Face book page of Q M East Moabit and information flyers on
the education fest iv al ....................................................................................................................... 87
Figure 30 Inform ation flyer s translat ed to Arabic a nd German with new de sign .............................. 87
Figure 31 Theoret ic al di lemma s of the resear ch .............................................................................. 92
Figure 32 Mix of par ticipation method s based on comple xity/time ................................................. 147
Figure 33 mParti cipation t ypology and cit izen parti cipation le vel ................................................... 148
Figure 34 Contribut ion of mParticipation t y pology t o di fferent urban planning steps ..................... 153

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

List of Tables
Table 1 Disad v antages of citizen participation in governm ent decision-making .............................. 30
Table 2 Compari ng Habermas and Caste lls Theories ..................................................................... 39
Table 3 Project c riteria ..................................................................................................................... 57
Table 4 Techn ology criteria .............................................................................................................. 61
Table 5 Citizen parti cipation criteria ................................................................................................ . 64
Table 6 Age stru c ture of the W est Moabit quarter b y 2012 .............................................................. 77
Table 7 Informa tion sum mary table of the fir st poll .......................................................................... 83
Table 8 Informa tion sum mary table of the s econd poll .................................................................... 86
Table 9 Informa tion sum mary table of the th ird poll ......................................................................... 89
Table 10 Distribution of the codes under enhancement of c itizen participati on (ENHCE C P) c ategor y
across the interv ie ws ....................................................................................................................... 96
Table 11 Co-occ urrence tabl e of code s with t he code #smart phone for CP .................................... 98
Table 12 Distribution of the codes under characteristics of contemporary cit izens (CHRCH CITZ)
category across t he i ntervi ews ......................................................................................................... 99
Table 13 Distribution of the codes under eParticipation vs mParticipation (EP VS MP) category across
the interviews ................................................................................................ ................................ . 100
Table 14 Distribution of the codes under advantage of mParticipation (ADV MP) category across the
interviews ................................................................................................ ....................................... 103
Table 15 Distribution of the codes under disadvantage and challenges of mParticipati on (DISAD V
MP) category a c ross the intervi ews ............................................................................................... 110
Table 16 Distribution of the codes under characteristics of mParticipation (CHRC H MP) category
across the interv ie ws ..................................................................................................................... 116
Table 17 Co-occ urrence tabl e of code s with t he code charch mp: convenient p articipation .......... 118
Table 18 Co-occurrence table of codes with the code charch mp: participation on the go/everywhere
....................................................................................................................................................... 120
Table 19 Co-occurrence table of codes with the code charch mp: geo -centric/sit e
specific/embe dded/context ............................................................................................................ 121
Table 20 Co-occurrence table of codes with the code charch mp: richer engagement -media rich
(enhanced with g eo and new information) ..................................................................................... 122
Table 21 Co-occ urrence tabl e of code s with t he code charch mp: participation on demand ......... 123
Table 22 Co-occ urrence tabl e of code s with t he code charch mp: timeliness participa tion ........... 124
Table 23 Co-occurrence table of codes with the code charch mp: quick and immediate (real -time)
....................................................................................................................................................... 125
Table 24 Distribut ion of the codes under communi cation between actors (COM ACTORS) categor y
across the interv ie ws ..................................................................................................................... 127
Table 25 Distribution of the codes under flow of information (FLOW INFO) category across the
interviews ................................................................................................ ....................................... 130
Ta ble 26 Distribution of the codes under network of citizen (NETWORK OF CITIZE N) category across
the interviews ................................................................................................ ................................ . 133
Table 27 Distribution of the codes under quality of engagement (QUL ENG) category across the
interviews ................................................................................................ ....................................... 136
Table 28 Definit io ns of smart city and the used key word s ............................................................. 170

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

Acknow ledgement
First and foremost, I wou ld like to express my sincere gratitude to my fir st advisor Prof. Elke
Pahl-Weber, who has supported me during my Ph D. I appreciate all her contribution s of time,
ideas and immense kno wledge. Her guidance helped m e in a ll the time of resea rch a nd
writing of this thesis. Her valuab le inputs increased the quality of this rese arch. I have alway s
been grateful to work with her. Moreove r, I would like to th ank my seco nd advisor Prof. Klaus
Selle for his insightf ul an d cr itical fee dback, en couragement and support specifically in the
last steps o f finalizing th is dissertation.
My sincere thanks also go t o all of my colleagues at the Cente r for Techno logy a nd Society
(CTS) of TU B erlin, who have contribute d immensely to my p erson al and profession al time
at TU B erlin. I would like to th ank Dr. Gabriele Wen dorf a nd Dr. Wulf -Holger Arnd t for
providing me a n opportunity to join the ir institute as PhD rese archer. They gene rously he lpe d
me with providing the requ ired research facil ities as well as financial supports in th e las t
months o f my Ph D. I th ank my colleag ue Norman Döge fo r his en dless supp ort, valuable
inputs, keeping me motivated in th e process of writing this thesis, and for all th e fun we have
had in the last four ye ars. I should thank th e membe rs of the resea rch u nit “Mobility an d
Space” one more time, as this group has been a so urce of friendships as well as go od advice
and co llaboration.
I appreciate all the continuo us supp ort of Dr. An gela Jain. In the case stu dy pha se o f my
PhD p roject, sh e provided me with the oppo rtunity to test the FlashPoll app in Berlin.
Specifically, in the last p hases of my PhD, she motiva ted me to follow my go als and to finish
this work. My since re th anks also go to Dr. Stefa n Höffken and Chris Haller, who have
inspired me with th eir ideas and inputs on the topic of Mobile Participation. In addition, I
would like to thank all of the experts from USA and Germany for their dedicated time fo r the
interviews.
I gratefu lly acknowledg e the fu nding so urces that made my P hD work p ossible. I was funde d
by the Ge rman Academic Excha nge Service (DAAD) scholarship for 4 years. Without their
support, I could not achieve my go al.
I wou ld a lso th ank my friends, Julianna Iran and Gordo n Jamerson for ta king their va luabl e
time to review my the sis.
Last bu t not the least, I would like to thank my Sami, my belove d patient and be autiful wife,
who supp orted me in e very ste ps of my PhD project. During th e sleepless n ights and
stressful d ays, she was always t here. Thanks a lot. I am su re without her, this PhD w ou l d
have been taken l onger.

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

Chapter I - Introduction

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

1.1 Problem ra ti onale
It is clear that th e twe nty -first centu ry can b e ca lled the urba n century as a large prop ortio n
of po pulation will be living in major u rban agglomeration s, which are th e hub of eco nomi c
activities (Pahl-Webe r and Schwartze 2014). This ca lls researchers to investig ate variety of
topics regarding u rban areas. During the last several ye ars, th e concep t of smart cities has
received considerab le attention from researchers (in th e field of urban developmen t), urban
autho rities as well a s private companies. This has influenced the de bate o n th e future of
urban development not only in develop ed countries, but also in deve loping countries (e.g.
100 Smar t Cities Prog ram in India) . A nthony M. Townsend (20 13) explain s the importance
of sm art city concept in light o f u rbanization and ub iquity of Interne t. He underlines three
historic th resholds th at globa l civilization rea ched by 200 8. First, urban pop ulation equal ed
the rural po pulation of the World declared by the United Nat ion. Second, for the first time,
the nu mber of Inte rnet users beaming d own over the a irwaves excee ded those using ca ble
connectio ns. This means the nu mber of mob ile cellular broa dband subscribers exceede d the
fixed-DSL, cable or fiber -optic lines. The explanatio n for th is shift is basically the rapid sprea d
of cheap mobile de vices in the developing world, a s th e mobile web has already won against
the fixed Inte rnet conn ections. The transition away from wired devices is almost completed
and the mobile p hone is the most successfu l electronic device of all times. The last point is
the transformation of the Internet of pe ople to the In ternet of Things (IoT), as there a re more
and more sensors a nd networked devices con nected to the In ternet , th at communicate a
huge vo lume of data throug h cyberspace. Thus, t he essential element s in this contempo rar y
urban setting are flow of communication and information excha nge tha t are ha ppenin g
through networks (Caste lls, 1996 ) . Given th e Inte rnet as a low-thresh old communication
channe l, nearly everybody aroun d th e globe can insta ntly and permanently exch an ge
information and knowledge with othe rs (Drohsel e t al., 2010) . This ha s resulted in humans’
abilities to share an d act in a collective way outside th e institutio nal and organizational
frameworks of traditions (Shirky, 200 8) a nd ind epende nt of th e locatio n. The mentioned
processes go unde r the umbrella o f the digitalization process, which influen ce d th e
transformation o f cities and urba n societies to wards smart cities and mobile society.
In parallel, the urban planning a pproaches as a tool or process to plan and design th e cities
has bee n transformed du ring the last d ecades. This transformation can b e seen fro m the
perspective of how the way we u nderstand cities — or scien ce o f cities. The systematic view
on cities was deve loped n early ha lf a century ago, in which cities are defined as a collecti on
of differen t entities, inte racting with each other in a balanced situation . This view brought
about a mentality tha t cities can be controlled, plann ed and managed wi th top - dow n force s.
The sho rtcomings of th is close d view were soon identified as scho lars und erstood that cities
are more th an just mechanical systems (Batty, 2013). The rise of the sciences of complexity
altered the to p-down view of the systems the ory to a b ottom -up view. In this late r view, cities
are co nsidered as biological syste m, which is open an d ba sed on dyn amic evolution ar y
processes (Portugali, 2000 ). This ch ange in fo cus is later demonstrated in the new planni ng
theories in which plan ning is reg arded as a proce ss of lea r ning with a larger group of
individuals (community) and later as a p rocess o f argumen tation and nego tiation which

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

became the d ominant contempo rary planning the ory (Forest er, 200 9; Healey, 1997 ) . The
reasons for d oubting the certa inty o f scientific rationa lity in dealing with cities were t he
apparen t failure of th e system atic approa ch in defin ing a con trollable base for p lanning
theories in combinatio n with the discrepancy existing betwee n the ory a nd practice as well
as problems and solut ions. Therefore, a view of planning incorpo rating the complexity of
pluralism in cities, un certainty in urban systems and va luing the ability of society in solving
problems ha s become an accepted no rm. Th erefore, the new science o f cities understands
cities a s dyn amic setting embe dded with flo ws and networks betwe en individual actors and
the urba n environmen t. In th is sense, p lanning of cities is collective a ction rat her than
individual actio n, which m eans that con sensus about the future of a city must be reache d by
pooling diversity o f opinio ns (Ba tty, 20 13) . This transformation p rocess in urban plann i ng
from master plann ing (systematic view) to collaborative p lanning (network view) has yielded
to th e dominanc e of participato ry u rban p lanning in rece nt decades. Hen ce, today it is no
longer the que stion whe ther the public shou ld be involved, but rather how a nd with which
methods a broader sp ectrum of citizens ca n participate in planning processes.
During the last de cade, urban au thoriti es, plann ers a nd researchers h ave tried to use the
vast opp ortunities offered by Information and Communication Technolog ies (ICT) in order to
deal with th e challenge s of current participatory meth ods and align citize n participation wi th
the society’s cha ng e. Therefore, th e notion of E lectronic Participation (e Participation ) has
been d eveloped and n ow is being more applied in real world projects. Among all ICT
possibilities an d techno logy forms, mobile techno logies (smartphone s, tablet s) a re often
cited as th e pion eers of fu ture techno logies in various fields. In the con text of smart cities,
mobile techno logies are kn own as an inseparab le part of citizen s’ urba n life, which in the
meantime, provide va st o pportunities for real - ti me data co llection as well as p articipatio n.
These new forms of co llaborative social interact ion (as ge tting mobile) h ave revolution ize d
our information and knowledge so ciety and call for a fundamental ch ange in the
governmen t’s approach toward more collab orative and b ottom-up principles. As a relatively
new emerging term, Mobile Participation (mParticipation) refers to the use of mobile de vices
(e.g. mobile p hones, smart ph ones a nd tablet s) in participation processes. Therefo re, this
project fo cuses on these type s of ICT and aims to inve stigate the cha nces offe red by mobile
techno logies (smartphones and ta blets) for en gaging citizens in th e plann ing of smart cities
and overcoming the barriers and cha llenges of tra ditional citizen p articipation .
1.2 State of the art and necess it y for the resea rch
During th e last d ecade, a grea t de al of e xperience ha s bee n gathered in the field of
eParticipatio n in research and practice. For instance , th e d efini tion o f eP articipation an d its
relation to other conce pts (Tambouris et al. , 2007b; Macint osh, 20 04, 2 006; OECD, 2003;
Albrecht et al. , 2008) , the opportu nities of eParticipation for mobilizing citizens in u rban
governan ce p rocesses and enh ancing transpa rency o f decision -making proce sse s
(Surowiecki, 2005; Noveck, 2009; Smith et al. , 2009; W eber et al. , 2003; Gibso n e t al. , 2005;
Boulianne , 2009 ; Bekkers and Homb urg, 2007; Seifert and Peterson, 2002) , e asy
implementation an d co st-effe ctiveness of eParticipation (Shirky, 2 008; Noveck, 2009) a s well
as the cha llenges and bar riers of eParticipation (Silva, 20 13) are well researched.

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

However, a s an emerging field in the participatio n d iscourse, mParticipation lines of research
are limited in number. Most of the literature is reports and con ference papers, which focus
on de fining mParticipation and exp lore mobile a p ps possibilities in urba n deve lopment and
participation discourse (Ertiö, 2 013; Lahti et al. , 200 6b; Drohsel e t a l. , 2010 ; Höffken and
Streich, 2011; Wimmer et al. , 2013) . On ly a few b ook chapte rs and articles in scien tific
journals exists (e.g. Höffken and Streich, 2013; Evans -Cowley, 2 011b; D esouza and
Bhagwat war, 20 12; Ertiö, 20 15; Ertiö a nd Ruoppila, 201 4) . For instan ce, Höffken and Streic h
(2013) de scribe mParticipation concep t and some related co ncepts in a ch apter. More
recently, Ertiö (2015 ) catego rizes the participato ry a pps in th e conte xt of urban plan ning and
their co ntribution to pa rticipation research . In an other pap er, Klein hans an d his colleag ue s
(2015) explore social media and m obile technolog ies in urban planning . The se recent article s
indicate the growing attention toward s mParticipation in urban plan ning as a dynamic fiel d
of research. Neve rtheless, th ey d id not deeply investig ate this topic from plan ning theory
perspectives . This shows a clea r need for th is research in o rder to fill this ga p.
1.3 Objective s and res earch questi ons
The main objective of th is research is to study mPa rticipation (as a fo rm of p articipation in
smart cities) from urban p lanning perspective . By fo cusing on the oretical and practical
aspects , its po ssible influen ces on the recent urban plann ing discourse is exp lored. From
the theo retical b ackground, this project focuses on collaborative planning (Inne s and Booher ,
Pasty Healey) b ased on Hab ermas theory of co mmunicative actions and th e theo ry of
in formation age an d network societ y by Castell .
Given the limited lines of research on mParticipatio n fro m the planning pe rspective, the first
research que stion is focuse d o n exploring mParticipation from the urba n plannin g
perspective. Therefore, the first research question (RQ1) is how mP articipation is
positioned in participa tory urban pla nning dis course? In order to an swer this rese arch
question , themes such as the relevan ce o f mParticipation , ad vantage s and disadva nta ges
of mParticipation as well as spe cific cha racteristics of mParticipation are investigate d.
The importance of citizen participation in th e conte xt of smart cities has be en emphasized in
previous studies (e.g. Albino et al. , 2015). Furthermore, mobile te chnologies are inseparab le
parts of smart cities. Therefore, th e second research qu estion (RQ2), which is de dicated to
exploring the eff ect o f mobile techn ologies on pa rticipatory u rban plan ning, a sks how can
mobile technologies (smartphones and tablets) support participatory urban pla nnin g
in the contemporary urban settings (smart cities) ? To answer this q uestion, the influenc e
of utilizing mobile technolog ies on communication between different acto rs, flow o f
information as well as citizen s’ network is stu died.
The outcome of participatory urban planning processes is an im p ortant aspect an d hav e
been investigate d by different scholars. However, the effect o f using ICT ( specifically mobil e
techno logies) can resu lt in diffe rent quality of ou tputs or even provide new kind s o f ou tput .
Therefore, th e last research questio n (RQ3 ) is focused on how c an utilizing mobile
technologies (sma rt phones a nd tablets) inf luence the output of citizen participa tio n
in urban planning proce sses?

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

1.4 Rese arch design and methodolo g y
This research project is an exploratory rese arch, as it endeavo rs to d etermine the
mParticipation p ossibilities, challenge s and its implication s for collabo rative plann ing in the
age of ICT. Howe ver, e mpirical research in form s of a ca se study and experiments has been
conducte d in order to generat e p rimary data and add expe rience s from th e field. A range of
seconda ry resources (library resea rch, In ternet sea rch, e tc.) an d p rimary resources are
gathe red in data collection step. From the method ological pe rspective, this research is
designe d to b e a qua litative research. E xpert interview an d case study methods are use d for
gathe ring information. In to tal, 15 expert interviews were conducte d during t he p roject. The
collected d ata fro m expe rt inte rviews is an alyzed with th e ATLAS.t i software , which is a
computer to ol for q ualitati ve analysis and is used in d ifferent resea rch field s . The case stu dy
of this project is one mParticipatio n application s called “ Flashpoll ” , which is de veloped in the
Center for Techno logy and S ociety of Technische Universität Berlin. Three tests (polls) ha ve
been co nducted in the area of West Moab it Berlin within a period of four months.
Figure 1 sh ows the research design. Fir st, an exte nsive li terature review h as been conduct ed
on th e top ics of smart cities, collaborative urban plann ing, citizen pa rticipation, eParticipatio n
and mParticipa tion in orde r to fo rm a theoretical framework for the research. Here , the focus
of the literature review part is mostly on English a nd German literature . This literature review
provides th e backgrou nd information a nd related th eories an d concep ts for next research
steps. The literature review is followed b y a co mprehensive study on existing examples of
mParticipation and previous resea rch projects (mostly fro m the USA). Th ese e xamples a r e
systematically an alyzed acco rding to a set of criteria related to the proje ct characte ristic s,
technical features and citizen participation asp ects. This provides an overview on the current
status qu o of mParticipation proje cts with focus on urban plan ning. Ba sed o n th is initial
overview, a typology of mPa rticipation is develop ed that is later u sed in th e further
discussion.
In the n ext ste p, the Flashpo ll is te sted in the West Moabit area in Berlin in order to
investigate the challeng es an d op portunities in the real world. The empirical expe rience s
gathe red fro m this case study an d implemented te sts p rovide an ad ded value to the research
project. In parallel, expert int erviews are co n ducted in orde r to gen erate information and
knowledge fo r d escribing the mParticipation concept and its implications for collaborat i ve
urban plann ing in the ag e of ICT. The de tail information on th e expert inte rviews will be
elaborate d in section 4.1 .1 .
Finally, the results are analyzed , d iscussed and interpret ed in the last ch apter. The exper t
interviews are analyzed using ATLAS.ti software, which its details of analysis are described
in se ction 4.3. Base d on th e interpretatio ns and discussions from the previous step in
addition to th e comparison with wha t is found from th e literatu re review, the con clusions and
outcomes of this resea rch are generated. The main outcomes of this research are formulated

# M ob ile P ar ticipatio n in Ur ba n Pl an ning Discour se

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

Figure 1 Rese arch design (process )

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

in three asp ects: a th eoretical framework for mParticipation in the context of urban planning,
mParticipation and the new dilemm as o f collaborative planning as well a s implications of
mParticipation fo r urban plan ning processes and outpu ts. These three asp ects incorporate
the a nswers of th e three research qu estions.
1.5 Limitation o f the res earch
The general topics o f this rese arch a re smart cities, collaborative urban planning, ICT
suppo rted citizen participation (e/ mParticipation). Howeve r, the main fo cus is on
mParticipation conce pt specifically in the conte xt of urban planning. Therefore, th e exa mples
reviewed in this rese arch are e xamples from urba n p lanning field. This e xcludes mobile
application s an d projects relate d to other topics such as mobility, governan ce, urban
managemen t, environmenta l plan ning, etc. Hence, a limited lite rature is use d this resea rch.
Anothe r limitation of this research is related to the languag e o f the existing rese arch. The
literature review covered mostly inte rnational (En glish) mate rials (specifically in the sm art
cities d ebates), which to so me exten t excludes German literat ure. However, th e researcher
endea vors to redu ce this limitation by adding a few but important works of German literature
as well as by in terviewing experts fro m Germany.
In terms of the expert interviews, the first lim itation was the lack of possibility for cond uctin g
face-to face interviews. As most of the experts working in the same or sim ilar field of research
as this stu dy are living across th e world and most o f the time in th e USA, the rese archer
could not conduct face - to -face interviews. In a ddition, th e ti me difference betwe en countries
was an incon venien ce for th e arrangemen t of meetin g at a time, which suite d both the
researcher an d int erviewee. Such geograp hical lim ita tions might have influe nced the quality
of the interviews.
Anothe r limitation is th e lack of interviews with citizens and urban auth orities as another
group o f acto rs involved in mParticipation p rocesses. This limitation was due to the requ ire d
time and workload, which were out of the scope of this resea rch. Moreover, as an exploratory
research based on qualitative methods, th e focu s of this work is on exp loring possibilities,
challenge s, an d implication s of mParticipation in citizen participation, collaborative plannin g
and smart cities. Therefore, the co nclusions should be tested furthermo re in othe r cases.

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

Chapter II - Mobile
Participation in
participatory urban
planning of smart cities

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

2
2.1 Citizen partic ip at ion in smart cit ies discour se as future form o f
urban transform atio n
This sectio n investigate s the developmen t of the smart cities discourse du ring the last
decade s in order to highligh t important aspects of this conce pt. Doing th at, the defin ition of
smart cities, the critical discussions as well as the main cha racteristics an d dimensions a re
reviewed an d investigate d.
2.1.1 Smar t cities or “Buzz” word? Concep tual definition s of smart cities
and criticism s
The concept of the smart city h as b een fashionable in the po licy arena in the last two decades
and has inf luenced the de bate on the futu re of urban de velopment in ma ny Western
countries (Carag liu et a l. , 2 011; Hollands, 2008; Coe et al. , 2001; Komnino s, 2002;
Paskaleva, 2 009; Albino et a l. , 2015) . The term “ smart city ” was first used in the 1990s, when
the fo cus of th is con cept was on th e significance o f th e new ICT with rega rd to mode r n
infrastructures with in cities. The California Institu te for Smart Com munities was among the
pionee rs to start fin ding ways on how communitie s cou ld become smart and find design
prerequisites for a city to e mbed ICT (Alawadh i et a l. , 2012) . Later, the Cen ter of Governance
at the Universi ty of Ottawa cri ticized the idea of smart cities as being too techn ical-oriented .
In con trast, the y believe d tha t the smart city should have a stro ng governa nce -orien ted
approach , which underline s the role of social capita l an d relations in urban develop men t.
The “ smart city” label spread vastly in the first year s of th e cu rrent century as an “ u rban
labeling” pheno menon (Albino et al. , 2015) .
Accordingly, numerous cities in different countries are appo inted as smart, while
emphasizing differen t sco pes. For instance , ICTs are majorly conside red as elemen ts in
safegu arding the success of San Diego as a “City o f the Future” , while the “Smart
Communities” initiative in Canad a was finan ced th rough the industry including Ottawa’s
“Sm art Capital” project, which encompassed enha ncing busine ss, loca l governmen t and
comm unities’ use of Interne t resources (Hollands, 2008) . In Europe, the Amsterda m Smart
City initiative conce ntrated on the importance of collaboration between the citizens, the
governmen t and b usinesses to de velop s mart projects in order to save en ergy. The city of
Edinburgh council elabo rated a smart city vision and an a ction plan fo r government
transformation . Another e xample is Malta city that promotes a “business park” in order to
increase econo mic growth (Paska leva, 201 1; Caragliu et al. , 2011) . In sou th-east A sia,
Singapo re targeted an “Intelligen t Isla nd” with its IT20 00 plan , which a pplies inf ormation
techno logy to t ransform work, life and play (Wei Choo, 199 7) .
Yet, rese archers b elieve that “smart city” as a label is a fuzzy con cept and they attempt to
scrutinize th e background of th is concept (Nam and Pardo, 201 1, Caragliu et al. , 20 11, 2011;
Hollands, 2 008; Dea kin an d Al Waer, 2 011; Albin o et al. , 2015) . Robe rt Hollan ds (200 8) is
one of the first resea rchers, who criticized self-con gratulatory and self -designated nature of
smart city concept in his article ‘Wil l the real smart city please sta nd up?’. He explains three
difficulties in defin ing smart city. Fir st of all, it is difficult to diffe rentiate b etween ne w city

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

discourses like smart, intelligent, innovative, wired, digital, creative, and cultural as they ofte n
borrow one anoth er’s assumptions and sometimes they even conflate with each other.
Second ly, such urba n lab elling is mostly used for marketing purpose s rathe r than for
providing actua l a nd need ed infrast ructures to foster the concept. Finally, many o f these
terms often co nvey a natural impression of a positive and rather uncritical stance towards
urban developmen t. Therefore, the que stio n is: which city do es not inten d to be smart,
intelligent, cre ative or cultural? (Holland s, 2008)
In ad dition to these definition al p rob lems, Hollands mainly argue s th at t he focu s on the
develop ment of the new technological and networked inf rastructures may lea d to
underest imati ng of th e possible negative effects o f such te chnologies. Furthermore, the
prejudice against the smart city discourse may strategically result in ignoring oth er promising
alternative s app roaches toward u rban develop ment (Hollands, 200 8). Carag liu and his
colleague s criticize th e smart city concept in relation to the previo us econo mics and plannin g
approach es. They took the critique s of Holland s to the next level and tried to quan tify the
ranking of smart cities in Eu rope acco rding to six axes connect ing with traditional regional
and n eoclassical theo ries of urban g rowth and developmen t (Carag liu et al. , 2011).
Paskaleva (2011) critically reviews Europea n tre nds to wards smart cities in the conte xt of
open innova tion as the social rela ted aspect of the smart city co ncept . She emphasizes the
considerab le effect of open innovatio n -driven ap proach es on creating smart cities in Europe ,
however, it is still ne eded to develop the levers to enable more effective implementa tion of
the strategies (Paskaleva, 2011) . In anoth er study, Dea kin and A l Wae r reflect upo n the
existing an xieties o ver the smart city conce pt refe rring to Holland s’ criticisms. In pa rticular,
they ag ree with Hollan ds that su ch d evelopments h ave focuse d more o n meeting the
corporate n eeds of marketing campaigns rather than the social int elligence required for the
cities to b e smart. Therefo re, th ey consider th e smart city discourse as a transition of the
intelligent city debate . They emphasize the role of e -learning platforms, knowledge tran sfer,
and ca pacity building togeth er with th e networks of inn ovation and creative partn ership s
(Deakin and A l Waer, 2011) .
Alongside the afo rementioned cri tiq ues abo ut th e smart city, th ere is ano ther co ncern . The
smart city agen da and associated tech nologies are being dominated and overtly shaped by
a number of the world’s largest software services a nd hardware companies (e.g. IBM, Cisco
Systems, and Siemen s AG), who view city governance a s a large, long -term potential market
for their p roducts (Greenfield, 2013 ; Townsend , 2013 ) . Their approa ch has rece ntly been
critiqued by a uthors such as Adam Greenfield . He argues (20 13) that “corporate -designed
cities such as So ngdo (Korea ), Masdar City (UAE), or PlanIT Valley (Portugal) eschew actual
knowledge abo ut how cities function and represent “empty” space s that disregard th e valu e
of complexity, unplann ed scena rios , and the mixed uses o f urban sp ace” (Greenfie ld, 2 013;
Albino et al. , 2015, p. 6). Schaffers e t a l. similarly note that ‘‘smart city solut ions are cu rrently
more vendor push th an city government pull base d’’, with compa nies working to build
working relationships, p ut in place favourable market conditions, divert fu nding stre ams and
create p ublic –private p artnerships” (Schaff ers et al. , 2011, p. 437) .

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

In spite of all th ese critical views on the smart city co ncept, several scholars have attempted
to show th at technolog y could be deployed in cities in orde r to empower citizens by adap tin g
those te chnologies to their need s rat her than ch anging the ir routine lives according to
techno logical requ irements (Vanolo, 2014 ; Kitchin, 2014; Deakin and Al Waer, 201 1; Eger,
2009) . Doing that, scholars have tried to illustrate th e smart city concep t in the last two
decade s. Tracing th e g enealog y of th e word smart in th e label smart city, Nam and Pardo
(2011) study th e ap plication of the term “sm art” in literatu re according to different conte xts .
In the marketing conte xt, “smart” is more user -friendly th an intelligent, which is li mited to
having a q uick mind and being responsive to feedba ck; therefore, the smart city had to a dapt
itself to u ser nee ds and provide cu stomized interface s (Marsá-Maestre et al. , 2 008; Nam
and Pardo, 2011, p. 283).
In th e tech nology context, smartness similarly reflects on automatic compu ting principle s like
self-configurat ion, self-healing , self -protection, an d self -optimization (Sp angler e t al. , 20 10 ;
Nam and Pardo, 2011 , p. 283 ) . In th is sense, smart homes, smart buildings, an d larger smart
units like airports, ho spitals or u niversity campu ses are provided with a variety of mob ile
terminals and embedd ed de vices as well as con nected senso rs (Klein and Kaefer, 2008) .
Scaling up su ch units, Yo vanof and Hazapis defin e smart ecosystems as a co nceptual
extension of smart sp ace fro m the personal conte xt to the large r community a nd th e entire
city (Yovanof and Hazapis, 2009) . In addition to these te rminological asp ects o f the smart
city co ncept, Albino and his co lleagues recently inve stigate d the different definition s and
meanings that were given to the co ncept of smart city by different scholars since the
millennium.
The different definitions p resented in Anne x 1, underline an important turn of the focus of the
smart city concep t. Hence , the smart city conce pt ha s no longer the sole focus on the
deploymen t o f ICT within city, but it also conside rs the ne eds of citizens and urban
communities as well as environmenta l conce rns. In oth er words, the diffu sion of the ICT in
cities sh ould contribu te to improving o peration of e very su bsystem of a city, aiming at
enhan cing the q uality o f life of th e citizens (Batty e t al. , 2012) .
The va rious keywords that are used in de scribing the smart city con cept additiona lly highligh t
the fre quent use of te rms such as “ICT de ployment”, “connectivity of city infrastructure
(interconnecte dness)”, “quality of life” , “economic development”, “ optimized reso urc e
usage”, “sustainability and environmen tal sensibility” , “innovatio n and creative economy”,
“human a nd social capita l” , “governance a nd pa rticipation of citizens”. Su ch diverse terms
with differen t th eoretical and practical p rerequisites emphasize a gain the fact that the sm art
city conce pt is still ambigu ous and borrows all the attribu tes of concep ts like digital cities,
intelligent cities, crea tive cities and sustainab le cities (wha t the scholars had cri ticized a bout
smart cities).

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

Figure 2 Frequent t erms used in defin ing smart city con cept

However, taking a deep er look a t the defin itions, two distinct but related comprehen sion s
are identifiab le as to what make s a city to be smart (Figure 3). On th e o ne side, the smart
city notion deals with pervasive an d ubiqu itous computing and digita lly instrumen ted d evices
built into the very fabric o f urba n en vironments a s so called ‘everyware’ (Kitchin, 2014;
Greenfield, 20 06) . Such everywares utilize the monitoring and managing of urban
processes, also in real -time, a nd provide en gagement an d naviga tion opportun ities for man y
citizens in order to int eract with city via using mobile computing (e.g. smart pho nes). It is
debate d that interconne cting, integ rating and analyzing the info rmation p roduced by these
various forms of eve ryware, contribute to a b etter and smarter u nderstand ing of the city
which results in en hancing the efficiency and sustainability (Han cke et al. , 2013; Townsend,
2013) . Therefore, e veryware works to make a city more controllab le in ne w, more fine -
grained, dynamic a nd interconnecte d ways which ‘‘improve[s] the performance and de livery
of public services while supporting a ccess and participation . ’’ (Allwinkle and Cruickshank,
2011, p. 2; Kit chin, 2014, p. 2)

Smart Cities
Definitions

Ubiquitous computing, d igitally instru mented

and interconnected devices (everyware)
Development of a kn owledge econo my

driven by innov ation, creat ivity and s mart
people

FOCUS POIN T

Manage, monitor an d c ontrol t he city

performance
Mobilize and en hance human capital,
education, econo mi c deve lopment
and governance

ROLE OF ICT

Figure 3 Dist inctions within smart cities d efinition s and the role of ICT (ad apted from Kit chin, 2014)

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

On the other side, the concept of a smart city as a whole is seen to rely on the development
of a knowledge eco nomy within a city -region (Ko urtit et al. , 2012). In this read ing, economy
and governance of a smart city is being driven by innovat ion , creativity and en trepreneurship ,
act ed ou t via smart people. In such circumstan ces, the role of ICT is considered centra l a s
the basis for mobilizing an d realizing ideas and innova tive solut ions. In particular, ICT is
applied here in conjunctio n with human and social capital and wider economic policy in order
to leverag e growth an d manage urban develop ment. As Kitchin (2014) embraces “whereas
the first vision of a sm art city focuse s on ICT and its use in managing and reg ulating the city
from a largely technocratic and techn ological perspective , the second encompa sses policies
related to hu man capital, e ducation, econ omic develop ment and gove rnance and h ow they
can be enhance d by ICT.” (Kitchin, 2014, p. 2)
Finally, for many resea rchers and experts, there is actually no differen ce between intelligent
and smart cities. Many acade mics and leading consultan cies do n ot distinguish between the
definiti on s o f the te rms “intelligent” and “smart” (Komnino s, 20 02, 2008 ) . However, some
academics bear in mind that “for smart cities the cap acities that intelligent cities have sought
to develop over the past twenty years or so be come th e techni ca l platform for their
application across a host of se rvice -related domains. For it is here and at th is stage of
develop ment that the point of empha sis and interven tion begins to shift from innova tion to
application , from the ba ck-office to front -line services, a nd in policy terms, the emphasis also
shifts from th e co rporate to th e civic, from the market to th e community, and from the
bureaucrat ic administration of the eco nomy to a liberal democratic g overnance.” (Allwinkle
and Cruicksha nk, 2011, p. 9)
2.1.2 Identi fying main cha racteristics a nd dimensions of smart cities
As it was discussed in section 2 .1.1, many scholars claimed th at it is hard to a gree on a
universal d efinition for smart city co ncept; therefore, they have been trying to illustrate it
through th e charact eristics that are relate d to a smart city. Some rese archers refer to the
concept of intelligent cities in identifying the cha racteristics of smart city (Hollands, 2008;
Deakin a nd Al Waer, 201 1). Ko minos (2002 ; 20 08) accordingly ide ntifies fo ur main
characteristics for int elligent cities:
 the application of a wide range of electronic and digita l te chnologies to
communities and cities,
 the use of information technolog ies to transfo rm life and work within a region,
 the embe dding of such ICTs in the city,
 the territorialization of such practices in a way that b ring ICTs and people
togeth er, so a s to enha nce the inn ovation, learning , knowledg e , and problem
solving which th ey offer.
Furthermore, Robert Holland s (20 08) is among the first auth ors, who h as tried to unwrap the
concept of smart city. He points out six main characte ristics for smart city. The characte risti c
is the deployment of netwo rked infrastructure in order to increase eco nomic an d political
efficiency while facilitating social, cultural, and urban developmen t. The second

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

characteristic is an un derlying stress on bu siness-led urban de velopmen t. In other words,
the neo libe ral urban spaces and business friendly city would aim at encou raging the
establishment of new bu sinesses. The third is a principal goal to ach ieve the social inclusion
of various urban residents in pub lic services. It means a ttention of researchers and policy
maker should be given to the equitab le u rban growth within smart cities. The forth aspect is
an emphasis on the crucial eff ect and the role of high -tech an d crea tive ind ustries in long -
run ur ba n growth . This aspect, which relies o n Richard Florida’s research, indicates that
future smart cities that want to succe ed must aim at a ttracting the creative pe ople (Florida
named them the wave of th e fu ture). The fift h cha racteristic is the p rofound a t te ntion to the
role of social and relationa l capital in urban d evelopment. A smart city will b e a city who s e
community has learned to lea rn, ada pt, and inn ovate. P eople need to be able to use
techno logy in order to benefit from it. Finally, social and envi ron mental sustainability are
seen as major strategic componen ts of smart cities. The re is no doubt that un balanced urban
develop ment in a situa tion resources a re sca rce, may e ndange r the life of future ge nerations
not on ly in urban a gglomeration s, b ut also in rural areas.
In summ ary, Paskaleva (2011) cate gorizes previous discussio ns on characteristics of smart
cities into th ree main group s:
 Th e level of exploitatio n of networked inf rastructure for improving economic and
political e fficiency and e nabling social, cu ltural and u rban develop ment. The
term inf rastructure signifies business services, leisure an d lifestyle services,
housing and ICTs, an d conne ctivity is foreseen as the so urce of growth .
 A vision and a strategy fo r crea ting th e competitive city . In this perspective, a
smart city uses the opp ortunities offered by ICTs to increase local prosperity
an d competitiveness considering various approach es. These range from
stressing the importance of th e multi-acto r, multi-sector, and multi-level urban
perspective to wards competitive ness an d su stainability to high lighting the
presence of a creative class, the quality of and dedicated attention to the urban
environment, th e level of e ducation, multi -modal accessibility, and th e u se of
ICTs for public a dministration to increa se urban we alth.
 An a pproach to sustainable an d inclusive cities . Here, th e main weight will be
placed on the social capital of urban de velopment. The emphasis is on so cial
inclusion in pu blic services or on involving th e citizens in service co -design for
better se rvices. Moreover, sustainability, which is borne in mind as th e strateg i c
element of smart cities and safe guarding environmenta l or social sustainability
through pa rticipation of the public in local decision -making, is a key to increase
democracy an d governan ce.
Apart from the mentione d characte ristics of smart cities, the dimensio ns (compo nents) of
smart cities were also investig ated by many scholars (Mahizhn an, 1999; Giffinge r e t a l. ,
2007; Eger, 2009; Thuzar, 2 011; Nam a nd Pardo , 2011 ; Barrionue vo et a l. , 2012 ; Kourtit
and Nijkamp, 2012; Chourabi et al. ) . Such investigation s o f dimensions su pport researche r s
and p olicy makers to create a holistic approach for dealing with th e complexity of the smart

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

city concept. According to a resea rch project “Ranking of Eu ropean medium - sized cities”
conducte d by the Cen tre of Region al Science at th e Vienna University of Tech nology, six
main compon ents were ide ntified as d imensions of smart cit ies. These compon ents are
smart economy, mobility, environmen t, people, living, and gove rnance (Giffing er e t al. ,
2007) . These classification relies on the tradition al and n eoclassical theories of urban growth
and de velopment as regiona l competitiven ess, tran sport and ICT econo mics, n atural
resources, human an d social capita l, qua lity o f life, and participation of society members
(Lombardi et al. , 2012) . Ba rrionuevo and his co lleagues (2012 ) took a similar ap proach an d
identified five dimension s for a smar t city as econo mic (GDP, sector streng th, international
transaction s, foreign inve stment) , h uman (talent, innova tion, creativity, e ducation) , social
(traditions, habits, religion s, fa milies), en vironmental (energy policies, waste , water
managemen t, lan dscape), and institution al (ci vic en gagement, administrative authority ,
elections ) (Barrionuevo et al. , 2012) .
Nam and Pardo (20 11) count th e technolog y, the people (creativity, diversity, an d
educatio n), an d th e institution s (governa nce a nd policy) as the key com pon ents of a smart
city. In their opinio n a city is rea lly smart when investments in h uman a nd so cial capital ,
togeth er with ICT inf rastructures, con tribute to susta inable growth and improve the qu ality of
life of the citizen s. Ege r (2009 ) mentions tech nology, economic developmen t, job growth and
quality of life as dimensions of a smart city. He stresses th e economic aspect. Thuzar (2011)
sees q uality of life an d susta inable e conomic develop ment as d imensions of a smart city,
which will be supported throu gh participa tory policies in man agement o f natu ral resources
and convergence o f economic, so cial, and en vironmental goals. Kourtit an d Nijkamp (2012)
mostly place different types of capital as th e d imension of a smart city. The dete rmin ed
dimensions are human cap ital (e.g . skilled labor force), infrastructural cap ital (e.g. high -tech
communication facilities), social capital (e.g. inte nse and open netwo rk linka ges), and
entrepren eurial capital (e.g . creative and risk -taking busine ss activities).
By having a look only at the frequency of the words used in describing smart city dimensions
from the cited literature, th e below grap hic (Figure 4) illustrates th at information,
communication, te chnology , econo my, environment, man agement (governance ), and
people are considered as the key compone nts of the smart city co ncept. In this regard, the
economic d imension fuels the econ omic growth of smart city, compe titiveness, and job
creation. The environme ntal dimension safeguards effective u sage of th e na tural resources
and sustainab le development of a smart city. The human (people) dimen sion covers the
social a spect of a smart city and ensu res learning po ssibilit ies fo r th e citizen s and
improvement of the social capital. At th e sa me time, it enco urages creativity within the city.
The ins titutional dimension suppo rts governmen t an d policy makers for gove rnance of
urban processes within smart cities. And lastly, ICT represent s the technologica l (or in a
broader sen se infrast ructur al ) dimension of a smart city and serve s a s a facilitator for
integration of the d imensions and governin g urban p rocesses.

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

Given the organic integration o f a city’s various systems (e.g. transp ortation, ed ucatio n,
health care, b uildings, physical inf rastructure, natural environment, and public sa fety), a
comprehensive view on the mentioned dimensions is n eeded in order to deve lop a smart
city concept. Smart cities must integrate techn ologies, syste ms, services, and ca pabilities
into an organic network that is sufficiently multi-secto rial and fle xible for future developments,
and o pen-acce ss. This mea ns that ICT must be a facili tato r for crea ting a new type of
communicative en vironment, which req uires the compreh ensive an d balanced development
of crea tive skills, innovation -oriented inst itutions, broa dband n etworks, an d virtua l
collaborative sp aces (Komninos, 201 1) .
2.1.3 Importanc e of citizen pa rticipation in smart citie s
The smart city concept not o nly focuses o n the d eployment of ICT within city, bu t also
considers th e n eeds of the citizens and urban communities a s well as environmental
concerns. In other words, the diffusion of ICT in cities shou ld contribute to improving
operation of every su bsystem o f a cit y, aiming at en hancing the quality o f life of the citizens .
Furthermore, safe guarding environmental or social sustainab ility throu gh participation of the
public in the loca l decision -making as a ke y fo r increasing democracy and gove rnance was
identified as charact eristics of smart cities.
Reviewing different d imensions o f smart cities also reve als the importan ce of the h uman
aspects. Hen ce, smarter cities a re believed to be started from th e human capital side, rath er
than b e auto matically created b y ICT (Hollands, 2 008) . S mart go vernance as an important
dimension o f the smart city co ncept, inste ad of being solely e lective, requires ridding of the
barriers related to the lan guage, culture, education , and disabilities. The smart p eopl e
dimension comprises va rious asp ects, like affinity to lifelong learning , social a nd ethnic
plurality, flexibility, creativity, co smopolitanism, op en -mindedness, and participation in pu bli c
life (Nam an d P ardo, 2011) . Moreove r, prob lems associated with urban ag glomerations can
be solved by creativity, human capital, and coo peration a mong relevant stakeholders (Baron,
2012) . Th erefore, th e lab el “smart city” should refer to the ca pa city o f cleve r people to
generat e clever solution s to the u rban problems.
Figure 4 F requent ly repeate d terms in de scribing d imen sions of s mart cities

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

To achieve such smart governan ce, various stakeho lders shou ld b e eng aged in decision -
making and p ublic services. ICT -mediated go vernance, a lso ca lled e -gove rnance, is
funda mental in b ringing smart city initiatives to th e citizens, an d to keep the decision a nd
implementation process transpa rent. However, th e spirit of e -governa nce in a smart city
should be citizen -centric and citizen -driven (Albino et al. , 2015). Resp ectively, the citizens
or public ha ve a central role in govern ance o f th e fu ture smart cities a nd should participate
in the d ecision-making processes. An ind ividual citizen and civic groups are important
players in the governan ce of a smart city. ICT -mediate d participation (or e - /m Participation)
is undou btedly a fu nd amental elemen t of such governance processe s.
2.2 Citizen partic ip at ion in urban plann ing: rec ent d e b ates in
participatory urban planning
This se ction tries to explore th e deba te on communicative action theory as on e of the
dominant and influential discourses in the urba n plan ning con text. Doing that, th e se ction
briefly reviews h ow citizen participation e ntered urba n plan ning processes an d why the
urban p lanning p aradigm turned toward more collab orative approa ches.
2.2.1 Comm unicative tu rn in urban planning
The communicat ive actio n theory introduced to planning in the late 80’s a nd s oon became a
dominant d ebate. This tu rn a nd exten sive u se of th i s theory co uld have be en due to two
main reasons: the needs of the p lanning discourse for a new th eory an d the deficiency of
previous theo ries as well as the strength s of Jürgen Habermas’ th eory of “communicative
rationality” th at attract ed many scholars’ attention to formulate a n efficient urba n plan nin g
theory.
Historically sp eaking, first pu blic policies in urban and regional planning were made in the
late 19 th century focusing on ph ysical int ervention to the environ ment, as the urban areas
within west Eu rope were facing the prob lems of rap id urban growth. The refore, urban
planning was foun ded as a discipline mostly orien ted towards scientific -rationa l thinking
tradition. Using scientific knowled ge (w h ich was linke d to the increas ing access to computers
in th e 6 0s and 70s), profession al plan ners could supervise eco nomic and social
develop ment and produce blue print master plan ning sche mes with the fo cus on ph ysically
arranged lan d u ses an d a chievement of fun ctional object ives. Thus, p lanners separated
themselves from other groups of sta keholders as they could decide on their beh alf in favor
of pu blic int erest (Hilli er, 200 2b). In o ther words, “ the p ublic int erest wou ld be revea led
through a scien tific und erstanding of the orga nic logic of society ” (Beauregard, 1989, p.
386) .Therefore, the m ain function of public participatio n was limited to a too l for legitimizing
the plan ners dec isions (Hillier, 2002b) .
The failures of planning during the time of the vast urban renewal programs verified many o f
the objection s to top -down, expert-driven plann ing a nd enco uraged the communicative tur n
in plan ning (Fainstein, 20 00) . Since th e late 19 60s in the Western world, many endeavors
either throu gh advocative processes (lobbying) or th roug h intermediary p rocesses (civil
disobed ience), that were focusing on citizen a ctivism, ha ve been represen ted through formal

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

about und istorted communicat ion, openne ss and a lack of oppression . However, this
assumption contains prejudgmen t. They believe th at participatory de mocracy, which
communicative plan ning depen ds on , ca nnot b e considered ‘without an y problem’, and is
not a value acceptable by everyon e. Eve n th e proponents o f the th eory acknowledge its
limits and problems emphasizing local rather than natio nal co ncerns. Moreover, the
assumption tha t “citizen involvement in democratic proce sses bring s more pa rticipation” is
also open to b e que stione d. They also challeng ed the ability to reach consen sus as the main
assumption of Habermas’ theory by two critical questions of “what to do and how to mediate
when this consensus is not rea ched?” and second ly, “should we reach consensus at all?”
(Tewdwr-Jones and A llmendinger, 19 98) .
With regard to practical asp ects, communicative plannin g theory like most of other th eoretical
debate s will be challenged du e to its deficien cies when it comes to pract ice and the rea l
world. The gap b etween theory a nd a ction is addressed by Susan Fainste in. S he discusses
this issue in resp ect to the lack of real p ower for p articipants in th e p lanning process. She
believes th at, if the rea l power is gran ted to the citizen s, there is still no guarante e for
implem ent ing that agreemen ts by participa nts (Fainstein, 200 0). Anothe r argument of
Fainstein is the matter of th e required time . She states: “the len gthy time required for such
participatory processes, leads to bu rnout among citizen p articipants an d d isillusion as
nothing ever seems to g et accomplished ” (Fainstein, 2 000).
Tewdwr-Jones an d Allmending er argue tha t altho ugh a ll se ctions o f the co mmunity can
participate in the p rocess o f co mmunicative p lanning d iscourse, this theory ha s not been
able to fully answer the q uestions like h ow should this be achieved? How th e sta keh older s
can be identified and by whom? Furthermore, f ocusing on the process in stead of outcomes
has also been challenged by t hem. They believe that th e theory of communicat ive plannin g
and rationa lity emphasizes the process rather than the results. They be l ieve that
participation o f the citizens, stakeh olders and interest group s in the plan ning process is
accepta ble and reasona ble, but it is unaccep table to focus only on the planning process as
the fina l aim, withou t reaching the outco mes. The participants w ou ld like to be aware o f the
final decision s and ou tcomes, otherwise there will b e only ta lking shops (Tewdwr-Jone s and
Allmendinger, 1 998).
The relation between power structure and planning was the third aspect fo r that
communicative planning received con siderable criticism. While th e proponen ts of
communicative plan ning mode l (like Healy a nd Forester) presume the po sitive eff ect of trust
and con fidence built among different stakeho lders (throu gh collaborat ive proce sses) in
shifting p ower basis, th e oppo nents like Fainstein a nd Tewdwr -Jones and Allmendinger
doubt this optimistic view an d con sider it an und erstatement. They think tha t only a simple
change in the institutional framework of gove rnance and power structure does not assure a
more d iscursive style of gove rnance a s it displa ys little consideration to ward s diffe ren t
perception s of inte rest, motiva tion an d n eglects th e e xistence of power inherent within the
individuals (Tewdwr-Jone s and Allmend inger, 199 8; Fainst e in, 2000) .

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

Bent Flyvbje rg in his book “‘rationality and p ower” (1998) argu es that a plan 1 based on bes t
rational principle s and metho ds and also enga gement of citizen s cou ld be chan ged and
distorted in th e app roval and execution p hase through p ower structu res . He conclud es that
rationality is under the influence of po wer an d even d etermined b y p ower, and no t by
enlighten ment ideals o f reaso ns , democracy, a nd public u tility (Flyvbjerg, 199 8). Moreover,
by referring to Flyvbjerg’ thesis of “ rationality is de termined by power ”, Nietzch e’s “ will to
power ” an d Fo ucault’s “rationality as rationalization ” , Yiftache l ch allenges the be ha viour of
many planne rs an d decision -makers, and states th at it is maybe n ecessary to reconsider
planning as a “ double - edg ed sword” (Yiftache l, 2001) .
So far, th e communicative mod el of planning has bee n discussed. Its th eoretical
backgroun d, condition s and practical deficiencie s are b riefly revie wed. Despite all
aforementio ned critiques, th is plan ning model as a th eoretical base has prove d to be
successful in concrete projects an d introduce d ne w aspects and perspective in p articipatory
planning processe s. However, it emphasizes participation o f different stakeholders within
decision-making processe s. Thus, the co ncept of citizen participation has a core functio n for
deliberation of d ecision s in the communicative model of planning , which is in the focus of
this study. The next p art will focu s on describing this concep t more accurately.
2.2.2 Definitio n, benefits , obs tacles and new dil emmas of citiz en
participation
It has b een mentio ned before that the citizen participation discourse sho wed up in the urban
planning conte xt in the 60s through introductio n of advo cacy plann ing by Davidoff (1965) .
Ever since , scholars ha ve b een trying to inve stigate d i fferent aspects o f th is no tion. For
instance, wha t does citizen participation mean (definition), what is the p urposes of citizen
participation (benefits), what are the ne gative a spects (ob stacles), or wha t are the cu rrent
challenge s of citizen participation ( di lemmas).
Defining citizen participation has b een on the agend a of several researche rs, organizations
and g overnmenta l age ncies. T herefore, many concep tual definitions h ave been developed
during th e last de cade s (Glass, 1979 ; Roberts, 2004 ; Arnstein, 1969 ; Laurian, 2004;
Chetkow-Yan oov, 198 2). Glass state s that “ the te rm citizen pa rticipation is an
overgene ralization that often is defined simply as providing citizens with opportunities to take
part in governmen tal decision or plan ning proce sses ” (Glass, 1979, p. 1 80). S herry Arnste i n
(1969) illustrates citizen pa rticipation from the perspe ctive of citizen power in the d ecision-
making process. S he b elieves that citizen p articipation is “ the redistributio n of power th at
enables the ha ve-not citizens, presently e xcluded fro m the politics an d econo mic processes,
to be deliberately included in the futu re. It is th e strategy by which th e have -nots join in
determining how inf ormation is shared, goals and p olicies are set, tax resources are
allocated, prog rams a re operat ed, an d benefits like con tracts and pa tronage are parceled
benefits of the a ffluent societ y (Arnstein, 19 69, p. 2 16) .

1 R eferring to r edesigning Aalborg’s cen tral area in Denmar k

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

Chetkow-Yan oov defines citizen participation fro m the perspective of an urban plan ner. He
expresses th at “when plan ners insist on citizen pa rticipation, they usua lly mean th at the
ultimate beneficiaries (e.g. residents) of the c ity’s services shou ld have a part in setting the
policies, an d perhaps implementing them” (Chetkow-Yano ov, 1 982) . This view conside r s
citizens as clien ts or consumers of public services th at ne ed to be involved by all means , as
these se rvices dea l with their daily li fe. Lau rian (2004) describe s a desirable participation as
it e nables citizens to sh ape planning d ecisions and outco mes while increasing their levels o f
social and political empowerment (La urian, 2004 ) . Roberts offe rs a more d etailed de finitio n
of citizen participation (direct citizen participatio n) “ as the process by which member s of a
society (those n ot holding office or administrative positions in government) share power with
public off icials in making substa ntive decisions and in ta king a ctions related to the
community ” (Rob erts, 2004, p. 32 0) . The focus in Rob erts’s d efinition is on direct
participation (when citizens a re person ally involved a nd actively engaged) a s opp osed to
indirect participatio n (when citizens e lect othe rs to rep resent them) in the decision p rocess.
Roberts’ approach on d irect citizen participation will be conside red in th is research as the
focus of the stu dy in pa rticipatory urba n plann ing conte xt.
In a ddition to defin ing citizen p articipation conce pt, the purpose of this notion has been
investigate d by many resea rchers in the last decade s. Glass (1979) summarizes different
scholars views on p urposes of citizen pa rticipation a nd categ orized th em into two main
purposes. The first one (ba sed on th e administrative perspective ) is to enga ge citizens in
planning and other go vernmental proce sses aiming to increase th eir trust and confidence in
governmen t, so th at they a ccept decisions and plans and will be involved in the system when
seeking solutions to their problems. The other purpose (ba sed on the citizen perspective) is
to give an opportunity to citizens (as actors) in the planning and decision making process in
order to improve p lans, decisions, and service delivery (Glass, 19 79) . Innes and Booher
(2004) identify seven purpose s o f citizen participatio n that en compass most of the claims
that u sually justify participatio n:
 to find out what th e pub lic’s preferen ces are so these can p lay a part in the ir
decisions (for decision makers),
 to improv e decisions by incorporating citizens’ local knowledge into th e calculus ,
 advancing fairness and justice,
 public participa tion is abou t getting le gitimacy for public d ec ision s,
 participation is something planne rs and pu blic off icials do beca use the law
requires it,
 to build civil societ y, and
 to create an adaptive, self-orga nizing p olity capable of addressing problems in
an info rmed and eff ective way (Innes a nd Boo her, 2004 ).
Therefore, participatio n of citizen s is conside red to e nsure bette r an d stronger p lans in the
sense th at plans are m ore likely to b e implemented (Potapch uk, 1996 ; Bu rby, 20 03) .
Participation of citizens can be also app lied at th e time when planning problems are complex.
Planning the ory considers un der wha t condition s “a be tter city for all citizens” is d evelope d

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

in a democratic and inclusive mann er (Fainstein, 200 5). So me othe r rese archers
investigate d othe r ben efits of citizen p articipation and they revealed tha t p articipation of
citizens led to increase of the educa tion and awareness levels of the residents, engage men t,
governmen t responsiven ess and formation of social capita l in a civic community (Arnst ein,
1969; Berry et al. , 1993; Pota pchuk an d Crocker, 199 9) . Klaus Selle (2013) briefly lists the
positive effects of citizen participatio n a s: it d ecreases th e co nflic ts and spe eds up the
planning processes, it reinfo rces th e local d emocracy and improves the political decisions,
it create s loca l identity a nd increases the social capital, and it co mpensates the de ficiency
of leg itimization (Selle, 201 3) . In case of d irect citizen pa rticipation Robe rts (20 04)
summarizes th e supp ortive argumen ts and he believes that citizen participation (spe cially
direct typ e) is deve lopmental (fo sters active moral), edu cative (participation as a skill of
citizenship), therape utic and int egrative, legitimating, protective o f freed om a nd instrumental
(support p ower share) (Robe rts, 2004) .
Despite all the aforementioned ben efits, citizen participation is considered an ambivalent
concept in literature. In an article written by Day (1997) citizen p articipation in urba n plan nin g
is de bated as an e ssentially conte sted concept. This ambivalence ap pears in the lite rature
in differen t fo rms as some annou nced citizen participation as the “ Achilles heel of plan ning”
or a “wicked” p roblem. S ome also fund amentally doub ts the ab ility o f “masses” for
constructive co ntribution to go vernance (Friedmann, 1987 ; Stive rs, 199 0) . Irvin and
Stansbu ry (2004) categoriz e the disa dvantag es of citizen partic ipation in a table acco rding
to two side s of p articipation con cept (government and citizens) as well as decision process
and o utcome (Tab le 1 ). Here the main n egative issues are cost, difficulty of diffusing citizen
goodwill, complacen cy, rep resentation , the lack o f a uthority and th e p ower o f wrong
decisions.
Table 1 Disadvantag es of citizen particip ation in government decision -makin g (Irvin and Stansbury,
2004)

Disadvant ages to
citizen p articipants

Disadvant ages to
governmen t

Decision
process

 Time consuming ( even dull)
 Pointless if decision i s
ignored

 Time consuming and c ostly
 May backfire
 Creating more hostility
toward governm ent

Outcom es

 Worse policy decision if
heavily influenced b y
opposing interest gr oups

 Loss of decision-making
control
 Possibility of bad decis ion
that is politically im possible
to ignore
 Less budget for
implementation of actual
projects

In some othe r studies the negative aspects of citizen participati on from practice are
described as: it is time consuming and costly, in reality noth ing will happe n, the results of
participation will not be integrat ed to the plan s and lastly, the citizens has no power to change

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

anything and the decisions ha ve been already mad e (Selle, 201 3). From the perspective of
direct participation , Rob erts (2004 ) highlights some similar n egative aspects of (direct)
participation . He believes tha t it is based on a false no tion (too passionate and se lfish o r too
passive an d apath etic to be involved ), inefficient (too expensive, too slow ), po litically naive,
unrealistic (it requires skills, resources, money, an d time tha t most citizens do not have) ,
disruptive (disequilibria an d incre ase noise in the system) and da ngerous (promo te
extremism) (Roberts, 2004 ) .
The criticism s on citizen participatio n d o not solely address the n egative aspe cts of it . For
instance, Innes and Boo her (2004) investigated the failure of formal citizen participatio n in
the US planning system a nd claimed th at l egally required meth ods of p ublic pa rticipation in
governmen t decision -making in th e US – public he arings, review a nd comment procedures
in particular – d o not work. In the ir opinion:
 these fo rms o f citizen participation d o not ach ieve genu ine p articipation in
planning or other d ecisions;
 they do not satisfy members of the p ublic that th ey are being h eard;
 they seldom can b e said to improve th e decision s th at ag encies and pub li c
officials make;
 they do not incorpo rate a broad spectrum of th e public,
 Worse tha n p revious issue s, th ese metho ds o ften antag onize the members of
the pu blic who do try to wo rk with them;
 the metho ds often pit citizens against each oth er, as they fe el compe lled to
speak o f the issues in polarizing terms to g et their po ints across.
Accordingly, this fo rm o ften discourage s busy an d tho ughtful ind ividual citizen s from
participating in such meetings as th ey consider it as a waste of time to go through what
appea rs to be noth ing more than rituals that are designe d to satisfy leg al req uirements .
Furthermore, th is increase s th e ambivalence of plann ers and o ther pub lic offici als about
hearing from th e public a t a ll (Innes a nd Boo her, 200 4) . One important issue here is that
public participatio n is see n as invo lving citizens on th e one han d and go vernment o n the
other. Such simplistic duality underlies the deb ates and encourag es adversarial
participation , a s it d oes no t allow neither to un pack the citizen side n or the side of the
governmen t. The refore, reframing citizen participation is on the agen da of urba n plan ners
and th eorists (La ws and Rein, 200 3). The p roposal here is th at participation must be more
collaborative and it sh ould incorporat e not only citizen s but also organized inte rests, p rofit -
making and non -profit o rganizations, planne rs and p ublic administrators in a commo n
framework in which everyone interact (Figure 5) . Hence, no ne o f the o ne -way forms of
communication from citizen s to go vernment, o r from governmen t to citizens wou ld work. It
is a multi-dimensional mod el where communication, learning and a ction are joine d together
and whe re the po licy, interests a nd citizenry co -evolve (Innes an d Boohe r, 2004) .

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

This new paradigm of citizen participation a s co llaborative p articipation see ks to deal with
the interests of all acto rs (public agencies, powerfu l private interests, and disadvantag ed
citizens) and treat s all equally within th e discussio ns. During the cou rse of this proce ss
learning takes place , an d sometimes conflicts are reso lved a nd inn ovations emerge
(Connick and Innes, 2003; Healey, 1993, 1996 b) . In such an e nvironment citizens and oth er
players work and ta lk in formal and informal ways to influe nce a ction in the public arena
before it is virtu ally a foregon e conclusion .
Ultimately, th e differences b etween th e lega lly required participa tion methods a nd
collaborative a pproaches in clude:
 one -way talk vs. d ialogue;
 elite or self -selected vs. d iverse participants;
 reactive vs. invo lved at th e outset;
 top-down education vs. mutually shared knowledge ;
 one -shot activities vs. continuou s engage ment;
 and use fo r routin e activities vs. for contro versial choices (Innes and B ooher,
2004) .
However, the keys to success a nd achieve such a co llaborative process are d ialogue,
networks an d institutiona l capacity (Innes a nd Boo her, 2004) . Much of the reason for these
successes of collab orative processes is what has been called the tran sformative po wer of
Figure 5 Co llaborative network paradig m for citizen p articip ation (Innes and Bo oher, 2000)

Interest Based Entity

Informatio n/Learning

Citizen

Public Agency

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

dialogue (Forester, 19 99, pp. 115 – 1 53; Robe rts, 20 02; Yan kelovich, 2001 ) . In th is sense,
an inclu sive set of citizens can enga ge in an a uthentic dialogue, where a ll are equ ally
empowered a nd informed an d whe re th ey listen and are he ard respectfu lly and when they
are working on a task that interest s all, fo llowing their own agenda s. They learn ne w ideas
and th ey o ften come to reco gnize tha t others’ views a re leg itimate. Th ey can work through
issues and create sha red meanings a s well as the p ossibility of joint a ctions.
Collaborative proce sses also bu ild networks . The one ou tcome that pa rticipants almost
universally cited was b uilding new profession al and personal relatio nships. Th ey understo od
each other’s perspective s after a while and in most cases built considerable trust. This social
capital translate d into new networks, tha t th ey could and did use fo r many othe r issues
outside the collaborative proce ss (Inne s and Connick, 1999) . These networks often
proliferated as participan ts lea rn ed the po wer of th e processes and tran smitted the ide as
and p ractices into asso ciates.
Finally, collab orative networked processes contribu te to b uilding ins titutional capacity ,
which is a combination of social, intellectual and po litical capital (Cars e t al. , 2002; Chaskin,
2001; Khakee, 2002) . As this capital grows an d sp reads through collaboration into
interlocking circles and networks, the civic capacity of a society grows and pa rticipant s
become more knowledgeable an d comp ete nt, an d b elieve more in their ab ility to make a
change .
2.2.3 Levels of ci tizen partici pation
The level o f participation mo stly defin es the value of a participato ry project, no matter what
type of method s and technique s are used in th e project. Each level o f citizen participation
contribute s to different se ts of goa ls and expecta tions, an d th erefore, requires different
resources, method s and p rocesses. In th is regard, inve stigating the level of citizen
participation in projects clarifies to what exten t the a ims of p articipatory project a re ach ieve d
and to what extent ap plied te chniques and method s were suitable and succe ssful. Hence,
in this pa rt, different ca tegorizations o f public pa rticipation will be reviewed.
It rarely happ ens th at the scho lars in the d ebate of citizen participa tion do not cite the
influentia l work of Arnstein ’s “ladder of participatio n” . A rnstein reflects th e differen t levels of
participation according to the efficiency of the process, which range from manipulat ion and
therapy (as n on-participa tion), tokenism (as informing and co nsulting) to citizen power, in
which citizens have partnership, delega ted power as well as controlling power in the
decision-making processes (Arnstein, 19 69). I n a ddition to this classificatio n, the
Interna tional Association o f Pub lic Participation (IAP P), as a pree minent interna tional
organization advancing the practice of pu blic participation, introduced five levels in publi c
participation spectrum including informing, consulting , involving, collaborating a nd
empowering (IAPP, 201 4) .
Informing means to provide th e pu blic with balanced and object ive information and assist
them in und erstanding t he problems, alte rnatives and/or solut ions. Consulting refe rs to the
level of citizen participation that government tries to ob tain feedback on analysis, alternatives

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

and/o r solutions. Involving as third leve l is to work directly with public througho ut th e process
to ensure tha t public issues and conce rns are consistently understoo d and c on sidered .
Collaborating is the fourth level, in which th ere will be a partn ership with the pu blic in each
aspect o f decision -making including the develop ments o f alternatives and the ide ntificatio n
of the preferred solution . The last level (the h ighest le ve l) is the empowerment level as a
stage t hat the f inal decision will be in the han ds of the public (Figure 6 ) .
Figure 6 Spectrum of p ublic p articipation develo ped by IAPP (2014 )

INFORM

CONSULT

INVOLVE

COLLABORAT E

EMPOWER

PUBLIC
PARTICIPATION
GOAL

To provide th e public
with balanced and
objective information
to assist them in
understanding th e
problems, alter native
and/or solutions

To obtain pub lic
feedba ck on
analysis,
alternatives an d/or
decision

To work directly with t he
public throughou t the
process to ensur e that
public issues and
concerns and
consistently understood
and consider

To partne r with the
public in each aspect of
the decision includ ing
the developmen t of
alternatives and the
identificatio n of the
preferred solution.

To place
final
decision-
making in
the hands of
the public.

PROMISE TO TH E PYBLIC

We will keep you
informed

We will keep you
informed, listen to
and acknowledge
concerns and
provide feedba ck on
how public input
influenced the
decision

We will work with you to
ensure that your
concerns and issues
are directly refle cted in
the alternatives
developed and p rovide
feedback on how pu blic
input influenced the
decision

We will look to you for
direct advise and
innovation in
formulating solutions
and incorporate you
advise and
recommenda tions into
the decision to the
maximum extent
possible.

We will
implement
what you
decide

Moreover, the Organizat ion fo r Econo mic Cooperation a nd Deve lopment (OECD)
summarizes citizen participation into three levels : inf ormation, consultation a nd active
participation. The first level info rmation refers to th e one -way flow of info rmation between
governmen t and citizens tha t aims at provid ing information. The g overnment d isseminates
information on p olicy-making o n its own initiative – or citizens acce ss information they
demand . E xamples are access to pu blic records, official gazettes, and g overnmen t web sites.
Consultatio n as th e secon d level represe nts a limited two -way communication be twee n
governmen t and citizens, in which gove rnment ena bles citizens to give the ir feed back, and
governmen t defines whose view will be conside red in th e p olicy -making. Exa mples a re
comments on draft legislatio n, and public o pinion surveys. The last level is active
participation, in which citizens are de eply involved and the y jointly p articipate in g eneration
of policy con tent, implemen tation an d evaluatio n of po licies (OECD, 20 01).
Lüttri nghaus (2000) , with a similar approach, introduced fo ur levels of citizen participatio n as
information, consu ltation, coope ration an d self -manage ment. The information level means
that the e ngaged actors ha ve the oppo rtunity to inform th emselves with th e information
provided by the au thorities. The second level, consu ltation, will p rovide participants with th e
chance to g ive their feedba ck in forms o f, co mplai ns, ideas, etc.; however, they do not h ave
the o pportunity to make a decision. The third level is co operation , which o ffers actors the
possibility to be engaged in the decision -making proce ss and discussing the aims, strateg ies

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

and p lans offered by autho rities. The f ourth level, se lf-manag ement, refers to cond ition that
all the invo lved actors decide togeth er a nd this de cision wi ll be vo ted and is lega lly -binding.
It should be mentioned that in this catego rization, cooperation a nd self -management leve l
represent th e active p articipation level in OECD categorizatio n.
As the focu s of this study is more on the info rmal (not leg ally req uired) forms of dir ect citizen
participation in urban planning con text, the categorization offered by IAPP may not fit in our
approa ch. The latest level of citizen participatio n in this cate gorization is e mpowerment ,
which mean s to give the fina l power of de cision -making to the citizens. Th is leve l requires
some institutiona l and orga nizational ch anges a nd processe s that are no t i n th e interest of
this research. Th erefore, the three level ca tegorization off ered by OECD and Lüttringhaus
(2000) will be t aken into t he c onsideration in the f ollowing sections.
2.2.4 Forms o f citizen partici pation (Face - to -Face, e Participation,
mParticipation)
In the previous sections, aspects o f citizen participation in the urban plan ning con text were
theoretically discussed . However, it is still ne ed ed to make c lear how such citizen
participation (n o matter of which level it is) can be implemente d or take n place . In a ddition,
which mechan isms and techniqu es (or method s) are available in urban plan ning conte xt?
Methodically speaking , citizen participation techniques could be categorized into two forms.
The first grou p enco mpasses the so-called co nventiona l, face - to -face or sometimes
‘traditional’ forms . This form has long history in citizen pa rticipation literature and is dee ply
researched . Looking at th e literature high lights methods such as factshee ts , open houses ,
public comment, site visits, street sta lls, referen da, pu blic hearings, public su rveys ,
deliberate polling, citizen expertise, award scheme, consensus con ferences, public advisory
committees, focu s groups , citizen juries, o r ballots (Creighton, 200 5; IAPP, 2014) .
The oth er g roup of citizen participation fo rms emerged after the e mergence of Inte rne t
(World Wide Web and spe cifically introduction of Web 2.0 technology) and has been rapidly
develop ed since th e d iffusion of ICT and different co mmunication de vices (such as lap top,
mobile pho nes and tablet s). This fo rm has been n amed with different terms su ch as ICT -
supporte d pa rticipation (Palen an d L iu, 20 07), o nline engag ement (Chen and Dimitrova,
2006) , d igital pa rticipation (Smith and Craglia, 200 3) , web-based participation (Kingsto n et
al. , 2000) , online participation (Wojcieszak, 2 009) , Interne t-based participation (Evans-
Cowley a nd Hollander, 20 10) , a nd electronic participatio n (eParticipation ) (Conroy a nd
Evans-Cowley, 2 006; Macinto sh, 2004 ) .
Like th e fa ce- to -face 1 form of citizen participation, eP articipation 2 also embraces se vera l
tools and methods. Some e xamples a re digital TV in th e closer sense (without feedback
channe l), kiosk system/info te rminal , website (including FAQs / glossaries), newsletter, RSS
feed, weblog , (Aud io o r video) podca st, on line g ame a nd simulation , interactive

1 This term will be used in this resear ch.
2 This term will be used in this resear ch.

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

map/geo data -based communication, SMS/MMS, E-mail/mailing list , w ebcast (with feedb ac k
function ), telephone /call c enter , chat, instan t messaging, so cial ta gging/ social bookmarking ,
ranking/ratin g to ol, on line input fo rm, q uick poll, online questio nnaire/ survey, vide o
conferen ce, forum, Wiki, photo / video community, social networking site/online community,
groupware / CSCW, and virtual world (Tambouris et a l. , 2007 b; Albrecht et al. , 2008) . These
tools will be de scribed in more de tail in the fo llowing section.
Each form (face- to -face or e Participation) provide s different possibilities for participation of
the citizen s, has its o wn a ttributes and characteristics, a nd can su pport different l evels of
participation. Additionally, each form has its own bene fits a nd limitation s, which were the
topic of many inve stigations in literature. In the next section, it is initially discusse d why the
traditional form of participation is no t as eff ective as it should b e. Furthermore, eParticipation
as a recen t form of participa tion is studied .
2.3 Citizen partic ip at ion in the age of information and comm unication :
eParticipati on
Traditional pa rticipation fo rm o r face - to -fa ce participatio n ha s its own limitations and
obstacles. The critiques of communicative plann ing and citizen participation in u rban
planning are discusse d in the p revious section s. By having a deeper look at the critiqu es, it
can be seen that most of them are valid fo r the fa ce- to -face form o f pa rticipation.
Furthermore, the e mergence of th e Inte rnet and ICTs (digitalization p rocess) has
transformed th e cities a nd urban societies (smart cities). Hen ce, th ere is a ne ed for citizen
participation forms that make participato ry urban planning to be comp atible with the new
urban se ttings. In th is section , th e limitation s of face - to -face form are discussed. In addition,
the influence of ICT on urban societies and its con sequence s for urban plann ing are
theoretically e laborated. This is fo llowed by a d eeper look a t the eP articipation topic .
2.3.1 Obstacle s and limitatio ns of traditional form of citizen particip ation
It is d iscussed that traditional citizen pa rticipation form (face- to -face ) ha s some limitations
and o bstacles. Some of th em are related to the nature of pa rticipation as a concept (such a s
the lack o f autho rity, or risk of extremisms), while o thers are related to att ributes of fa ce - to -
face fo rm. For Instance, most o f fa ce- to -face me tho ds require the phys ical presence of the
participants a t a pa rticular time and place . This means that pa rticipants should change
daily routines in order to be able to participate in the meeting s. However, in th e cu rrent
modern so ciety, where most of th e pe ople ha ve sp ecific working hours pe r week,
participating in a meetin g might not be ea sy to plan d ue to the limited available time.
Additiona lly, m ost of the fa ce - to -face methods are time consuming for participants as well
as urban a uthorities. For exampl e, an a verage “Planning C ell ” process (as a face - to -fac e
method ) normally takes three to fo ur fu ll days in order to ge t expected results. According ly ,
the whole process is time-inte nsive, which also means cost-intensiv e . The se costs will be
however on both participants and u rban auth orities. Hence, participan ts must take fou r days
off from work and th e governmen t also has to invest time of its employe es. In add ition ,
governmen t sho uld cover th e organ izational costs of events such a s catering, venue ,
equipme nt, etc.

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

Anothe r argumen t, specifically for formal fa ce - to -face metho ds, is that th ey are not
transparent en ough in the mind of the citizens, a s it is not clea r how their contributions will
be handled and influen ce the final de cision (Kubicek, 2 010). Furthermore, Innes and Bo oher
(2004) argues the communication problem o f th is kind of meth ods. On th e one ha nd, they
believe that, fo r insta nce, public hearings pu t citizen s ag ainst e ach other and po larize the m ,
so that every ind ividual a rgues his or her single po int. Therefore, m any single point s will be
discussed but no compromise will be made and th e objective of participation proce ss will not
be a chieved. On the oth er h and, such communication in public he aring s gives leverage to
the pe ople who a re no t shy to talk in front of th e others, while th e quite pa rticipants will be
cornered and left ou t o f th e discussion . In so me specific situation s, even the lang ua ge
(knowledge ) can be considered as a b arrier for peop le with the immigration ba ckground or
foreigners, wh o are living in a city or neighb orhood.
Scale and the d ilemma of size are cou nted as a limitation for face - to -fa ce methods. As
modern administrative proce sses a re no rmally very large and complex, citizen involvement
will have to a ccommodate numerou s groups an d individuals, which require s many resources
and so metimes even sound s im possible. Fo r instan ce, if a city with 5 million inh abitants
decides to gather the idea s of citizen s regarding th e fu ture d evelopment o f the city, how
many workshop s or meeting s should be organized to gath er ide as from most of citizens?
How long d oes it take t o gathe r ideas from most o f citizens?
Due to these li mitatio ns, the next challenge could be the selection of citizens (how ca n they
be represe ntative ?) and the b riefing p rocess. It is oft en cited that the same sp ecific groups
of peo ple always att end an d pa rticipate in public mee tings. They e ither belong to th e older
age group (which have time or money) or opponents , who are a lways ag ainst every plan a nd
say NIMBY 1 . In a ddition, the last limitation o f face - to -face p articipation is the lack of geo -
based inputs fro m th e citizen’s side. This is a ve ry importa nt issue in the context of urban
planning , becau se most of th e decision -making proce sses have a loc atio n-based side. In
this p erspective, having citizen s’ feed back on the p lanning p rocess could enh ance the
quality of plans and enrich the outcomes of p articipation processe s. Most of face - to -face
methods h ave limitations in th is regard.
In summ ary, th e afo rementioned limitations do exist in face - to -face citizen participation form
and se veral att empts have been made to ove rcome such issues. Knowing this , in the next
section, it is explaine d how th e op portunities and possibilities offered by ICT can overcome
some of th e limitations and enhance participation processe s in collaborative urban plann ing .
How does participation loo k like in conte mporary society?

1 NIMBY (an acronym for the p hrase "Not In My Back Yard"), is a pejorative characte rization of opposition by
residents to a proposal for a new de velopment because it is close to them, often with the connotation that such
residents believe that the developm ents are nee ded in society but should be fur ther away .

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

2.3.2 Network ed society and its implications f or participatory urban
planning
Over th e co urse o f th e past several d ecades, the rise of the new ICTs and t he Inte rnet h as
transformed our cities as well as o ur societies to what Castells ca lled the “net work societ y”
(Castells, 1 996). A lbrecht and Mandelbau m (200 7) extracte d three impo rtant characte ristic s
of the network society from Castells’s trilogy (1996; 1997 ; 1998) and their implications in the
planning con text. In the first one Caste lls (1996) argues that in the n etwork societ y, so cial
structures a re open and decentralized and hierarchy is reduced ; peo ple are in d ifferent
networks a t th e same time ,which a ct, intersect and overlap. Information flows are n ot
anymore limited to the hand of a specific group (Castells, 1996 ) . In the sp ecific planning a nd
policy-making conte xt, such relations betwee n networks challenge traditional represe ntativ e
democracy. They call for a shift in plann ing to wards more inclusiven ess in th e democratic
processes (pluralist democr acy), reducing unequal power structures betwe en social groups
and classes, accou ntability o f th e state and planners as well as respectin g th e right of
citizens to be heard and to have a crea tive input in matters affectin g th eir lives (Albrechts
and Mandelbaum , 2007) . The second ch aracteristic is that activities are becoming fo otloose
as ICT enables p eople to inte ract with out face - to -face conta cts (Caste lls, 1996 ) .
Consequ ently, spatial barriers and te rritories matter less in th e network society; a nd
therefore, u rban processe s are decrea singly restricted to th e administrative b oundaries (city
limits, or regional territories), which plan ners have been strug gling with since a lon g time .
The third importa nt characte ristic is that the physical space of interact ions is replace d b y a
virtual space , mostly witho ut mate rial basis (for instan ce mass med ia, virtua l financial
markets). This p ossibility ena bles n etworks to coordina te their actions more efficiently and
over larger dista nces .
Moreover, Castells refers to two important attribu tes of the network society; both are
extremely relevant for plann ing conte xt. The first attribute is that the nature of the new society
has prof ound im plications fo r the phenomenon of powe r . Castells highlights tha t in the
network society p ower is no longer co ncentrate d in institutio ns, o rganizations, or even
symbolic contro llers such as the chu rch or media. In stead, power is d iffused th roughou t
global networks of wea lth, info rmation, an d images. Power doe s not disappe ar an d still
shapes society. But the old forms of power are fading away b ecause they are comparatively
less e ffective than the n ew forms (Castells, 19 97) . It ha s been claimed tha t “the new p ower
lies in the codes of inf ormation a nd in th e image s of represen tation around which so cieties
organize the ir institutions, and people bu ild their lives and decide the ir behavior. The sites
of this p ower are peop le’s minds ” (Castells, 1997 , p. 359) .
The se cond att ribute is what Caste lls (2009 ) ca lls communica tion power . The In ternet
provides low-thresh old communicat ion possibilities be tween n early eve rybody, worldwide.
Whereas rea l-world communication is limited by distance and time, o nline too ls enable many
forms of instant, g lobal, an d nearly permanent communication (D rohsel et a l. , 201 0). The
Interne t as a tru ly interactive medium enables users to pa rticipate in the production o f online
conten t, exp ress th eir thoughts on blog s, share vide os a nd pho tos, a nd be connecte d with
others b y u sing social networks; hence, a many - to -many communication is establi shed,

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

which will have long -term conse quences (C astells, 2009; Höffken an d S treich, 2011 ) .
Castells believes that “ mass communication used to be pred ominantly one -directional. With
the diffusion of the In ternet a new form of communication has emerged, characterized by the
capacity o f sending messages from man y to many, in real -time or ch osen time, and with the
possibility of using point - to -point communication , narrowcasting or broadcasting, depe ndi ng
on the pu rpose and charact eristics of th e intend ed communication practice ” (Caste lls, 2009,
p. 55) . He shares Hab ermas’ view that communicat ion itself is a form of action tha t changes
the realities of the social world, inclu ding power relatio ns; and thu s, he argues that in today’s
network society, communicat ion is p owerful because it shapes sh ared mea ning and
accordingly inf luences actio n (In nes and Booher, 2014 ) . The question here is h ow this new
structural fo rm, th e network societ y, influen ces the plann ing age nda and more importa ntly
collaborative p lanning co ncept s .
Verma and Shin (2007 ) b elieve th at “ despite Castells’ prominence with in plan ning, p lannin g
theory ha s be en slow to see th e ne twork society as ce ntral to its agend a , howeve r this tide
may be chan ging, a s new literature are co ming ” (Verma an d Shin, 2007, p. 9) . On a very
abstract a nd theo retical level, the y debate wheth er the ne twork societ y can be
accommodate d an d find a home within th e co mmunicative turn of planning theory or their
difference s require constituting new se t of p lanning th eory. Doin g that, the y deb at e
Habermas’ theory of communicative action (as the root of the co mmunicative turn in
planning ) and Cast ells ’ network societ y. Comparing analogically the core ide as of b oth
theories (Table 2 ) and associating their arguments’ perspective wi th American pragmatism ,
they co nclude that the reality of the network so ciety and its complexity does no t reject or
disavowal of co mmunicative a ction, and be lieve a “pragmatic marriage” be twee n
communicative actio n and th e network societ y is possible (Verma and S hin, 2007) .
Table 2 Comparing Hab ermas and Castell s T heories (Verma and Shin, 2007)
Tensio n

Manifest ation

Consequ ences

System versus l ifeworld
(Habermas)

Colonization of life world by
system

- Erosion of ordinary
communicative action
- Instrumentalization o f ends and
purpose

Net versus Self (Ca stells)

Increasing distance be tween
Net and Self

- Declining legitima cy of the
nation-state
- Emergence of resistan ce
identities

Additiona lly, Booh er and Innes (20 02) discuss the possibilities of ne twork p ower in
collaborative p lanning in the co ntext o f the ne twork so ciety. In th eir opinio n, network power
is what works most eff ectively in the informational age. By definition , n etwork power
implicates a shared a bility o f linke d age nts to ind ividually and co llectively chang e their
environment in adva ntageo us ways to th es e agen ts. Hence, ne twork po wer emerge s from
communication and collaboration among individuals, public and private agencies, and
businesse s in a society. Network power emerge s as diverse participants in a network focus

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

on a common task and deve lop shared me anings an d common h euristics that gu ide the ir
action. The power grows as these players identify an d build on their interdepen dencies to
create new potentia l. In the process, inno vations and n ovel respo nses to environmental
stresses can emerge. More concret ely, three condition s of th e a gents’ d iversity,
interdepe ndency, and a n authentic dialogu e are critical in ena bling such network power (see
Figure 7 ) (Booher and Innes, 2002) .

In summary, it could b e concluded th at in the co ntemporary times hierarchical au thority is
dramatically less effective . Inste ad, authority an d power are fragmented, and info rmation
flows through ne tworks. If acto rs work co llaboratively, they are able to de ve lop shared
heuristics, join t objectives an d shared knowledge and mea nings. Th ese provide th e basis
for building an d maintainin g new networks, which create their own forms of power and action
(Booher and Innes, 2002) . In the ne w model of participation , citizens must be part of such
networks an d thus be part of th e action themselves. Moreo ver, Shirky highligh ts th e fact that
“we are livin g in the middle of a remarka ble increase in our a bility to share, to co operate with
one a nother, and to take collective action, a ll outside the framework o f trad itional institutions
and o rganizations” (Shirky, 200 8, p . 2 0). This new opp ortunity opens doors to planne rs for
incorporating more citizens in p lanning proce sses and a cting collabo ratively.
In conclusion , the lack of real world face - to -face participation practices d ue to th eir own
politics of difference an d u nequal power rela tions are identified. At the same time, technology
allows an en tirely new generation of forms and practices of citizen participatio n th at promises
to eleva te the public discourse in a n unprece dented m anner, while providing an interactive,
networked environmen t for decision -making (Evans-Cowley a nd Hollan der, 2010) .
Therefore, municipalities and urban p lanners try to use advance d information and
Figure 7 Diversit y, interdepen dence, and authentic dial ogue n etwork dynam ics (ad apted from Booher and
Innes, 200 2)

Adaptations
of the System
Results of
Authentic Dialogue
Characteristics
of Participants

Interdepen dence of
Agent

Diversity of Agen t
Shared Identit ies

Shared Meanin gs
New Heuristics
Inno vation

Reciprocity

Relationsh ips
learning
creativity

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

communication te chnologies to inform, co nsult and actively enga ge citizens in u rban
decision-making processes , which is expe cted to broad en the collaboration of citizens as
well as loca l public se rvice delivery (Silva, 2013). The next sectio ns will explore n ew
opportu nities offered by ICT on a practical le vel.
2.3.3 Definitio ns and objectives of ePa rticipation
The high diffusion of ICT an d especially the In ternet in co mbination with the trend towards
more participa tion of citizen s in the processe s of public decision -making an d p olicymaking
have b een conside red as the main d rivers of th e emergen ce and develop ment of
eParticipation (Loukis, 2012) . Rese archers and scholars h ave tried to de fine e Participation
concept. Doing so , many terms h ave bee n a pplied in literature in describing th e rela ted
domain, n amely digital democracy, eVoting a nd eDemocracy.
Hacker and van Dijk (2000) define digital democracy as “a collection of attempts to practice
democracy without the limits of time, space and othe r physical conditions, using ICT or
Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) as an addition , not a replacement , fo r traditional
‘analogu e’ political practices” (Hacker and van Dijk, 2000 , p. 1) . Th e term e Democracy is a
term that has been used widely, but with different int erpretatio ns. In some cases, it has been
incorrectly used as syno nym of e Voting, which is no t the on ly possible way of inf luencing
decision making processes. The refore, i n the interna tional de bate, a distinction is made
between the term "eP articipation" and the t erm "eDemocracy" in that the latte r also covers
elections as the most binding form of citizen participatio n (eVotin g) (Tambouris et al. , 2007 b) .
Accordingly, e Democracy is “ the use of information and communicat ion techn ologies to
engag e citizens, suppo rt democrat ic decision -making processes and stren gthen
representa tive d emocracy. The principal ICT mecha nism is th e Inte rnet a ccessed th rough
an incre asing variety of channels, including persona l computers (PCs), both in the home and
in p ubic locations, mob ile pho nes, an d interactive d igital TV. The democrat ic de cision -
making processes ca n be divided into two main ca tegories: one add ressing the elect oral
process, inclu ding eVo ting, and the o ther addressing citizen eParticipation in democrat i c
decision-making ” (Macinto sh, 2004 )
Tambouris and the colleagues claim that ePa rticipation could be p art of a broade r sp ectrum
of the topic of eDemocracy. They believe that eParticipation should include all forms of digital
engag ement rang ing from top -down governmen t to bottom -up community initiative s .
Therefore, it can be de fined as “the use of information a nd communication techno logies to
broaden and deepe n political participatio n by ena bling citizens to conn ect with one ano ther
and with th eir elected representa tives” (Tambouris et al. , 200 7b, p. 9 ). In other words, t he
term eParticipatio n incorpo rates proce dures b ased on ICT to ena ble the participation of
citizens and other stake holders in p olitical d ecision -making processes (Macintosh, 20 04 ,
2006; OECD, 20 03). Albrecht and his colleagu es in th eir study consider eParticipation as
part of eGovernment and define it as “ th e participation of individua ls and legal en tities
(including groups the reof) in political a nd a dministrative d ecision -making processes by
means of ICT” (Albrecht et al. , 20 08, p . 4).

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

In th is concep t, th e idea tha t citizen e Participation aims to shape the conte nt of urban
policies, monito ring an d eva luating the implementa tion of these policies is embedded .
Local/urba n g overnment s acts a s ne tworked orga nizations, u se citizen mass-collaboration
in d ifferent stag es o f th e po licy process, co -innovate with citizens and o ther local
stakeho lders, and share resou rces (Silva, 2013 ). More a ccurately, different researchers
investigate d the a ims of eParticipation in the con text of u rban plann ing as:
 to ena ble the p articipation of a broade r range of int erests and p erspectives;
 to make ea sier and more unde rstandable information access for citizens
regarding urban p lanning;
 enhan ce the equity in the a ccess ibility to d ecision-making processes in u rban
governan ce;
 to provide relevant info rmation that sup ports plann ing decision;
 to provide opportun ities for nego tiation be tween diffe rent perspective s;
 to help consensus building; to in crease transp arency in pu blic decision -making;
 to improve th e citizens’ inputs for th e policy process; to ena ble citizens to set up
their own p olicy agenda ;
 to reinforce local iden tity th rough citizen engagemen t in community affairs; and
 to improve the efficiency of local pub lic services (Albrecht et al. , 2008;
Macin tosh, 2004; OECD, 2001, 2003).
2.3.4 Tools ( eTools)
Even for traditional form o f citizen participation some tools and metho ds a re required. In the
case of eParticipa tion several formats and /or tools are available whe n it comes to design in g
participation processe s within the d ifferent pa rticipation forms. The term "too l" refers to the
technical f unctionality an d implemen tation, whilst "format" refers to the abstract info rmation
and co mmunication pattern (Albrecht e t al. , 2008) . It sh ould be argued that not all o f these
tools should be seen as a replacemen t of conven tional m odes of citizen participa tion in u rban
governan ce, but as a complement to the traditional tools. However, it is increasingly
recognized that a n ew te chnology will not replace s p revious te chnologies without chan gin g
the essence of structures and proce sses . There is basically a transformation running (Silva,
2013) .
Nevertheless, a se ries of to ols a nd/or fo rmats tha t are listed above (see 2.2.4 ), will be
described below:
Digital TV in the closer sense (without feedback channel): Unidirectional communication
from one transmitter to many receivers in the sense of trad itional mass med ia. The digital
transmission path s en able th e int egration of a dditional information services, such as
electronic prog ram guides.
Kiosk systems / info t erminals : Computer-base d, sta tionary multimedia terminals, which
are typically used as info rmation systems with o r without Inte rnet access. The d esired
function s can be a ccessed via th e keyboa rd or a touch -screen .

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

Website : Websites are primarily used for u nidirection al info rmation dissemination. Howeve r ,
they can also integ rate other ch annels .
Newsletter: Pe riodical electronic p ublications (circulars), which can b e received via Email.
Really Simple S yndica tion (RSS) feed: RSS fe eds p rovide inf ormation conce rning ne wly
published conte nt on web sites, in weblogs or forums. A so -called RSS reade r (also called
feedrea der or aggreg ator), which can also b e directly integrate d into a browser or an E-mail
client should be used to receive the information . It is th en n o long er n ecessary to visit
websites o r to ch eck them for upd ates. Au dio or vide o conte nts of a pod cast are also
automatica lly downloaded into the co mputer by RSS.
Weblog: A frequen tly up dated website presentin g contributions in chronolog ical order, with
the most recent contributions appearing o n top. Weblogs enable users to quickly and easily
publish texts, pictu res, a udio and video files on the basis of a Content M anagemen t System
(CMS). The se co ntributions can the n b e commented by visitors of a weblog. F urthermore,
blogs are stro ngly intercon nected by a so-called trackball (direct refe rences to conten ts of
other blog s) and blog rolls (collections of links to other web logs).
Podcast (audio or video): A udio or video co ntributions, that are published o n websi te s and
that can be directly viewed or downlo aded and /or be autom atica lly received using special
RSS-based software. Aud io podcasts, in particular, are designed for p layback using mobile
devices. This is also reflected by the te rm "podcast" which is compo sed o f the "iPod" (a
mobile audio player) and "b roadcast".
Online games and sim ulations: Games and simulation s en able a p layful ap proach by
users towards the con tents of a p articular subject. They can be o f a descriptive , illustrative
and more e ducationa l n ature, or they ca n simulate a real (de cision) situation and highlight
the possible effects of actions. Most of these applications enable human - to -computer
interaction, but so-called multi-user games are also available, that can invo lve several use rs
in one game.
Interactive maps / geodata -based communica tions: Applicatio ns for the presenta tion of
geograp hical data on th e Internet . The presenta tion of the d ata can usua lly be varied by the
viewer. The applications can b e d esigned in such a manner that info rma tion (such as te xt or
pictures con cerning a pa rticular place) could be adde d by users.
SMS / MMS: The abbreviation s SMS for Short Message Service an d MMS for Multimedi a
Messaging Service represent b oth the service as well as the pure text an d multim edia sh ort
messages th emselves.
E-mail / ma iling lists: E-mail ("electronic mail") ena bles th e asynchrono us exchan ge of both
text messages and files. Alth ough E -mails are mostly used for communicat ions between
individuals, they can also b e sent to several recipi ents o r used to e xchange messag es within
closed use r groups (mailing lists).

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

Webcast (with feedback function): Broadcasting (streaming) of video conte nts from one
sender to several receivers via t he Inte rnet. The recordings are broadcast live, but can als o
be archived and viewed at any time. So me web casts a lso offer feedback functions during
live streaming. It is, for example, p ossible to a sk individual que stions or send comments.
Telephone / call ce nter: The telephon e enables simultaneous communication between two
individuals (or several individua ls in the case of a teleph one conference). The answering of
calls and/o r the active establishment of conta ct per telepho ne is bund led in call cente rs ,
which are sta ffed b y several employee s. In con trast to co ntacts esta blished with individual
call partne rs via the te lephone, a call ce nter ensures th at the call is in fact an swered. This
usually eliminate s the ne ed for time -consuming con necting on th e telep hone and asking
callers for the righ t partner to talk to.
Chat: Chats are simultane ous (synchronou s) text -base d discussio ns. Dep ending on the
purpose of a chat, two or more users can comm u nicate wi th each other either directly or via
a moderato r in the case of subj ect-cen tered cha ts.
Instant me ssaging: In stant messenger s enable the rea l-time communicat ion of te xt, voice
or vide o signa ls. Communication s a re usua lly restricted to the u sers of the sa me system
because there are, with a fe w e xceptions, different software so lutions, which u se different
protocols. In the case of instan t messaging, other users must first be confirmed as conta ct s
and be entered into a so -called bu ddy list, which sh ows if a contact is online and/o r if he is
ready to co mmunicate.
Social tagging/ social bookmarking: Internet contents are collaborat ively ta gged by users
by means o f metadata in the form of the so -called tags. The tag s are assigne d witho ut fixed
rules and structu res, so th at every user can assign those ta gs, which he or sh e persona l l y
associates with the conte nts.
Ranking / rating tool: Ranking and rating tools ena ble the quan titative or qualita tive rating
of conten ts for e xample in a discussion forum. Such ran kings or ratings can be carried out
ei ther automatically (for example longest contributio n, most viewe d contribution or
contribution with most replies) or by the users of the systems (for example, awarding points
which reflect co nsent to a contributio n ).
Online input form: Info rmation can be captured a nd transmitte d in a stan da rdized form.
Quick poll: S hort p olls, which enab le th e ret rieval o f simple opinion state ments. A certain
question is usually asked and a few reply optio ns a re off ered. (Intermediate ) results of the
poll are usu ally presen ted immediately .
Online questionnaire / Survey: Lon ger surveys d esigned to retrieve more differen tiat ed
opinion statements, which can be completed a nd transmitte d online . The data is captu r ed
electronically an d can he nce be e valuated more quickly and with less effort .
Videoconference : Videoconfe rences suppo rt the simultaneou s comm unication of two or
more geog raphically sepa rated communication partne rs in the form of (moving) pictures and

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

sound, i.e. all the pa rtners taking p art in the co nference can h ear a nd see each othe r. Some
confere nce systems also e nable th e exchang e and jo int editing o f documents.
Forum: Forums enable (in most cases su bject -centered ) d iscussions in larger grou ps
irrespective of time and place. Active participation in the discussion in a forum is usu all y
subject to prior registration . Fo llowing this, reg istered users can pu blish their o w n
contribution s to th e discussion (postings) or comment on postings from other users. Forums
can be held witho ut a mod erator, so that postings are p ublished d irectly and discussio ns
moderate themselves without exte rnal int ervention . A ca n also moderator support the
discussion, check whe ther postings a re appropriate for the su bject , and prep are summaries
on a reg ular basis, etc .
Wiki: Thematic collections of web sites can b e p repared in a join t effort b y a large grou p of
users at differen t times and at diffe rent ge ographic loca tions. Every user can directly ed it the
texts online, with integrate d version managemen t function s (histo ry entries, discussions)
ensuring th e traceability o f every single ch ange.
Photo / video community: Online platforms on which use rs ca n p ublish th eir own photos
or video s, that can be commente d on and rated by other users. Furthe rmore, the contents
published ca n be provided with tags. The community membe rs can pr esent themselves with
their own p rofiles and orga nize themselves in ( for instance thematic ) groups.
Social networking site / online community: On line platfo rms, which a re p rimari ly use d for
one's own presenta tion an d to estab lish a nd maintain con tacts a nd relatio ns. The profiles
can be provided with tab s and su pple mente d by addition al con tent , such as photos or videos.
Groupware: Complex applicatio ns designe d to suppo rt group work via time a nd space
bound aries. Groupware systems offe r a host of fu nctionalit ies for cooperation (shared
information sp ace, group editors or wikis fo r the joint creation a nd archiving of documents,
communication with grou p members (con ference a nd messaging systems, such a s video
conferen ce tools, E-mail, chats, instant messaging ) a nd coordination of workflows (workflow
managemen t, calenda r sharing).
Virtual worlds: Virtual 3D environments in which use rs move and inte ract with o ther users
via a digita l profile (avatar). The conte nts and objects of a virtual world, such a s "Se cond
Life", can usually be created by the registered use rs themselves. Communication s with other
users take the f orm of sho rt messages, ch ats or fo rums, including t he possibility to sen d E -
mails to n onusers. Fu rthermore, the participants can organ ize the mselves in user groups,
for example, in order to work o n joint virtual proje cts (Albrecht et al. , 2008).
Public Participation Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS): PPGIS su pports various
stages o f more co llaborative plann ing proce ss es , by disseminatin g planning -related
information online, expanding the number of stakeholde rs in plan ning, easing the
understa nding of a nalyses throu gh visualization , a nd weighting a lternatives utilizing
graphical u ser interfaces (Sieber, 2 006) .

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

Augmented Reali ty (AR) : Augmented Reality is augmenta tion o f th e surrounding s of the
user with virtua l information tha t is registe r ed in 3D space a nd overlays with th e real world
(Yovcheva et al. , 2012) .
Obviously, each of the aforemention ed e Tools has their specific functions a nd abilities, which
fulfill differen t d emands and ne eds in the proce ss of citizen p articipation in u rban planning
context. Furthermore, th ese eTo ols co uld be used with no e xplicit d istinction in mob ile
application s as well as stationary to ols, that ca n be used with differen t d evices e .g. portable
devices (mobile p hones, smart ph on es, ta blets, and laptop s) a nd fix de vices (PC, kiosk) at
home or at specific p lace s . These eTo ols will be used later in reviewing the mParticipation
projects (section 3.1).
2.3.5 Challeng es and opportu nities o f eParticipation
Some resea rchers a rgued that the Internet d isconnects citizens from pu blic p olicy; however ,
others claim even a positive effect of ePa rticipa tion on civic and political participation
(Surowiecki, 2005; Noveck, 2009; Smith et al. , 2009). Some examples show that the Internet
increases and improves citizen participation in urba n governa nce (Weber e t al. , 2 003;
Gibson e t al. , 20 05; Boulianne, 2 009) . On the one h and, propone nts of eP articipation
conten d that the u se of ICTs may a lleviate at least some participatio n impediments a nd
invoke ben efits such as implementation ease and co st -eff iciency (Shirky, 2008; Nove ck,
2009) , easier citizen participation and access (Se ifert and Peterson , 2002) , or increasing of
trust (OECD, 2003). It is also conside red a s a to ol to ameliorate the relatio nships between
citizens and governmen t in terms of quality and a ccess to services, and transparency o f
decision making (Bekkers an d Homburg, 20 07) .
Silva (2013 ) catego rizes the ben efits o f eParticip atio n for citizens a nd local governmen t. In
terms of citizen-related benefits, he believes that eParticipation provide s info rmation o f urban
issues in a more accessible form, increases the a bility of citizen s to inf luence not only conten t
of policy, but a lso its im p lementation , monito ring an d e valuation (Kubicek, 2010; Albrecht et
al. , 2008) . For the urba n government, ePa rticipation improves efficiency a nd effe ctivenes s
with more an d better policy ou tputs, outcomes and impacts. This a lso increases the
legitimacy of th e decision and h elps th e empowerment of citizen s and excluded groups of
them. On e of the promises of eParticipation is to incre ase the n umbe r of participants as well
as to inte grate broa der groups o f stakeho lders in th e urban p lanning p rocess .
On th e other hand, eParticipa tion is con fronted with nu merous barriers in particula r when
there is a declining participation in fo rmal political proces ses, in elections, in political parties
and trade un ions and a growing disconne ct a nd distrust betwee n citizen s (and yo uth) and
politicians and lastly, the resistan ce of conservat ive a dministrative sectio n s in municipalities,
as it may n ot fit th e co nventi ona l forms of urba n g overnance (Silva, 2013 ) . Ad ditionally ,
issues such a s digital divide and data privacy (as they could be misuse d to contro l citizens)
are repea tedly cited in e Participation lite ra ture.

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

2.4 Mobile Par ti cipat ion (mParticipati on): Futur e of partici pation?
Over the p ast deca de, the rapid evolution and diffusion of telecommunications tech nology
has brought about widesp read use of mobile p hones worldwide which has changed the way
that cit izens interact with the u rban environ ment (Evans-Cowley, 2011 a). The sta tistical
reports on p enetration of In ternet and mobile phone s at least in EU co untries (76 % for
Interne t a nd 1 25% for mob ile phones ) (Wim mer et a l. , 2013) , revea l the fa ct tha t societ y is
changing into a mobile society an d especially in urban areas the mobi le citizens will be a
more d ominant group . In orde r to resp ond in time to this change of societies, the re levance
and poten tial of mobile technolog y in urban plan ning has been investigate d b y researchers .
Many concepts have been develope d, which con sidered the high pene tration o f mob ile
phone s as a ne w chance for a higher invo lvement of citizen s in urban p lanning p rocesses.
2.4.1 Ubiquity o f Internet a nd mobile socie ty
During the course o f last years, the ICT e ntered into a n ew im portant p hase (around 2005),
which is th e era of mobile communication . In this e ra the mobile communication technologies
have b een de veloping with a h igh pace, mostly d ue to the infrastructural de velopments ,
which provide higher and faste r d ata e xchange capacity . With the widespread diff usion of
mobile phones and especially smartphon es, the In ternet is going mobile. Mobile devices and
wireless connectio ns enab le th e current citizens to surf the web nearly e verywhere and
anytime as the “mobile facto r” dramatically redu ces the limitations c au sed by dista nce and
time. Th is p rovides a uniqu e oppo rtunity to join diffe rent social media an d a s a result
networks citizen s in the urba n pub lic space s. Furthermore, loca tion -based -servic es,
Augmente d Reality (AR), an d th e u biquitous connectivity ope n n ew windows for perceiving
space and pa rticipation of citizens in the conte mporary urban environment (Drohsel et al. ,
2010) .
Moreover, the p ossibility of u sing so cial ne tworks an d communicating from mobile devices
is increa sing, as a lready 30 percent of all users reach social media th rough apps (Nielsen,
2012) . Hen ce, the social int eraction of such citizens is getting mobile a nd th e mobile
techno logies are exte nding the communication at home to communication on -the-go in the
public spaces. These p ower u sers a re relevan t stakeh olders of th e future urban plan nin g
processes, as they a re mostly well educate d, have the skills to u se smartphone s an d apply
smartphone s for their daily conve rsations or co mmunicate via social med ia. They are the
actual u sers of th e Interne t and spend most of th eir time in the cyb er net an d on t he mobile
device co ntributing to a great p art of their online a ctivities (Höffken a nd Streich, 2011) .
Therefore, de aling with fu ture urba nization calls for a revis ion of urba n plan ners’
perspective s on the plan ning agenda an d ch aracteristics of th e futu re citizen s, as th ey are
going t o be con nected a nd mobile.
2.4.2 Definitio n of mParticipa tion and related concepts
MParticipation represents the late st d evelopment within eP articipation . It uses mob ile
devices, specifically apps, as to ols to en gage citizens (Ertiö, 201 3). In orde r to have a
practical defin ition for lat er analysis of the real world case s, in this stu dy we use the practical
de finition of Höffken and Streich : “mParticipation is the use o f mobile devices (e.g. mobile

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

phone s, smart ph ones , an d ta blet computers) via wireless communication te chnology to
broaden th e p articipation of citizens and oth er stakeh olders by enabling them to connec t
with each o ther, gen erate an d share information, co mment an d vote ” (Höffken and Streich,
2013, p. 206) . What distinguishe s ePa rticipation fro m mParticipatio n is portab ility :
mP articipation removes ba rriers to access a ccording to the “online whe never whe rever ”
principle. Citizens no longe r h ave to atte nd time -consuming mee tings scheduled at certain
times. Beyon d th e “ usu al susp ects”, the promise of m Participation is to reach out to d ivers e
audien ces, su ch as young a dults, who te nd to be severely under represent ed in traditional
forms of participa tion (Ertiö, 2013).
Dealing with the d iscourse of ePa rticipation and accordin gly mParticipatio n, several
concepts (and te rms) such as crowdso urcing, p articipatory sensing and Volun teer ed
Geograp hic In formation (VGI) were d eveloped by researchers and have been used to
address specific modes of e /mParticipation th rough mass collaboration or collective
intelligence an d sometimes overlap aspe cts o f e /mParticipation. A new bottom- up trend in
pa rticipation is crowdsourcing . Howe defin es the te rm as co mbination o f “crowd” and
“outsourcing” (Howe, 20 06). It is a phenomeno n that exists si nce lon g time, but gained its
importance out of the collaborative p ower of web -based coop eration. The web is a catalyst
for this ne w form of collaborative a ction o f the masses (Brabham, 2 009). More precise and
helpful in th e co ntext of mobile participation in the urban en vironment is the definition
presente d by Erickson: “c rowdsou rcing is th e u se of the pe rceptual an d cog nitive abilities of
a large group o f individua ls to solve a problem” (Erickson, 20 10). B ased on the concep t of
crowdsourcing, Erickson gives a helpf ul classificatio n of differen t typ es, b ased on time and
space. In his “four qu adrant mode l of crowdso urcing” he d efines th e te rm of geocen tr ic
crowdsourcing as relevant for urba n topics. Here th e work of the crowd is focused on a
particular place or geospa tial region (Erickson, 2 010) .
The term pa rticipatory sensing describes the integration of citizens in the acquisition a nd
collection of data sets about the urban e nvironment b y using collectively g athered data sets .
According to Bu rke et al., p articipatory sensing is the everyday u se o f “mobile devices, su ch
as cellular phones, to form int eractive, participatory sensor netwo rks that e nable public and
professiona l users to ga ther, ana lyze and sha re local knowledg e” (Burke et al. , 2006). This
can be achieved with the embedded sensors in such mobile d evices a s the accelero meter ,
digital compass, gyrosco pe, Geo graphic Positioning System (GP S), micropho ne, a nd
camera (Lan e et al. , 2010 ). P lanners can benefit from public data collection (Estrin, 20 10).
Participatory sensing has numerous tech nological and metho dological similarities to
mParticipation an d geocen tric crowdso urcing (e.g. mobile de vices, use o f sen sors,
crowdsourcing, g eoweb , etc.), but lacks the de liberative impetus a nd political influe nce that
the oth er two co ncepts sha re.
Volunteered Ge ographic Information (VGI) or Neog eography refe rs to a specific form of
citizen m ass co llaboration or crowd sourcing for production of geog raphic information in text,
image or video (Haklay et al. , 2008 ; Hud son-Smith e t al. , 2009; Ran a and Jolivea u, 20 09 ;
Warf an d Su i, 2010; Goodch ild, 200 7; S ui, 2008) . Howe ver, this form o f citizen mas s

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

 On the go participa tion
The third ch aracteristic of mParticipation can be called on the g o pa rticipation. Notably, the
biggest ben efit of mobile p articipation is portability. Citizens carry phones with them and can
now provide feedback from wherever the ir location might be. This provides true potential for
engag ement, because it removes traditional barriers o f space and time – e.g . to come to a
public meeting at a specific time. Rat her, it th rives on their current position and allows
participation “on th e go” (Ertiö, 2 013) . Therefore, citizens ca n ta ke part in participato ry
processes without having the time and sp ace barriers. For instance, while th ey are in public
transportatio n, g oing to work o r heading b ack home.
 Real-time and fas t participation
Given th e power of the mobile pho ne a s part of our ‘‘always on’’ society, there is a rea l
poten tial for creatin g rea l-time participation processes . Plann ing researche rs across the
globe have be gun to und ertake experiments to monitor and study th e real -time city, and in
doing so they ha ve develop ed new a nalytic techn iques (Eva ns-Cowley, 2011 a). In te rms of
participation and civic engagemen t, the real-time and fa st participation sup port s planners fo r
reporting urge nt matters. Moreover, usa bility, ubiqu ity a nd read iness attributes of
smartphone s accelerate participation speed and will en hance it in te rms of time duration .
Thus, b eing fa st in the proce ss o f participation can be viewe d as anothe r ch aracteristic of
mParticipation.
2.4.5 Challeng es and oppor tunities of mPa rticipation
The mentione d technolog ical p ossibilities mad e smartpho nes and tablets widely available
and pervasive in use. Using smartphones inst ead o f persona l compute rs has ad ditional
benefits. S martphones bridge the digital divi d e b y providing In ternet access to those without
computers. Manufa cturers currently produ ce a wide range of smartphon es, including low
priced models (Ertiö, 2013 ).
MParticipation opens new channels of communication, creates new ways of gath ering local
information a nd h as th e chance to crea te a low -th reshold gate way fo r citizen participation in
urban plan ning b y improving data bases a nd giving instan t feedba ck. Mobile and wireless
participation solution s (like polls or opinion profiling via mobile p hones) are not to tally
replacing old wired or fixed systems, but rather act a s complemen tary elements. Bo th
wireless and wired solution s ha ve th eir own market nic h es (eco nomically and socially) but
more integ rative solut ions will eme rge as well (Lahti et a l. , 2006a). Low -thresh ol d
participation is an important point- of -entry for the involveme nt of passe r-bys. The aim is to
get passer-bys into the process and raise their awareness a bout the process. Au tomatic
responses and further information are strategies to turn interested passer -bys into engaged
participants (Höffken a nd Streich, 20 13) . MParticipation is a valua ble method for en gagi ng
many uncon nected individu als, while minimizing time an d costs for pe rsonal involvement.
The red uction of spatial an d temporal limitations also allows the g aining o f information
anytime and everywhere. It means, that citizens are – poten tially – more ind epende nt to
choose wh en and wh ere they wou ld like to pa rticipate (Höffken and Streich, 20 11) .

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

Despite of all the advantages, mParticipation confronts a few challeng es. Th e integration of
sensors leads to the p roblem of battery powe r , as sen sors, esp ecially GPS, are e nergy
consuming. Solutions can be ba sed on software (e.g. a manua l ge o -referen cing o n a map
without GPS to avoid high e nergy co nsumption), or on th e ha rdware, improving energy
efficiency (Zhu ang et al. , 2010; Sorbe r e t al. , 2005) . Furthe rmore, improved batt eries will
also help to solve the prob lem of high -energy consumption, which is so metimes an obsta cl e
for taking part in mParticipatio n processes.
The variety of sensors and sensing techn ologies allows n ew forms of personal da ta mining,
directly affecting priv acy . This te nsion betwee n th e p articipation’s need for personal
information and the ind ividual’s right to privacy is a big challeng e and ha s to be defined in
every sing le proje ct. One diffe rence to be made is be tween active given data and passive
data co llection. While a ctive data is given vo luntarily, pa ssive data co llection is not
necessarily registered by th e user. A wareness rising is necessary fo r all pa rticipants, to
ensure that users have the knowledg e ab out locatio n information and other pe rsonal data.
They should be a ble to de termine how an d when the d ata will be used. Fo r bett er data
security and privacy protection, regulat ions from the governmen t are necessa ry. The nee d
for the instal lation of apps is at first a barrier, as the app ha s to be installed. This is time -
consuming (due to low mobile In ternet rate s) and in so me cases cost -intensive (for
participants without flat rates). On the oth er h and, pa rticipants with an inst alled app a re
probably int erested in the t opic and th erefore probably remain in th e process. Furthermore,
an ap p as a ca talyst can generate att ention t o a service an d create a h igher involvemen t.
Digital divide and exclude d group s are two of the other challeng es con frontin g
mParticipation. They result from the fact, that no t every citizen possesse s the necessa r y
smart p hone with GP S and mobile Inte rnet capabilities. For th is rea son, mParticipatio n will
exclude many pote ntial p articipants, but th e use of these smart phones will increa se in
number, as the co st of ownin g and u sing them will fall. An other problem co ncerns th e input
possibilities. Th e user reports during his daily rou tine. Mayb e he is in tran sit and does n ot
have much time to write a compreh ensive text. Beyond that typing on a small touch screen
is still very troubleso me and time -consuming . Thus, the mobile inp ut contains only small,
superficial text elemen ts (Drohsel et al. , 2010) . Nevertheless, it must b e conside red th at
challenge s of citizen participation will not b e solve d by merely focusing on gathering plannin g
information, but on how th e citizens’ d iverse input is handled and e valuated as p art of p olicy -
making (Bäcklun d and Mä ntysalo, 20 10) .
2.5 Summary
The smart cities discourse rece ived conside rable att ention from resea rchers and
practitioners du ring the last decade. The current smart city discussions ind icate a sh ift of
paradigm from a te chnolog y-driven d evelopment toward more inclusive and human -centric
approach es. Therefore, the importan ce of citizens in the planning of (current and) future
smart cities h as be come more clear. Moreover, the urban plan ning discourse has
experienced a fundamen tal shift from rational u rban plan ning toward collaborative urban
planning since the 80’s. Th is approa ch influen ces the citizen participatio n discussion and

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

brings up new dilemmas for engaging citizen s in planning proce sses . This new paradigm o f
citizen participation as collaborative participation seeks to deal with the interests of all acto r s
(public agencies, powerfu l private int erests, an d disad vantaged citizens) a nd treat all e qually
within the d iscussions. Moreover, to ach ieve a su ccessful citizen pa rticipation in urban
planning p rocesses, it is required to define the leve l of eng agement and the type of meth ods
being u sed in the participatory proce sses.
Over th e co urse o f th e pa st de cades, the rise o f the ne w ICTs an d the Inte rnet has
transformed our cities as well a s our so cieties to the “ ne twork society”. The high diffusion of
ICT in combination with the t rend towards more participation o f citizen s in the p rocesses of
public decision -making and policymaking have b een con sidered as the main drivers o f the
emergence and development of ePa rticipation (Loukis, 2012). Se veral e Participation formats
and/o r too ls ca n be app lied to design a successfu l pa rticipation processes . Moreover, the
rapid evolut ion an d diffusion of teleco mmunications te chnology ha s brought about
widespread u se o f mobile ph ones worldwide. It has be en just a fe w years since mob ile
techno logies be come available on th e market and they have extre mely influenced the
behavior of use rs like n o other digital inst rument did before. Therefore, it is vital to inve stigate
the influen ce of using mobile tech nologies in participato ry urban planning processes of smart
cities. This is the RQ2, which sh ould be a nswered in the next sessions. Certain
characteristics of mParticipatio n distinguish this concep t fro m othe r typ e o f citizen
participation (e.g. face - to -face a nd eParticipation ). These characteristics are “on demand
participation”, “locally -specified part icipation”, “on th e go participatio n” , and “real -time and
fast p articipation”. Ap art from all the ben efits of mParticipation, there are some challen ge s
and limitations of this techn ology, which have been discusse d in th is cha pter. This library
studies abou t d ifferent aspe cts of mPa rticipation is completed with the fu rther library and
practical stu dies that are p resented in the next chap ter s. Combinin g a nd analyzing the
results of th ese studies ena bles the rese archer to answer the RQ1 and RQ3 at th e end of
this dissertatio n.

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

Chapter III - mParticipation
practices in the real world
(case studi es)

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

3.1 Reviewing an d analyzi n g the mPar ti cipation practices in global
perspectiv e
This p art of dissertation refers to the ana lysis of current real-world mParticipation projects in
order to inve stigate the latest developmen ts in this emergin g field. The main aim he re is to
provide a systematic overview of th e current lan dscape of mPartic ipa tion practices with the
focus on planning . Doing this, more than 150 mob ile apps (and m obile -read y websites) and
projects a re reviewed and fina lly 23 case studies are selected according to the relevan c e
and p ossible usage for th e urban planning discou rs e. This research is focused on
mParticipation in the urban plan ning context, the refore projects in the context of urban
governan ce (like public relations of m unicipalities and city councils, transparency and
corruption, issue -reporting apps, an d u tilities mana gement) or projects relate d to a specific
topic (like transp ortation related proje cts, or public safety and health ) are excluded from the
analysis. This means tha t projects tha t are dea ling in p articular with u rban deve lopmen t
plans, strategic visions and plans, p lanning reg ulations and similar on es were reviewed.
Moreover, some mParticipation practices, that are ind irectly use ful are also embedde d in the
analysis. Th e geo graphical scop e of searching for practices is worldwide ranging from the
USA, Euro pe, to Midd le East and Asia.
For the analysis of th e select ed examples , the ana lytical framework used by Höffke n and
Streich (201 3) is modified and completed by some additional criteria, th at were derived from
the studies of Desouza an d Bhagwatwar (2012; 2014 ) and Tambouris a nd his colleagues
(Tambouris et al. , 2007a) . Additiona lly, from the theoret ical resea rch, some fa ctors are
extracted and app lied in the analysis in th is section . The information and data abo ut ca ses
were co llected using secon dary sources (e.g . web p ortals, social-media so urces, existing
literature, a pp stores and d istribution lists). The analytical framework includes three
catego ries of criteria reg arding th e project, techn ology and citizen participation. Criteria such
as the goal of ap plication, b eneficiari es (actors who b enefits from), medium, topic, sp atial
level, d riving institution/d eveloper and their motiva tion are embedded in the project category .
In th e tech nology categ ory, th e cases will be analyzed according to the syste m of project,
data source, cha nnel an d form of communication, platform deploye d, complexity (in terms o f
user exp erience and user friendliness), the used location-base d verification , used eToo ls ,
user identification (registration) and devices. The third g roup of criteria, citizen part icipation,
focuses on invo lved actors, level of participatio n (according to the definition of OECD), co sts
of participation , direction of communication (top -down or bottom -up), inf ormation flow (one
way, two way) , cross -media communication (link to oth er s ocial media), relation n etwork
between acto rs, a nd more importantly the stage in the urban p lanning process ( info rming,
ideation /articulate concerns, data gath ering, ana lysis, scenario and decision making,
implementation ).

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

Table 3 Project criteria

Name

Goal of ap plication

Beneficiaries (ac tors
who ben efits from)

Medium

Topic

Spatial
Level

Driving
Institu tion/Devel
oper

Motivat ion of Driving
Institu tion/Developer

Country

Abu Dhabi
Vision 2030

Information sharing and
collecting citizen feedbacks

Citizens, planners,
government a gencies

Online

Strategic development
plan

City

Government al
agenc y

Transparen cy, consulting citizens

UAE, Abu
Dhabi

bePart

Informing citizen s about public
hearings of developmen t plans ,
rating development plans,
providing possibilities to
suggest developmen t needs

Citizens, government
agencies

Online

Implementation of
Urban development
plans

City

Research Institute
(Student project)

Prize

Germany,
Potsdam and
Berlin

Bürgerbaut
stadt

Providing citizens with clearer
and easier information ab out
public hearings of developmen t
plans

Citizens

Online

Implementation of
Urban development
plans

City

Project from Open
Data Initiatives

Transparen cy

Germany,
Berlin

Building eye

Providing an easy to use
interface for citizens to access
building permits, planning
applications, code
enforcement, capital projects,
public events, bu siness
licenses and other civic
activities

Citizens

Online

Tracking building
permits for citizens

Neighbo
rhood/
city

Start-up compa ny

Financial benefits

USA, San
Francisco

Chip- In

Connecting motivated leaders
to fun ds and volunteers in order
to complete community projects

Citizens, planners ,
developers

Online

Co -funding (time or
money) implementing
projects

Neighbo
rhood

Research Institute
(Student project)

Prize

USA, Ohio

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

Commun ity
Remarks

Collecting citizens ideas for
development plan project

Citizens, planners,
government a gencies

Online

Urban development
plans

Neighbo
rhood/
city

Start-Up company

Financial benefits

USA

CityVoice

Giving citizens a voice to
influence planning processes
by collecting citizen ideas and
feedback

Citizens, government
agencies

Online
and offline

Revitalizing urban
vacant lands

Neighbo
rhood/
city

Project from Open
Data Initiatives

Helping municipality to solve an urban
problem, enga ging people in planning
process

USA

FlashPoll

Gathering opinion s and
feedback of citizens about
urban issues

Citizens, planners,
government a gencies

Online
and offline

Urban development
projects

Neighbo
rhood/
city

Research Institute

EU -Research project

Germany,
Berlin

Local Data

Making digital tools to collect
and analyze informatio n abou t
urban infrastr ucture in real -time

Citizens, planners,
government a gencies

Online
and offline

Urban environment
data gathering

Neighbo
rhood/
city

Start-Up company

Financial benefits , m obilizing people
to be engage d in planning processes
of their urban environm ent, making
data -gathering pr ocess for ur ban
authorities and plan ners easier and
more efficient

USA

Master Plan
2014 -
Singapore

Information shar ing

Citizens, government
agencies

Online

Master Plan

City

Governmental
agency

Providing different subjective maps
about the master plan

Singapore

Metroques t

Engaging citizens in planning

Citizens, government
agencies

Online
and offline

Urban development
projects

Neighbo
rhood/
city/
s tate

Private
consultancy

Financial benefits

USA

Mindm ixer

Building better communities by
involving people in the things
they care about

Citizens, planners,
government agencies

Online

Urban development
projects

Neighbo
rhood/
city/
s tate

Start-Up company

Financial benefits, providing an
alternative enga gement meth od via
crowdsourcing

USA

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

Nabo

Creating safer communities by
providing a private social
network and connect together
the people in neighborhood

Citizens, go vernment
agencies

Online

Urban development
projects in suburbs

Neighbo
rhood

Start-Up company

Financial bene fits, connecting city
officials and local residents with each
other and create bette r and safe r
communities

Australia

Neighbo orla
nd

Empowering organizations to
collaborate with residents on
local issues by providing real -
world design tools and a web-
based communication platform

Citizens, planners an d
go vernment age ncies

Online
and offline

Urban development
projects

Neighbo
rhood/
city/
s tate

Start-Up company

Financial benefits, imp roving the way
local orga nizations, municipal
leaders, and r esidents collaborate to
make great ide as happen.

USA

Nextdoo r

Connecting local organizatio ns
to r esidents via a private social
network and connect together
the people in neighborhood

Citizens, go vernment
agencies

Online

Urban development
projects, crime
Prevention, emergency
preparedne ss

Neighbo
rhood

Start-Up company

Financial bene fits, connecting city
officials and local residents with each
other

USA

Nexthamb ur
g

Activating citizens in urban
development processes and
crowdsourcing ideas for
development

Citizens, planne rs

Online
and offline

Strategic development
plan

City

Non-Profit
Organization

help the citizens in developing ideas
for the urban developm ent and be
actively enga ged

Germany,
Hamburg

OpenPlans

Engaging citizens in planning
processes

Citizens, planners,
government a gencies

Online

Urban development
projects

Neighbo
rhood/
city

Non-Profit
Organization

Providing an easy under standable
and ready - to -use maps for citizens
and ur ban authorities for engaging
citizens

USA

Planning
Toolkit

Providing information on
municipality’s administrative
services

Citizens, planners,
developers

Online

Calculating agen cy fee
form de partment of city
planning

City

Government
agencies

Providing e asier services for planners
and citizens, providing the contact
information of agencies to ur ban
planners and citizen s

USA, Los
Angeles

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

PlanningVIC
: Planning
Property
Report

Information shar ing

Citizens, planners,
developers

Online

Planning Property
Report service

City

Government
agencies

Transparen cy, providing easier
services for planners

Australia,
Victoria state

Seattle i n
Progress

Showing the “notice of
proposed land use” in a much
understandable way to citizens

Citizens

Online

“Notice of pr oposed
land use”
(implementation of
building constructions)

City

Normal citizen

Transparen cy, easier and
understandable presenta tion of
information for citizens, monitoring
development project implemen ted b y
urban author ities

USA, Seattle

Textizen

Providing possibilities for urban
authorities to reach most of
their citizens and engage them
in urban planning process

Citizens, planners,
government a gencies

Online
and offline

Urban development
projects

Neighbo
rhood/
city

Start-Up company

Financial benefits, accessing mostly
anyone of citizens via their phone
24/7

USA

Urban
Planning -
Gordexola

Engaging citizens in planning

Citizens, planners,
government a gencies

Online
and offline

Urban development
projects

City

Research Institute

EU -Research project

Spain,
Gordexola

Ushahidi

Enabling people to be actively
engaged in transformation of
their environment throu gh
gathering geo-based
information, communicating via
SMS and visualizing the results

Citizens, planners an d
government a gencies

Online
and offline

Urban development
projects

Neighbo
rhood/
city/
state

Non-Profit
Organization

Giving the po wer of action to no rmal
people, providing easy to use
platform with differ ent functions

Kenya

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

Table 4 Technology criteria
Name

System of
Project

Data Source

Channel of
Commun ication

Form of
Commun ication

Platform
Deployed

Complexit y

Locatio n-
Based
Verification

Used eTo ols

User
Identif ication
(Registratio n)

Devices

Abu Dhab i
Vision 2030

Project- need
development

User feeds, Open
data from
government

Mobile Inter net

Text, map

Mobile app

Medium
(working
with design
tool)

Interactive
maps,
Augmented
Reality

Not needed

Tablet (only
iPad)

bePart

Project- need
development

Open data from
government, user
feeds

Mobile Inter net

Text, map, imag e

Mobile app

Low

yes

Interactive
maps

Not needed

Smartphon
e and tablet

Bürgerbautst
adt

Project- need
development

Open data from
government

Mobile Inter net

Map

Mobile-rea dy
website

Low

Interactive
maps

Not needed

Smartphon
e and tablet

Building eye

Project- need
development

Open data from
government

Mobile Inter net

Map

Mobile-rea dy
website

Low

Interactive
maps

Needed

Smartphon
e and tablet

Chip- In

Project- need
development

User feeds

Mobile Inter net

Text, map, imag e

Mobile app

Low

Interactive
maps

Needed

Smartphon
e and tablet

Commun ity
Remarks

Project- need
development

User feeds

Mobile Inter net

Text, map, imag e

Mobile-rea dy
website

Low

Interactive
maps

Not needed

Smartphon
e and tablet

CityVoice

Open source
tool

User feeds

Telephony

Audio (voice) , map

Mobile-rea dy
website

Very Low

Call center

Not needed

Normal
phone,
smartphone
and table

FlashPoll

Open source
tool

User feeds

Mobile Inter net

Text

Mobile app

Medium

yes

Quick poll

Not needed

Smartphon
e and tablet

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

Local Data

Open source
tool

User feeds

Mobile Inter net

Text, map, imag e

Mobile app

Low

Interactive
maps

Not needed

Smartphon
e and tablet

Master Plan
2014 -
Singapore

Project- need
development

Open data from
government

Mobile Inter net

Text, map

Mobile app

Low

Interactive
maps

Not needed

Smartphon
e and tablet

Metroques t

Project- need
development

Open data from
government,
User feeds

Mobile Inter net

Text, map, im age

Mobile ap p/
Mobile-rea dy
website

Low

Interactive
maps, ranking
tool, Quick poll

Not needed

Tablet

Mindm ixer

Open source
tool

User feeds

Mobile Inter net

Text, image, video

Mobile-rea dy
website

low

Online For um,
ranking tool

Needed

Smartphon
e and tablet

Nabo

Project- need
development

User feeds

Mobile Inter net

Text, map, im age

Mobile app

low

yes

Social
networking site,
instant
messaging

Needed

Smartphon
e and tablet

Neighbo orla
nd

Project- need
development

User feeds, Open
data from
government

Mobile Inter net

Text, map, im age

Mobile-rea dy
website

low

Interactive
maps, ranking
tool

Needed

Smartphon
e and tablet

Nextdoo r

Project- need
development

User feeds

Mobile Inter net

Text, map, im age

Mobile app

low

yes

Social
networking site,
instant
messaging

Needed

Smartphon
e and tablet

Nexthamb ur
g

Project- need
development

User feeds

Mobile Inter net

Text, map, im age

Mobile app

Low

Interactive
maps, ranking
tool,

Not needed

Smartphon
e and tablet

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

Augmented
Reality

OpenPlans

Open source
tool

User feeds

Mobile Inter net

Text, map, im age

Mobile-rea dy
website

Low

Interactive map,
ranking tool

Needed

Smartphon
e and tablet

Planning
Toolkit

Project- need
development

Open data from
government

Mobile Inter net

Text

Mobile app

Low

Website

Not needed

Smartphon
e and tablet

PlanningVIC:
Planning
Property
Report

Project- need
development

Open data from
government

Mobile Inter net

Text, map, pdf data

Mobile app

low

Website

Not needed

Smartphon
e and tablet

Seattle in
Progress

Project- need
development
(open source)

Open data from
government

Mobile Inter net

Text, map, pdf data

Mobile web
app

low

Interactive map

Not needed

Smartphon
e and tablet

Textizen

Project- need
development

User feeds

SMS, MMS

Text, image

Mobile-rea dy
website

low

SMS/MMS

Needed (phone
number)

Normal
phone,
smartphone

Urban
Planning -
Gordexola

Project- need
development

User feeds, Open
data from
government

Mobile Inter net

Text, map, im age

Mobile app

low

Interactive map,
quick poll,
Augmented
reality

Needed

Smartphon
e and tablet

Ushahidi

Open source
tool

User feeds

SMS, Mobile
Internet

Text, map

Mobile-rea dy
website/
Mobile app

low

Interactive map,
instant
messaging

Not needed

Normal
phone,
smartphone

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

Table 5 Citizen participat ion criteria
Name

Involved Actors

Level of
Participation

Costs for
Participants

Commun ication
Direction

Informatio n Flow

Cross-media
commu nication

Relation Network
between Act ors

Stage in Ur b an
Planning Process

Abu Dhab i
Vision 2030

Citizens, planners,
governmental a gency

Active participation

Low (with
flatrate Inter net)

Top-Down

Two-way

Gov. ⇔ Citiz.

Informing, scenario
and decision making

bePart

Citizens, gover nmental
agency

Information

Low (with
flatrate Inter net)

Bottom- Up

Two-way

Gov. ⇔ Citiz.
Citiz. ⇔ Citiz.

Informing,
Ideation/articulate
concerns

Bürgerbautsta
dt

Citizens

Information

Low (with
flatrate Inter net)

Bottom- Up

One-way

Informing

Building eye

Citizens, Developers,
governmental a gency

Information

Low (with
flatrate Inter net)

Top-Down

One-way

Informing

Chip- In

Citizens, developers,
planners

Active participation

Low (with
flatrate Inter net)

Bottom- Up

Two-way

yes

Planne. ⇔ Citiz.
Devlope. ⇔ Citiz.
Citiz. ⇔ Citiz.

Ideation/articulate
concerns,
Implementation

Commun ity
Remarks

Citizens, planners,
governmental a gency

Consultation

Low (with
flatrate Inter net)

Top-Down

Two-way

yes

Gov. ⇔ Citiz.
Planne. ⇔ Citiz.
Citiz. ⇔ Citiz.

Ideation/articulate
concerns

CityVoice

Citizens, planners,
governmental a gency

Active participation

Very low

Top-Down

Two ways

Gov. ⇔ Citiz.

Ideation/articulate
concerns

FlashPoll

Citizens, gover nmental
agency

Consultation

Low (with
flatrate Inter net)

Top-Down

Two ways

Gov. ⇔ Citiz.

Ideation/articulate
concerns

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

Local d ata

Citizens, planners,
governmental a gency

Active participation

Low (with
flatrate Inter net)

Top-Down

Two ways

Gov. ⇔ Citiz.

Data gathering

Master Plan
2014 -
Singapore

Citizens, gover nmental
agency

Information

Low (with
flatrate Inter net)

Top-Down

One way

Gov. ⇒ Citiz.

Informing

Metroques t

Citizens, planners,
governmental a gency

Active participation

Low (with
flatrate Inter net)

Top-Down

Two ways

yes

Gov. ⇔ Citiz.
Planne. ⇔ Citiz.

Ideation/articulate
concerns, analysis,
scenario and
decision m aking

Mindm ixer

Citizens, planners,
governmental a gency

Active participation

Low (with
flatrate Inter net)

Bottom- Up , Top-
Down

Two ways

yes

Citiz. ⇔ Citiz.
Gov. ⇔ Citiz.
Planne. ⇔ Citiz.

Ideation/articulate
concerns, scenario
and decision making

Nabo

Citizens, gover nmental
agency

Consultation

Low (with
flatrate Inter net)

Top-Down

Two ways

yes

Citiz. ⇔ Citiz.
Gov. ⇔ Citiz.

Informing,
Ideation/articulate
concerns

Neighbo rland

Citizens, planners,
governmental a gency

Active participation

Low (with
flatrate Inter net)

Top-Down

Two ways

yes

Citiz. ⇔ Citiz.
Gov. ⇔ Citiz.
Planne. ⇔ Citiz.

Ideation/articulate
concerns, scenario
and decision making

Nextdoo r

Citizens, gover nmental
agency

Active participation

Low (with
flatrate Inter net)

Top-Down

Two ways

yes

Citiz. ⇔ Citiz.
Gov. ⇔ Citiz.

Informing,
Ideation/articulate
concerns

Nexthamb urg

Citizens, planne rs

Active participation

Low (with
flatrate Inter net)

Bottom- Up

Two ways

yes

Planne. ⇔ Citiz.
Citiz. ⇔ Citiz.

Ideation/articulate
concerns

OpenPlans

Citizens, planne rs

Active participation

Low (with
flatrate Inter net)

Bottom- Up

Two ways

yes

Planne. ⇔ Citiz.
Citiz. ⇔ Citiz.

Ideation/articulate
concerns, analysis,

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

scenario and
decision m aking

Planning
Toolkit

Citizens, planners,
developers

Information

Low (with
flatrate Inter net)

Top-Down

One way

Gov. ⇒ Citiz.

PlanningVIC:
Planning
Property
Report

Real estate agents,
planners, architects and
potential property
purchasers

Information

Low (with
flatrate Inter net)

Top-Down

One way

Gov. ⇒ Citiz.

Seattle in
Progress

Real estate agents,
citizens, ho me buyers

Information

Low (with
flatrate Inter net)

Bottom- Up

One way

Citiz. ⇒ Gov.

Textizen

Citizens, planners,
governmental a gency

Consultation

Very low

Top-Down

Two ways

Gov. ⇔ Citiz.
Planne. ⇔ Citiz.

Informing,
Ideation/articulate
concerns

Urban
Planning -
Gordexola

Citizens, gover nmental
agency

Active participatio n

Low (with
flatrate Inter net)

Top-Down

Two ways

Gov. ⇔ Citiz.

Informing,
Ideation/articulate
concerns, scenario
and decision making

Ushahidi

Citizens, planners,
governmental a gency

Active participation

Low (with
flatrate Inter net)

Bottom- Up

Two ways

Gov. ⇔ Citiz.
Planne. ⇔ Citiz.

Ideation/articulate
concerns, da ta
gathering

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

The cases base d analysis of th e project cri teria (Table 3 ) revea ls tha t the main object ives of
the current mParticipation examples are information sharing with citizen s, gath ering data
with the help of citizen s, collecting citizens’ opinio ns on project -related topics, providing
social ne tworking platfo rms for ne ighborhoo ds (community building ) a nd giving voice to
citizens in the u rban planning p rocesses by engaging them. Amon g th e reviewed cases , the
main b eneficiary groups are citizens, plann er s as well a s gove rnment agencies. In te rms of
applied mediums during th e project, more than one third of the selected projects used online
and off line mediums. This sho ws th e importance o f offline mediums for extend ing the
outreach and avo iding the d igital divide within th e enga gement proce ss.
Due to the focus of this dissertation, which is o nly on th e u rban planning conte xt, th e sp atial
level of most o f the p rojects und erstandably ranges from ne ighborhoo d leve l to city leve l.
However, some applications (with focus on community building and neighb orhood social
networks) are u sed o nly in the neigh borhood scale. The main fo ur develope r groups of the
cases are private co mpanies (start -ups), governmen tal agenci es, research institutes as well
as no n-profit orga nizations (NGO). A remarkable point he re is th e presence of start -up
companies as well as NGOs in this emergin g fie ld; however, th is could be mostly du e to
governmen tal programs in the USA (Code for America ), in which the d evelopment of some
of the cases were supp orted. Conse quently, th e motivation of deve lopers co uld be g ainin g
financial b enefits for sta rt-up companies, solving so cial issues , and provid ing transpa renc y
and inf ormation fo r go vernmental agenc ies a nd NGOs. It ha s been indicated that the most
important reason for develop ing apps b y citizen s (and NGOs) was the d eveloper’s b elief that
his/her ap plication could improve the everyday lives of pe ople (Socrata, 2010 ) . It should be
taken int o a ccount th at mParticipation p rojects are also h appening in the de veloping world
(e.g. Ushahidi initiative in Ken ya). These real projects in deve loping co untries confirm the
penetra tion of mob ile technolog ies in the develop ing countries and the possibilities of
citizens’ empo werment in these countries, whe re normally citizen participation is not formally
and leg ally being con sidered in u rban plann ing processe s.
From the technological po int of view (Table 4) , many of the projects use o pen source codes
in the developmen t of their ide as, which emphasize opportunities of th e ope n so urc e
movement (e.g. open go vernment, ope n da ta and open participatio n) e specially in the
context of urban plann ing. Given th e hug e volume of apps tha t are offering information about
public tran sport, health issues an d safety u sing da ta revealed b y governmen tal agencies,
open data from governments were repea tedly use d as the source of man y mPa rticipation
projects among select ed case s. Nevertheless, the possibility of gath ering urban environmen t
data t hrough citizen s and crowdsou rcing of geo -data is still very high.
Three of the select ed cases use SMS a nd telep hony a s their communication channel, which
are basically low-threshol d channels. Using such channels va stly broadens the engagement
range o f citizens into project, wh ile it decreases the collection o f geotag ged data as well as
image data . This issue is p artly solved in th e CityVoice project, as the citizens h ave to
annou nce a loca tion-base d code while the y are leaving voice me ssage at a call-in ce nter.
Recently, Textizen also a dded photo -messaging possibilities in the ir platform. Most of the

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

projects use multi-form communication in order to increase possibilities and easier ways for
citizens to e xpress their op inions. Due to the chances offered by a pps, p rojects are using
mobile a pps, however, the re is a growing tend ency of using mobile -ready web sites inst ea d
of apps to eliminate users’ difficulties fo r download ing th e apps. Complexity of most of the
projects was analyzed a ccording the personal test performed by th e author includ ing
installation a nd test of differen t featu res of the app lications in combination with some simil a r
results derived f rom other research.
Location - ba sed verification is one of the innovative f eatures th at is u sed b y only four o f the
cases (FlashPoll, bePart, Nabo and Next door). This feature could enhance the geo graphical
scope of citizen participation. Using this featu re enab les p lanners a nd g overnment al
agencies to int egrate people, who are influe nced in the project ’s spatial bounda ries (e.g. in
one specific neigh borhood). Among eToo ls, inte ractive map s, quick polls and ran king to ols
were used mo re often in the re viewed projects. Augmen ted reality was rarely applied rarely
in the p rojects, despite its p otentials for providing extra info rmation to citizen s. User
identificatio n was n ot considered as a prerequisite for participation of citizens in most of the
cases. However, this co uld be inte rpreted as du e to the informal type of pa rticipation of
citizens in select ed cases.
According to Table 5 citizen s, plan ners and g overnmental agencies were th e three main
involved actors. Based o n th e e ngagemen t leve ls of OE CD, ne arly two th ird of th e projects
target co nsultation and active pa rti cipation as their engag ement level within proje ct. L ower
reputatio n o f information as a very low level of participation in th e table does represents the
fact that mParticipation p rojects aim initia lly at promoting higher level of citizen pa rticipation.
This is a lso due to th e exclusion of reporting apps and oth er thematic projects in the selection
procedure. Th e costs of participatio n are relatively low among most of th e selected cases as
participants must not take a trip to a participatory event and most (data) plans a vailable tariffs
for Interne t are relatively a ffordable . Without flat -rate co ntract, th e costs co uld particularly
increase whe n it comes to data ga thering to ols. Reg arding th e communicat ion, top -dow n
direction is mention ed more often in the ta ble; ho wever, b ottom -up d irection is remarka bly
the case fo r nea rly one third of examples. Two -way flo w of information is common in most
of th e projects, bu t only a few p rojects tried to use cross -media communication du ring the
course o f the p roject. In re sp ect to the relatio ns/ne tworks betwe en actors, most o f the
projects enable the actors to b e networked with each othe r very often in both directions. One
not iceable po int is the p ossibility of netwo rking b etween citizens, which b ring s a new a spect
to pa3.1rticipation p rocesses. In te rms of citizen engag ement in diffe rent stage s of urban
planning processes, it cou ld b e co ncluded that most of th e ca ses off er inf orming,
ideation/a rticulate conce rns abo ut plan ning issue s. Inclusion of citizens in data gath erin g
and the implementa tion stage only took p lace in the case o f L ocalData. Moreo ver, few
projects were a ble to en gage citizen s in the ana lysis a nd decision -making processe s.

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

Figure 9 Typolog y of the reviewed mParticipatio n practices

Commun ication Flow
Information/Data

Informing
Conte nt of Sys tem
Knowledge Relation
One-way

Two-way

Multiple-
way

Information/
data collecting

Polling/
surveying
Brainstorming/

dialogue
Network/
cooperation
building

* Not Applicable

Planning Toolkit, Plann ingVIC: Planning Property Repo rt, and S eattle in P rogress can be
classified in th is type.
.

For inst ance, the bePart and Bürgerba utstadt projects focus mainly o n providing information
about the fo rmal (face - to -face) participation possibilities for citizens in Berlin, while making
the access to such information easier a nd more understan dable. The Bu ildingeye and
Se attle in Progress provide access to different kinds of inf ormation for citizen s such a s
building p ermits, planning applications, code e nforcement, capital project s, public e vents
and bu siness license s. The Seattle in P rogress proje ct publishes all the rela ted planning
documents for the approved projects. The Master Plan 201 4 S ingapore project only informs
the citizens of Singap ore ab out the prepared master plan , its regu lation, and maps. The
Planning Toolkit and PlanningVIC a re two other projects, which foc u s on providing plan nin g
related info rmation mostly to planne rs and de velopers.

N. A.*

N. A.

N. A.*

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

 Information/data coll ecting type
The info rmation/data collectin g type is ano ther
catego ry of mParticipation examples, in which
data/in formation is g athered through a two - wa y
communication betwee n two actors. In this type,
one actor (e.g. a m unicipality) asks the other
actor (e.g . residents) to provide certain
data/in formation (demograp hic o r sp atial data)
and this data /information will be communicated
back. The real world example of th is type is the
LocalData app , which is a cloud -based mapping
platform that h elps cities a nd communities make
data-driven d ecisions by ca pturing a nd
visualizing stree t- le vel information in real time.
In one o f th eir project s in In diana with just 67
voluntee rs, the te am su rveyed over 11 ,65 1
properties co vering 2 ,000 acres across the city.
Surveyors cove red nearly 40 p arcels per hour (LocalData, 2013) .
 Polling/surve ying type
As it is indicated in the typology figure, the polling/su rveying typ e utilizes a two -way
communication flo w to gath er knowledg e of other a ctors. In this typ e, on e actor starts
communication and asks the other actors about their knowledge, and the kno wledge wi ll be
Figure 10 L ocalData app lication (©LocalDat a)

Figure 11 Visuall y-rich and we ll-structu red design of Met roQuest projects for tab lets (©MetroQuest)

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

communicated only betwe en these two a c tors. The typical example h ere is, when a
municipality asks citizens to g ive their opinion on ce rtain plann ing issues. The citizens
respond to the survey or poll and communicate back to the m unicipality but the y will not
communicate with othe r respondents of the poll or su rvey. Th e projects such as Abu Dhabi
Vision 203 0, FlashPoll, Metroq uest and Textizen can be groupe d in th is type.
All of the se projects aim to survey or poll public opinion and knowledge, however, they apply
a d ifferent set of tools and t ech nological featu res to achieve th eir goals. In th e A bu Dhabi
Vision 20 30 project, citizens were asked to give their op inion on how the streets of future
Abu Dhabi would look like throu gh using a n o nline stre et section design tool. FlashPoll is a
municipal po lling ap p, which use s location -ba sed service ’s smartphones to collect citizen s’
feedb ack, bu t only the ones tha t live or are locate d in a specific g eographic area.
MetroQuest, a co mpany ba sed in Vancou ver (Canada ) uses a very well stru ctured a nd
visually rich application for e ngaging citizen s in different urba n planning p rojects in the USA
(Figure 11 ). Textize n is, however, a very low-thresh old service a s it utilizes te xt messa ges
(SMS) to collect citizens’ feedb ack. Using this tool, municipalities (depe nding on the project)
put po sters or information stan ds in the p roject area a nd ask ed citizens to sign -up and g ive
their feedback. The unique aspect of this tool is th e application of text m essages as the
communication channel, which makes the participation process more inclusive and open
with fewer ba rriers.
 Brainstorming/dialogue type
This group of applications, ca lled b rainstorming/dialog ue type, applies several two -way
communication channe ls and utilizes a multiple -way of communication b etween d ifferent
actors. The main difference of brainsto rming/dialogue type from polling/surveying typ e is th at
the first enab les different actors to communicat e with each other , but the late r on e o nly
engag es two a ctors in th e communication action. Th is means, th e knowledge he re will be
conveyed through many - to -many co mmunications chan nels. For example, a mun icipalit y
starts a conversation with citizens on an urba n plan ning issue and asks them to give their
opinion on th is topic. The citizen s an d mun icipality ente r a conversat ion, in which th ey
communicate with each other, develop ideas and solu tions, comm e nt on o thers’ ideas, vote
on and rank th e solution s. As a result, a very lo w leve l of d ialogue will take place among
different actors as ea ch actor has t he possibility to initiate a co mmunication with oth er s .
This type of mParticipation is very often ap plied in th e urban plann ing conte xt and a lot of
the reviewed examples are of this type . Community Remarks, CityVo ice, Mindmixer,
Neighborland , Nexthamburg, OpenPlan s, Ur ban Plan ning - Gordexo la an d Usha hidi b elon g
to this type. For instan ce, Community Remarks is a (mobile -read y) map -based eng agemen t
platform th at enables citizens to drag and drop markers in Google Maps and attach an imag e
and comment. It has be en utilized for pla nning projects a ll over th e USA , specifically in
Michigan for tran sportation related citizen enga gement. OpenPlans uses a similar concept .
It is an open-source map -based e ngagemen t tool, which also focuse s on collecting citizen s’
ideas for specific locations. Anothe r important aim of OpenPlans is to ease the mapp ing
process, as it provide s user-friendly te mplates for diffe rent plann ing topics.

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

CityVoice is anoth er int erestin g
example of this type, which is a place -
based call-in system fo r gath ering ,
sharing, and understa ndi ng
community feedback an d is supported
by Code for America program in
partnership with the City of So ut h
Bend in the USA. This project focused
on th e redevelopmen t plan of 1000
vacant lots. T he team of CityVoice
tried to provide a po ssibility for
citizens to voice their opinion
(especially low-inco me classes), so
that their interests will b e included into
this p lan. Signs were placed in the yards of 25 0 se lected vacant or abou nded properties
(Figure 12 ). Afte r calling th e number, citizens were asked to a nswer a poll on this property,
which provid ed structured da ta for the city auth orities. The callers co uld first listen to what
other citizens had been sa ying about this property and then leave th eir own comment (idea,
suggestio n, complementa ry de scription, etc. ) at th e end of the ca ll. All of the se comments
were transfe rred to the we b platform of CityVo ice and g eo -loca ted on a city map.
Minmixer is on e of the most-use d engag ement plat form s
in the USA (900 communities). The b asic ide a of this tool
is to p rovide a forum for communities in order to discuss
certain topics and crowdsource solution s an d idea s.
Participants or con tributors receive rewa rds b ased on
their contributio ns to th e platform a s they post ide as,
interact with oth er comments and vote. Nexthamburg
was a bo ttom-up initiative in Hamburg (Germ any), which
aimed to activate citizen s in th e process of urban
develop ment by eng aging t hem int o en visioning the
future of Hamburg. Th ey u sed th e crowdsourcing idea
and applied diffe rent social media and online platfo rm s
(mobile-ready use). A n app for App le de vices o peratin g
systems (iOS) was develope d d uring the p roject, which
enabled users to contribu te to the plat form by putting
their ideas o n the map and other people could comment
on ideas. In addition , the app use d the location -based
service function of the smartphon e to n otify the users
about the ideas a round th em while walking th rough t he city.

Figure 13 Deve loped App in the

Project NextHamb urg (Fey and
Landau , 2010)

Figure 12 CityVoice project in Sout h Bend (USA)
(©CityVoice)

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

 Network/cooperation building type
The last typ e of ap plications deals with relatio ns and instead of information or kno wledge .
This type of ap plications (which is called ne twork/cooperation building) aims at conn ectin g
different acto rs with ea ch other an d provid es multiple ways of co mmunication for th ese
actors to be linked . As it was described before, in th is type the relations between acto rs are
being communicated in the system. Although it is a n ew and e merging typ e of engag emen t,
there are so me examples amon g th e revie wed cases that can b e catego rized in this group
such a s the Chip-In, Nabo and Nextdoor projects. Chip -In is a developing mobile app that
allows community members to volunteer time, donate fund s, and start projects within
communities, while allowing users to e ngage on so cial media to share their projects. This
app aims at building cooperation b etween different actors (urban planners, developers , and
community members), and e ngaging them in the planning and implementa tion of idea s . The
other two p rojects, Nextd oor (in the USA) and Nabo (in Australia), provide a private social
network fo r community members, who actually live in th e neigh borhoods. In th is social
network, community members a re netwo rked togeth er and th ey ge t to know on e an other
through their relations a nd finally sup port neigh borhood a ctivities.
3.3 Experimenti ng mParti cipation in Ber lin (testing F lashPoll as the
polling type)
This section d escribes th e tests and expe riments with th e FlashPoll mobile app (as the
polling/surveying type) that have be en cond ucted u nder the umbrella of a Europ ea n
Research Proje ct “ Smart Su stainable Distri cts (SS D)” in the West Moabit a rea, Berlin. SS D
is an applied -research p roject, which is fu nded by Climate -KIC (Knowledge in novation
Center) a nd involves a n etwork of eleven Europe an districts (qu arters). In Berlin, the Institute
for Su stainable and Urban Design “CHORA city&energy ” of TU Berlin is responsible for
implementing resea rch activities. The SSD project aims to promot e a nd advance
implementation of an intelligent urban quarte r. The West Moabit area h as optimal
precondition s for this as it has b een add ressing topics of resource protectio n, sustainability
and climate cha nge for many years an d has built networks a nd de veloped proced ures to
achieve its goals (CHORA city&energy, 2015) . In the fo llowing, the FlashP oll app and its
features will be b riefly described. Afterwards, th e sta tus quo of th e West Moab it quarter as
the test bed of th e experiment will be demonstrate d. In the end, the different ly implemented
tests (polls) will be elab orated in mo re detail with the ir results.
3.3.1 Descriptio n of FlashP oll Mobi le Participation Tool
FlashPoll is a mobile app , which was d eveloped in th e Eu ropean research project
“Developing a Municipal FlashPoll Tool” fund ed in the framework o f the Europea n In stitutes
of Technolog y EIT-ICT. The aim of the project was to d evelop a tool that a llows more
satisfying and co nsistent communication be tween citizens an d administrators. In addition,
the project intends to fa cilitate municipal decision -making processes by mea ns of a feedback
function and generate s b ottom-up discussio ns as well a s ideas an d inte rests. During the
course of the project, FlashPoll ap p was firstly d eveloped for mobile de vices running o n
Android o perating syste m .

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

In te rms o f technical fea tures, FlashPoll uses the location -based se rvices featu re of
smartphone s and ta blets, which a llows push ing polls at de fined moments in spe cifi c
geograp hical a reas. This featu re p rovides the p ossibility of enga ging only th e residents of a
specific neighb orhood and collect ing context -
based kno wledge of citizens fo r planning
purposes. The FlashPo ll a pp o ffers different
types of a nswers for each question such as
single choices, multiple ch oices, ran king and
open q uestions. In an exa mple scena ri o
(Figure 14 ) , a municipa lity wants to co nsult the
public befo re making a decision. In the first
step, t he municipa lity initiates a po ll via th e poll
initiator web -platform. Initially d escriptions of
the poll have to be ad ded to the po ll initiator
interface. Title, subtitle , description , conclud in g
message , p oll duration , timeframe (start/en d
time), location (also known as geo -fen ce) and
display of results to the respondent
(instantly/late r) are required info rmation fo r
initiating a p oll. Afte rwards, the questions of
poll will be added to the poll initiator and the
poll will be pub lished .
In the next ste p, citizens (w h o a lready installed
the app on their smartphon es) moving throug h
the city will en ter th e g eo -fenced area rela ted to the po ll and receive a notification ab out a
running p oll. In the third ste p, the pa rticipants take p art in the polling a nd answer the
que stions. Afte r finishing the poll, th e use rs g et immediate fee dback on results on their
phone . In the last step, the municipality evalua te s th e conte nt an d results o f polling and
integrate s them into the decision -making p rocess (Flashpo ll, 2015) .
There are some fa ctors, which make FlashPoll a un ique tool for citizen e ngagemen t in u rban
planning context. First of a ll, it can support decision -making by fast polling as it ena bles large
numbers of people to give their opinion instantly and in real-time. Additionally, th e FlashPoll
app im med iately visualizes the public feedb ack in the current poll and participants can view
the results (of th e poll aft er th eir pa rticipation ). Th is increase s tran sparency o f the
engag ement process. Furth ermore, the FlashP oll a llows conte xt-ba sed polling, which
enables decision -makers to e ngage stakeholde rs of a specific planning area within a clea r
time frame. More importantly, the FlashPoll is privacy sensitive and theref ore the response s
cannot be tra ced back to the use rs o r to th eir devices. Finally, the Flash Poll app is ve ry
flexible in te rms of technicality a nd can b e integrate d in to other app s or platfo rms.
Figu re 14 General scenario of u sing Flas hPoll tool (Fl ashpoll,
2015)

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

Table 6 Age structure of the West Moab it quarter by 2012 (QM Moab it West, 2013)
Age group ( years old)

0-6

6- 12

12 - 18

18 - 35

35 - 45

45 - 55

55 - 65

+65

Percentage

5.58

4.59

4.31

37.05

14.30

14.12

10.18

9.78

The network of a ctors in th e West Moabit area is structured an d consists of many actors in
different levels and themes. The residents are represen ted in quarter co uncil (Qua rtiersrat)
and assignment jury (Vergabebeirat) , the institutional bod y of decision -making processes in
the area . In ad dition, the re are several mon thly -organized events (like Sta dteilplenium) and
working groups fo r engag ement of all inh abitants. In the field o f education , several
organization s (high schoo ls, elementary and secon dary schoo ls, kinde rgartens) and NGOs
are active ly engag ed in th e developmen t of q uarter. The Cultural a nd Natural Scien tist
Educatio n Net work (NGO), Moabiter Ratschlag (NGO), SOS -Kinde rdorf (NGO) and Kurt-
Tucholsky library a re so me a ctive e xamples for organizations, which provide d ifferent
educatio nal offers fo r different ta rget group s including fa milies, youth and children.
In the field o f culture seve ral art -related NGOs (such as Kunstverein Tiergarten/Ga leri e
Nord, Kun strepublik/Zentrum fü r Kun st und Urbanistik, Refo -Moabit Kirche im Kiez/Refo -
Kirche, Initiative Gren zen -los!/Jugendtheaterbüro) o ffer cultural activities in the quarter.
Regarding busine ss and economic activities in West Moabit the Business Companies
Network of Moabit (Unternehmensnetzwe rk Moa bit) is the only identified actor, which
includes companies su ch a s GFAD (software), Siemen s AG and Ato tech. The initiative
“Green Moabit” was starte d b y this n etwork a nd fo cuses on monitoring urban climate
change s and generat ing ene rgy saving pote ntials in the West Moabit quarte r (QM Moa bit
West, 2013 ) .
In resp ect to the focus of this d issertation (citizen e ngagement in urba n planning), three main
develop ment trends in the West Moabit quarter are co nsidered here: mobilization of citizens ,
responsibility fo r the quarter, and net working. Since the e nd of 20 11 , twenty-five selected
inhabita nts are active members of the quarter council. In the course of de veloping the guidin g
principle (Leitbild) of the qu arter in 201 2 an d be ginning of 20 13, participa tion in the qua rter
council incre ased a nd the quarte r coun cil members beca me more engaged in differ ent
initiatives and projects . The diversity of th e quarter council members in terms of age structure
is acceptable; however, the citizens with immigration backgrou nd are un derrepresented in
the qu arter council con sidering their share in the qu arter ’s to tal pop ulation.
Concerning resp onsibility of the quarter, several activities are supported by differen t a ctors
in the qu arter. For inst ance, the quarter cou ncil initiated pa rticipatory action s in the area to
design the tree s pits in Emdeb ner Street. Several NGOs are active in clea ning and
maintenan ce of some g reen area s and play grounds. Man y loca l co mpanies a nd busine sse s
are involved in th e edu cation field and supp ort initiatives and project s, which promote an
improvement of th e educa tion situation in the Moabit area (e.g. Nawi -award fo r the
Tiergatren se condary schoo l in coop eration with Atote ch Compan y). The vo luntary
engag ement in th e qua rter is very high, an d theref ore, important o ffers a nd activities can

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

resort to the intensive supp ort of volunteers. The projects and offers of Schulgarten and
Nachbarscha ftstreff Café and SOS -Kind erhof are cate gorized in this typ e. In contrast to to
the high resp onsibility of local acto rs for the quarte r, th e respon sibility of the district
municipality is decreasing spe cifically in te rms of finan cial supports (QM Moabit West, 2013) .
In respect to th e networking aspect, the QM of West Moabit is integrated in local and district
networks. The existing institution al structu re of the area provid es many excha ng e
possibilities. Besides the joint organization of the Stadtte ilplenum with Moabite r Ratschlag
NGO, several other co operation activities exist betwe en the QM a nd other a ctors su ch as
SOS-Kinde rdorf. Through these activities QM has initiate d a ran ge of thematic networks
(K inde rgarten network or ne twork for int egration) in the last years. Another example could
be an initiated cooperation between REFO - Chu rch and Y outh Theater Office, which allow s
for a common usage of the loca l chu rch’s sp ace and increase s the role of the ch urch as
cultural point for the q uarter (QM Moabit West, 20 13) .
Th e above-mentione d a spects o f the current situation a nd developmen t trends of the q uarter
can be summarized in the fo llowing points:
 The relatively h igh share of you nger ag e groups in the quarter may show high er
availability of smartph ones fo r the residents and their techn ological skills for
using smartphones. However, it may decrease their willingness to p articipate in
the urban developmen t p rocesses, as there is a common lowe r rate of citizen
engag ement among younger generation. This issue may be a ggravate d by the
high sha re of foreigners and Ge rmans with imm igra tion backgroun ds as well as
the rela tively high sha re of low -income and u nemployed p eople in th e quarter.
 The existing network of actors consists of diverse types of stakeholde rs (e. g.
institutions , NGOs, municipal bodies, companies, associat ions and networks,
etc.) from different fields, which a re a ctively coop erating with ea ch other in order
to influe nce th e urban development of the quarter. Therefore, it is n ecessary to
consider these existing p ote ntial pa rtners and their communication channels fo r
initiating any kind of p articipatory processe s. Doing tha t, the implementation of
FlashPoll tests will be carried out in close coop eration with QM as well as some
other acto rs.
 There a re se veral (face - to -face) possibilities fo r engaging th e residents in the
develop ment of quarter. These possibilities are normally availab le for sp ecific
groups of residents (older, well-educa ted, m iddle -class income, committed and
dedicate d residents with free time). The low share of inhabitan ts with
immigration backgroun d in quarter coun cil an d relatively low leve l of their
engag ement calls for a more inclusive a pproach. In this sense, u sing n ew
methods su ch a s mobile p articipation can be one n ew co mmunication channel
for eng agement.

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

3.3.3 Impl emented polls ( tests) and their result s
In orde r to cover and test most of the possible influe ntial fa ctors an d elemen ts of
mParticipation, three d ifferent scenarios were designe d according to the spatial sco pe of
engagement, subject o f the project an d timeframe of the engag ement p rocess. The first
scenario was using FlashPoll in a short timeframe (less than a wee k) on the sca le of q uarter ,
as an ad ditional participa tion element to the face - to -face method in a running participatory
process. The seco nd scenario was ap plying FlashPoll in a longer timeframe ( fou r month s)
on the quarter scale a s a single e lement of engag ement. T he third scenario was to te st
FlashPoll in a long timefra me (th ree months) on a larger sp atial scale (district scale) as a
single elemen t (Map 1 ).
The QM office of West Moabit was contacted as the main loca l partne r for th e t e sts in the
quarter, because they are alread y a ctive and inte grated in the network of actors (since 20 00 ) .
It is responsible for enga ging reside nts of th e quarter in the urba n develop ment proce ss and
have local office onsite and organizational capabilities for implementing the tests. The te sts
will be d escribed be low in more deta il.
 Test one: Re-designing pla n of Waldstraße Street
One of the main responsibilities of the QM is to evaluate and improve living cond ition s in the
West Moabit area. The re -designing plan of Waldstraße Street was one the projects of QM,
which aims at improving the physical condition of this stree t and revitaliz ing some dead parts
of it. It is base d on financial support of the program “ Soziale Sta dt”. Citizen e ngagemen t was
the core elemen t of this plan a nd the resid ents of the a rea w ere involved in th e planning
process. The refore, the residents h ad the po ssibilities to see the fou r proposed draft plans
(by four architecture offices) in the QM onsite office from 18 th March to 8 th April 2015. After
this pe riod, there was an information even ing event on 14 th April 2015 at th e bu ilding of SOS -
Kinderdo rf NGO, were all fo ur plans were introdu ced and discussed by citizen s. In the ne xt
step, the quarte r coun cil selected o ne of the plans for the implementation and final comments
of residen ts.
In the course of preparation of the plan , FlashPo ll was a pplied a s a ne w participation
instrument in addition to face- to -face methods. Doing that, a poll with five questions (single -
choice an d multip le -choices) was lau nched o n 13 th April 2015 for three da ys. The poll was
advertised at the sa me information evening even t (14 th April at SOS -Kinderhof) as well as
online on the QM’s Facebook p age an d website ( Figure 20 ).
By the en d of the polling time on 16 th April, 28 person s participated in the poll. The results of
the poll are de scribed b elow. They were d elivered to the participants later in form of a five -
page re port.

#Mobile Par ticipation in Ur ban Planning Processes

Map 1 Spatial scale of the t ests

Source: Ber lin Open Data Portal , Luftbil der 2015

Moabit District

West Moabit Quarter

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

Figu re 16 Result of seco nd question of the
first poll

Figure 17 Resu lt of first q uestion of th e first
poll

Figure 18 Resu lt of fo rth question o f the first
poll

Figure 19 Resu lt of th ird question of the first
poll

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

The result of th e first question show that Faceboo k an d personal
chats (with QM o nsite off ice members) were two main important
channe ls fo r the residents to get information abou t the plan and
participation p ossibilities (Figure 17 ). When the p oll was posted
on the Facebook page of QM, the residents noticeab ly reacted to
the posts, aske d fo r more information an d the numbe r of
participants in th e poll increased (r ight pictu re in Figure 20 ).
Additiona lly, the post was shared th ree times b y other Fa cebook
pages and persons. This showed the important fu nction of social
media as it enabled oth er group s of residents to be a t least
informed about this plan. According to the second que stion ,
information-sha ring events were mentio ned by 7 1% of
responde nts as th eir fa vorable way of co mmunication. The third
and fourth questio ns a ddressed the con tents of th e p lan s and the ir
ranking, which are n ot of inte rest of ou r tests. The last q uestion
was con cerning the demographic of participan ts. As it can be seen
in Figure 21 , 64% of th e participants in the poll are u nder 45 years
old, so th ey are co unted as the young age group of inhabita nts .
Given the h igher presen ce of th e older age g roup of inhab itants at
the info rmation evening eve nt (14 th April), it ca n be se en that the
FlashPoll test included a broa der audien ce with different age grou p s into the plan nin g
process of Waldstraße Street .
Figure 21 Resu lt of fifth q uesti on of the first
poll

Figure 20 Adve rtisment for the first poll for the eve ning event (left) an d on the QM's F acebook

page (righ t)

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

Table 7 Information su mmary table of t he first poll
Poll informat ion table

Number of p articipants

 28 persons

Topic

 Re -designing plan for a str eet

Duration of poll

 Three days

Question s types

 Single choice
 Multiple choice

Number of q uestions

 5

Spatial scale

 West Moa bit

Promotion st rategy

 Information e vening event
 Facebook page o f QM West Moa bit

Involved actors

 QM We st Moabit office

 Test two: QM’s re sponsibilities and communica tion channels
After succe ssfully con ducting the first p oll a new te st ab out the QM’s responsibilities and
communication ch annels was initiated . The main goal o f th is te st was to figu re out to what
extent the residents o f West Moabit a re inf ormed a bout the QM’s responsibilities and their
participation possibilities as well as to identify through which co mmunication channels, they
are receiving in formation in this reg ard.
As th e second testing scen ari o
aimed at testing Flash poll fo r a
longer timeframe an d as the
single elemen t of en gagement ,
the second poll was cond uct ed
for four months (from 27 th May to
30 th S eptember), with six
question s within the spatial area
of QM West Moa bit. Th e
question s were prepa red by the
QM o ffice according to their
need s to gain impo rtant feedback
from reside nts. One of the
addition al ide as b ehind this poll
was to test differen t promotion
strategies a nd channels (on line
and o ffline). The poll was launched on 27 th May 201 5 an d initially a dvertised on the
Figure 22 Neig hborhood celebration and Flash Poll promotion

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

neighb orhood ce lebration (four-hour event)
with design ed informa tion flyers (with brief
instructions) . The flyers were located on
tables in front o f QM’s off ice and distribu ted
to residents d uring the celebration (Figure
22 ) .
In add ition to this even t, th e information flyer
was p osted in the website and the Facebook
page of QM West Moa bit time to time (Figure
23 ) . The po ll was also promoted in the
newsletter as well as in the quarter maga zine
(for West Moab it). As th e p art of offline -
methods, flyers were printed and distributed
by diffe rent existing n etworks of actors in the
area (e.g. SOS-Kind erhof, Moabiter
Ratschlag, etc.) an d provided at important
and frequently u sed place s in th e area .
By the e nd of po lling o n 30 th Sep tember, 21
persons participate d in the poll. In respect to t he duration of the poll, relatively few peopl e
took p art and despite all p romotion e fforts, t h e resu lts were no t satisfying. In the first
question , th e residents were a sked to choo se the
important tasks of QM. As it is sh own in Figure 24 ,
more participation of residents and acto rs, better
quality of the living area in the quarter and more
social and intercultu ral integration was ch osen by
62%, 52% of pa rticipants, resp ectively. The second
question was specifically about a wareness fo r the
participation po ssibility under responsibility of QM
which 57% of participants were no t info rmed about
this issue (Figure 26 ) .
The third q uestion addressed different
communication chan nels be tween QM and the
residents. The w ebsite an d Faceboo k Page of QM
were preferred b y more resid ents compared to t he
face- to -face even ts such as Statt eiplenium (Figure
25 ). However, it must be considered th at this poll
was advertised online a s well, so this might hav e
biased the answers of this q uestion. Accord ing to
the fou rth questio n, most of th e residents con tac t
QM in the case that some d eficits are in the a rea
(Figure 27 ). The fifth q uestion was an o pe n
Figure 23 Promo ting Flash Poll on Faceb ook page of QM West

Moabit
Figure 24 Resu lt of first question of the
second poll

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

question and th e people were asked to give the ir o pinion on the futu re urban deve lopment
in the area a nd describe what their vision is . Unfo rtunately, not many participants an swered
this que stion, which might indicate that eithe r the question was vag ue o r not interest in g for
residents. The last question shows that most o f participants (57%) b elong to the young age
group, which points o ut a po ssible digital divide (Figu re 28 ) .

Figure 26 Resu lt of se cond question of the

second poll

Figure 25 Resu lt of th ird question of th e
second poll

Figure 27 Resu lt of fourth question of the

second poll

Figure 28 Resu lt of six th question of t he

second poll

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

Table 8 Information su mmary table of t he second po ll
Poll informat ion table

Number of p articipants

 21 persons

Topic

 QM’s responsibilities and com munication channels

Duration of poll

 Four mon ths

Question s types

 Single choice
 Multiple choice
 Open question

Number of q uestions

 6

Spatial scale

 West Moa bit

Promotion st rategy

 Neighborhood celebration event
 Facebook page of QM West Moabit
 Internet Website of QM West Moabit
 Newsletter of QM West Moabit
 Quarter Mag azine West Moabit
 Distribution of flyers through networ ks of actors

Involved actors

 QM West Moabit office

 Test three: Mobility behav ior in Moabit district
Th e third test focuse d on the mobility beh avior of the residents of the Moabit district. B eing
part of the SSD project, the conte nts o f the third poll were supported by the research team
of CHORA institu te, so that the fin al results o f the poll would be integrat ed in the SSD
research project. The th ird test sce nario aimed at testing Flash Poll in a long timeframe (three
months) on a larger spatia l scale (district scale) as a single e lement , in order to see if more
people would take part in the te st. It was launched on 10 th June and ended on 30 th September
2015 . The po ll included six question s and the spatia l level was of Moa bit district.
The initia l advertisemen t fo r the poll to ok p lace during the Moabit’s third education festival
(Bildungsfest) on 11 th June at Otto P layground in th e Moabit area. Th e information flyers
designe d for this poll included a brief instruction. Th ey were located on a tab le in front of the
stand a nd distributed be tween other stands lat er during th e even t. Afte r this event, several
other promotion strategies were implemente d using off line and onli ne media . Th e p oll was
promoted on the website and Facebo ok page of QM West Moabit. Due to a larger spatial
scale of the test, QM East Moa bit was contacte d for supp orting the p romotion of the p oll
through the ir network. Doing th at, the p oll was also posted on the East Moabit QM’s
Faceboo k page, web site and announ ced in the ir newslette r (Figure 29 ) .

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

With respect to o ffline meth ods, the information flyers were printed in diffe rent sizes and
colors an d d istributed throu gh differen t actors and networks in th e e ntire Moabit district. In
order to achieve th at, a list of a ll possible active acto rs a nd n etworks (libraries, NGOs,
cultural cafe s, mosques, governmenta l offices) as well as p ossible meeting points in the
district was prepa red base d on the information available in QM an alysis documents (Map 2) .
Additiona lly, nearly 200 extra new ly design ed information flyers (e.g. ad ding QR code s a nd
information regarding da ta privacy) were d istributed to rando mly selected h ouses in the
Moabit district in order to reach more resid ents. This was a try to see how /if the flye r with
new d esign and translat ed instruction (Arabic and German) wou ld encourage reside nts to
participate in the poll (Figure 30 ).

Figure 30 In formation flyers translat ed to Arabic an d German with new des ign

Figure 29 Promot ing Flash Poll on the Facebook p age of QM East Mo abit and info rmation flyers on the edu cation
festival

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

Map 2 L ocation of act ive actors and meet ing points in Moab it district

Haus der Weisheit

Stadtschloss Mo abit V.

QM Office

Burgeramt Rathhau s Tiergarten

Mädchen Kultur -Treff

Ayasofya Moschee

BürSte e.V.

Bruno-Lösche- Bibliothek

QM Office Ost Mo abit

Masjid Al-Fal ah

Hicret Cami

Kapital 21

Familienzentrum M oabit

Moabit Mosch ee

Kurt-Kurt

Source: Berlin Open Data Portal, Luftbilder 2015

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

By the end of the third test on 30 th September, 22 persons participated in th e poll. As it was
mentioned abo ve, the content of th is poll was specifically focuse d on th e mobility b ehavior
of residen ts in the Moab it district and relate d to the research q uestions of the SSD project;
therefore, th e p articipants’ proportions of responses to the first five questions are not rele vant
for th is disserta tion. In th e first que stion the resid ents were asked, how they move in the
Moabit district. The se cond question was abou t th e p ublic transp ortation and the third
question asked futu re alte rnative tran sportation modes. The fourth a nd fifth questions
concern ed the awareness of residents o n the topic o f climate-change an d the project “ Gree n -
Moabit”. The last qu estion was ab out the a ge of p articipants and showed the dominance of
younge r age group s in the p oll.
Table 9 Information su mmary table of t he third poll
Poll informat ion table

Number of p articipants

 22 persons

Topic

 Mobility ba haviour in Moa bit district

Duration of poll

 Three m onths

Question s types

 Single choice
 Multiple choice

Number of q uestions

 6

Spatial scale

 Whole M oabit district

Promotion st rategy

 Moabit education festival
 Facebook page o f QM West Moa bit and East Moabit
 Internet Website of QM West Moabit and East Moabit
 Newsletter of QM West Moa bit and East Moa bit
 Quarter Mag azine West Moa bit and East Moabit
 Adding shor t instruction list in th e flyer
 Translation of flyer to Arabic
 Flyers through network of actors
 Flyer distribution in rando mly selected houses

Involved actors

 QM West M oabit office
 QM East Moa bit office

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

3.4 Summary
During the last de cade, many mParticipation practices have b een implemented worldwide in
order to exploit the possibilities and opportunities offered b y smartphones and tablets in the
context of urban deve lopment. In this ch apter, 23 mParticipa tion p roject s/tools a re
evaluate d, which focus on urba n planning . Th is initial e valuation helps the researche r to
explore the land scape of mParticipation from a practical pe rspective. The evalua tion of these
projects highlights the growing n umber of start - up s and some bottom -up initia tives focusing
on developing solutio ns for urban authorities in develop ed and de veloping countries. These
are the ne w acto rs, who are driving forward the de velopment process of mParticipa tion . In
addition , many practices use ope n data a nd open so urce format s in their app lications. In
terms of communication medium, a va riety of communication cha nnels (SMS, v oice,
Interne t, etc.) are use d which sh ows the multi-chan nel communication possibilities of
smartphone s. The e valuated cases e ndeavor to achieve higher level s of eng agement .
Based o n the e valuate d cases, a typology o f mParticipation p ractices is developed .
Furthermore, a mPa rticipation process was tested as a pilot proje ct in Berlin (the West
Moabit qu arter). The FlashP oll app was used in three p ilot tests in o rder to investig at e
different kinds of scena rios for promotiona l strategies, on differen t g eograph ic scale s a nd
various top ics. Although the results of the tests were less in n umber that expe cted ,
interesting in sights have been g enerated . They were presente d in this ch apter.

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

Chapter IV - Analysis of
theoretical reflections and
field experiments

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

4
4.1 Theoret ical reflec tion
The literature review of this research (section 2) was con ducted in two theoret ical spheres,
named as “ co llaborative plan ning” and the “networked society”. Th e main dilemmas of b oth
theories were discussed in previous sections in order to investig ate th e possible inf luence of
mParticipation in these two theo ries. These dilemmas were fo rmulated in th ree thematic
question s with expert interviews reg arding th e influence of mParticipation on communication
between a ctors, network of citizens and the flow o f information. Furthermore, th e researcher
identified some implication s of bo th the ories in reality for later analysis in discussion pa r t
( Figure 31 ).
Figure 31 T heoretical dile mmas of the research
Co ll abor ative P l a nni ng (Inne s an d
B ooher , Pas t y Hea l ey ) bas ed o n
H aberm as t h eor y of c o m muni c a tive
act ion s
Th eoret ical
ba c k g r oun d
T heor y of i n for mation age and
netw or k so c i et y (Ca stell)
Authent ic Di alogue
Power o f Ne t w o r k
In st it u tio n al
Capaci ty
In f ormati o n Ac ce s s
Net w o r k of F l ows
N ew Dilem mas for C ollabor ati ve
Par tici pat i o n i n N etwo r ked Soc iety
 Co m mu ni c a t i on fl o w
(di r ect i on)
 D iff ere nt
Poss ib ilitie s fo r
cont r i bu tion
 Cr eat i vity
 L ear ni ng
 I nfo rmati on f low an d
avai l ability of
i nform ation
 Q uality of
Info rmati on
 Co nt r ol of
i nform ation
 E nga gin g a l l g r o ups
of stakeh olde rs
 P oss ib ility of
conn ecting t o ot her
stake hol der s
 I nter depen dence of
ag ents E xpe rt Int erv i ew s :
H ow m Par ticip at i on
su ppor t dil emm a ,
w hat chal l e nges
they have
Commun i cat io n
Power
 Ch anne ls of
com muni cat ion
 S peed of
com muni cat ion
 O ut r eac h
(ge o graphi c al)
 O ut r eac h ( soci al)
Decen t r a l ized P o wer
Str u ctu r e
 D istr ib ution of pow er
betw e en
stake hol der s
Im plic ation s in re al i t y
 P oss ib i l ity of Self-
O r g ani z i ng act ion s

4.1.1 Expert in terviews
Lack of acade mic research in the mParticipatio n field led to th e d esign of a qualitative
research through expert interviews as an exploratory research approach. Nevertheless, the
themes an d g uiding questions were extra cted from the oretical b ackground of th is resea rc h
and concernin g the research qu estions. Bo gner and colleagu es (2009) discuss expert
interviews as an eff ective m ethod fo r obtaining good results quickly. This anticipa ted promise

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

of the research, etc. Thinking abou t things is the n ext ste p that is a conce ptual level analysis.
Here are the relations between code s the patterns in th e da ta considerable. ATL AS.ti can
support th is step wi th several analytical tools insid e the software suc h as query too l and co-
occurrence explorer (Friese, 2 014). The NCT mod el is used in this research p roject fo r
analyzing th e e xpert interviews with ATLAS.ti software . It should be said that ATL AS.ti
program offers many a nalytical possibilities, which enab le rese archers to use th e so ftware
according to their need s and resea rch requirements. The process an d differen t steps o f
analysis are d escribed below:
The first step is to setu p the project in ATLAS.ti prog ram. This includes importing the
transcripts of the expert inte rviews into the program. Afte rwards, the cod ing process of the
expert int erviews starts, which is the mos t importan t step o f th e ana lysis with ATLAS .ti
software. Having an efficient and well -thoug ht coding system helps researche rs later with
outpu tting high qua lity d ata an d accelerates the analysis process. Th is efficient coding
system can be developed th roug h creatin g subca tegories of codes to structure the codes.
Having tha t in mind, th e researcher starts co ding with an inductive approa ch (creating
catego ries from bo ttom up) for the first three interviews. Afterwards, the cod es are merged,
renamed and some are deleted in order to develop an initial structure for the co des. From a
technical pe rspective, if any of the code s a re rep eated during the expe rt inte rview, th ese
segments a re co ded sepa rately in order to show the importance of a sup posed issue from
the p erspective of the expe rt.
In the next step , the rest o f th e interviews are co ded accordin g to the coding struct ure and,
when needed, new codes and ca tegories are added to the cod ing structu re. After completion
of the coding system (An nex 3), the researcher begins to analyze the occu rrence of the
codes mentioned b y d ifferent experts. This is done via creating th e co de occu rrence ta ble
across all of the documen ts (prim a ry documents in the program named as P1 to P15), which
represent th e interviews. Aft er th is step, th e rese archer sta rts iden tifying the trend s and
patterns in code s via co -occurrence exp lorer. Th is is presente d afterwards in the analysis
part a s the co -occurrence code tables to identify the reasons beh ind the patte rns and answer
some research q uestions.
4.3 Discuss ion of resul ts from expert interv iews
The d iscussions of results from ATLAS.t i are structu red in three pa rts, which a re a ligned with
the main rese arch qu estions.
4.3.1 Positionin g mParticipation i n participatory u rban planning discou rse
The first research questio n o f this research (RQ1) is to explore the relevan ce of
mParticipation topic in the current discourse of citi zen participation in urban plannin g
processes. Therefo re, the interviewee s were initially asked to give their opinion on
enhan cement of citizen participation in urban planning p rocesses; on using smartph one and
tablets fo r citizen pa rticipation process; on distingu ishing b etween eParticipat ion and
mParticipation; on adva ntages, po ssibilities, disadva ntages and ch allenges; and last ly, on
the cha racteristics of mParticipation .

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

 Enhancement of citize n participation
The exp erts' opinion in terms of enhancing citizen participation can be categ orized in two
sets of co des focusing on conte nt/outp ut or process o f citizen pa rticipation.
Table 10 Dist ribution of th e codes under enhance ment of citize n participat ion (ENHCE CP) cat egory
across the in terviews
Codes

P 1

P 2

P 3

P 4

P 5

P 6

P 7

P 8

P 9

P10

P11

P12

P13

P14

P15

TOTALS

enhce cp content/outp ut:
increasing the mea ning of
participation

enhce cp process:
increasing diversity and
broadness of participation

enhce cp process:
increasing openness in
participative processes fo r
governments a nd citizens

enhce cp process:
increasing the
convenience/attractiven ess
of participation

According to d istribution of codes across the diffe rent interviews ( Table 10 ), 7 (out of 15 )
experts emphasized the need to increase the meaning of participation (content/o utput of
citizen participation). The main th eme in this code a nd expe rts' opinion is a bout proce ssing
the resu lts of citizen p articipation (citizens’ fee dbacks, opinion, etc.) and e mbedding them in
the plan ning proce ss as for instan ce expert 8 says:
"... But what also could be interesting for enhancement p articipation is
organizing th e p rocess o f par ticipation in a way that is like more valid or
in a way that the res ults of p articipation process get more influenc e in the
later on disc u ssions and p r o cess of t he p lanning. Therefore, we s h ould
not on ly do participation one moment, but we should really de a l with
process an d with th e results an d we should implement them into plannin g
process. I think that is the ne xt step.. . In addition, I think that is really
important to keep on this and to sa y how do you want to get along with
ideas and how you implement them? What kind of influence does the
people’s choice?"
The other three aspe cts regardin g the proce ss o f participatio n focuse d on broa dening the
spectrum of participants, increasing the transpa rency and openness of participation p rocess
as well as increas ing th e con venience. Remarkably, the expe rts' opinions regarding
broaden ing the spectrum of participation are mainly oriented toward applying new tools and
methods in cluding ICT. For insta nce:

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

Expert 3:
"I guess we need d ifferent electronic tools, to a dd ress a larger crowd, to
involve a substantial proportion of public. I can’t think of any other means
and I think we h ave sh own in the past years that it is a ctually p ossible to
involve mor e than usua l sus pects, more than a group of ten, twenty, th irty
to hundred people."
Or expert 2 said:
"We need to figure s ometh ing new out, n ew w ays of d oing this and that’s
when they come and realize that online engagements are something that
I think people expect now."
The asp ect of convenien ce that e xperts empha siz ed is accompan ied either with th e fixed
time/place o f face - to - face p articipation methods as a cha llenge (code= “challenge ftf: Time
and place barrier in face - to - face meth ods”) or lowering place /time b arriers a s ad vantage s of
mParticipation (an d eParticipat ion).
 Use of smartphones for c itizen participation
In the next step, the experts were asked for their opinion on the using smartphone (an d
tablets) for citizen pa rticipation p rocesses. Looking at the co -occurrence tab le of co de
"#smartphone fo r CP" and oth er code s, will indicate th at most of the e xperts h ave e ither
positive opinion o n this aspect or see the releva nce of using smartphones (and tablets) in
relation to the characteristics of the contempo rary citizens ( Table 11 ). For instance, the codes
"charch citz: smartph one ownership/smartp hone access" and "charch citz: new pop ulati on
accessing web/social med ia via smartpho ne" a re two important aspects that were repeate d
often (1 9 and 1 4 times) by many exp erts (see Tab le 12 ).
The code "charch citz: smartphone ownership/smartphon e acce ss" refers mostly to the issue
of digital divide. Loo king dee per into quotatio ns from inte rviews indicat es diffe rent sets of
opinions in th is matter. So me experts agreed tha t th ere exists an increa sing tren d in
smartphone access among all demograp hic groups of citizens, which increases the diversity
of participan ts in the p articipatory process.
For instance, expert 5 sa id:
“We see so man y people carrying this around, obviously smartph ones in
lots of peop l e ’s hands as well as the tablets o r some other kind of a
portable device."

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Table 11 Co -occu rrence table of codes wit h the code #sm artphone for CP
Codes

#2
smartpho ne
for CP

Codes

#2
smartpho ne
for CP

charch citz: smar tphone
ownership/smartph one access

charch citz: different te chnology
preference

adv mp: Having smar tphone always with
you/portability

disadv mp: lack of best p ractices
despite huge potential

adv mp: having fee dbacks based on real
experience

disadv mp: not suitable fo r complex
issues

adv mp: Broaden Participat ion range

adv mp: location -based (geo - tagged
and context- aware) commun ication

charch citz: new population acces sing
web/social media v ia smartphone

adv mp: lowering tim e/place bar rier

charch mp: conven ient participation

adv mp: usability / u serfriendline ss of
smartphones

ep vs mp: not distingu ishable

challenge mp: ap p as barrier

fact strg mp: m ixing face- to - face and ICT
supported meth ods and tools

disadv mp: financial co sts for
government

fact strg mp: do wn time-point of e ntry fo r
engaging

disadv mp: less rich conten t

fact strg mp: M ulti-device function ality

disadv mp: limit of the
screen/characte rs

adv mp: complem entary for reaching other
group of people

eval crit: providing enou gh suppo rting
information for participants

challenge mp: r equires know- how and hum an
capacity

fact strg mp: pr omotion
ways/importance of P R

Or expert 1 emphasized t he same asp ect and a dded a n example from p raxis:
"In terms of smartphones, th e way it sort of evolved, mmm smartp hone
engagement used to be more fo r youth or young people, increasingly
people of all ages are carr ying smartphones and wish to engage that
way..... I think as soon as we launched our smartphone capability, we h ad
30 % of our participants using smartphones to participate. So it went from
0 to 30 right away. So a nd we expect that number to go up to 50 o ver the
next ye ars. So I think that any application that is not accessible by
smartphone is missing a huge demographic."
On the co ntrary, some experts d isagreed on th is asp ect and mentioned that the a ctual
smartphone users are basically the you nger generation an d midd le class peop le. Expert 9
said:
"I do not see, you know, a lot of older pe ople interacting on t heir phone.
... S o that would be your more like working fa mily demographics and
younger all the way. College students and high school students."

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Table 12 Dist ribution of th e codes under characteristics o f contemporary citizen s (CHRCH CITZ)
category across the interviews
Codes

P 1

P 2

P 3

P 4

P 5

P 6

P 7

P 8

P 9

P10

P11

P12

P13

P14

P15

TOTAL

charch citz:
smartphone
ownership/smartph one
access

charch citz: new
population accessing
web/social media v ia
smartphone

charch citz:
contemporar y life
situation and new
needs from pa rticipants
side

charch citz: differ ent
technology prefe rence

charch citz: personal
relationship with
smartphone

Moreover, some experts (from US) e xplicitly empha sized the growing trend of access to
smartphone among mino rities and low-income p eople. For insta nce, expert 1 mentio ne d
that:
"And low e r income increasingly might not h ave a p ersonal computer b ut
do have o ften smartph ones so th at is coming up and when we give peopl e
options to use kiosks in the community cen ters or that sort of things and
have tar geted engagement whe n we are trying to get lower inco me people
to participate, I think that we have been successf ul."
The code “charch citz: new population acce ssing web/social med ia via smartpho ne” is also
an importan t aspect that ne eds atte ntion. Seven experts du ring th e inte rviews referred to
smartphone s sp ecifically b ecoming the primary access to the Inte rnet fo r contempo rar y
citizens. Expe rt 2 explaine d that:
" I think there a bigger or growing part o f the popul ation whose primary
access to the web is u sing their smartphone. They do not have a computer
at home. They may or may not have a tablet a t home but you know the y
have a smartphone with the d ata plan and ev e n just a b asic data plan. So
I think that is just you know sort of again the communication habits and
patterns ar e going to change a n d as part o f th at like what people li ke they
prefer to primary way of access to the Internet is changing and I think
that’s why I see it all as a part of the same."

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Expert 9 mentioned so me statistics from project experiences:
"I was very surprised. We actually had 6 0 to 70 percent o f our users in
Port Saint Lousi were i nte racting on mobile. So its wa y opposite of the
statistics on Miami, which was relatively low. It was li ke 20 percent of users
were on mob ile. And in Paul County, which is ri ght o utside of Orlando,
they are doing a hu ge plan and that
’
s a huge geograp h ic a rea and they
were also around 20 to 30 percent mobile users."
These lines of a rguments can confirm the p h enomena that conte mporary society is a mobile
society and ubiqu ity o f In ternet is changing th e lifestyle of citizens, so participatory processes
must catch u p with this ne w trend.
 eParticipa tion vs mParticipa tion
As it was described in the theoretical background section, mParticipatio n is defined a s a part
of the eParticipation concept. This aspect was aske d from the exp erts, in o rder to form a
better u nderstanding about the mParticipatio n concept.
Table 13 Dist ribution of th e codes under eParticipation vs mParticipation (EP VS M P) categ ory across
the int erviews
Codes

P 1

P 2

P 3

P 4

P 5

P 6

P 7

P 8

P 9

P10

P11

P12

P13

P14

P15

TOTAL

ep vs mp: not
distinguishable

ep vs mp:
depends on type
of input

ep vs mp:
context/location
sensitive

ep vs mp: data
structure in
backend/design
perspective

ep vs mp: mobility
(type) of the
device

According to distribu tion of co des across the different interviews ( Table 13 ) th e experts'
opinion on this issue was quite contro versial. Eight ou t of 15 expe rts did not d istinguished
between these two con cepts and exp ressed no specific difference in terms of devices that
are being used as co mmunication too l in th e eParticipatio n proce sses. For instance, expert
8 mention ed:
"I think in reality it is just combined more and more . So you have two ways
of offline participation channels, then you have e Participation channels
and then you have mParticipation ch annels. And I think in th e best the y
work together."

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Or expert 2 said:
"you know there was a time couple of years ba ck where peop le started
phrasing and coining that term mParticipatio n like they made it sound l ik e
it was something else an d those ce rtainly agree we had this discussion
whether it is tru e or not. S o I really fee l like that it is on e of the same that
I think wha tever we design, whatever online or the activities we design to
participate in, people ne ed to be a ble to do that from th e d evice that they
prefer and I think it is the same in Germany."
What expe rt 2 emph asized in the interview was tha t this h ype effe cts new themes a nd
discourses which t he contemporary urban p lanning context is faced wi th. Th ese n ew topics
or te rms normally be ing introduce d, suddenly attract a lot of attention s with a lot of promises
but th ey get rapidly vanishe d from the discussion with out being systematically investigated.
This argument is also suppo rted by expe rt 4 as he sa id:
"There is this hype effect. I do not know if the Augmented Reality still an
up to date topic is, but se veral years ago we thought that is the topic of
future but n othing really came out of this because it was not so
complicated and the users and usage of it is not well identified."
However, th e othe r experts d istinguished between ePa rticipation and mPa rticipation. Five
experts empha sized the d ifference in terms of the type of input yo u want to receive from
participants (content a spect). These exp erts c ommonly a greed th at eParticipation (using
desktop and laptop co mputers) wou ld b e used more in deeper co nversation a nd more time -
consuming interactions with more media inputs, while mParticipation would probably u se
more for writing short te xts or qu ick fo rmulat ion of ide as. For instance, expert 8 e xplained
this aspe ct in this way:
"But just from the definition a l way, I would say that mobile participation is
based on mobile phone and th erefore is for less interactive a nd for smaller
(shorter) contents, more short time, focused on smaller to pics, smaller
events, and even smaller time. Y ou don’t take part in a discussio n and you
don’t write comments for 2 hou rs on your mobile phone what you can do
on your PC. But y o u ta ke 5 minutes on the way to subway and it is time
for mParticipation. And eParticipation is really tak ing part in the
discussion, watching video streams form experts and chatting with experts
and watching big p lans, that what yo u can no t do neither on a mobile
phone. So, content and tim e are diffe rent in these two types.".
From th is pe rspective, it could also be int erpreted that eParticipatio n processes wou ld be
more useful fo r deliberative p rocesses and h igher level o f engag ement.
Some other expe rts conside red the portability of device as a differen tiating factor between
eParticipation an d mParticipation . This aspect (code) contributes to another distingu ishin g
aspect between ePa rticipation an d mParticipation , which is context/loca tion sensitive. The

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important point here is th at p articipants ca n be eng aged in the participation process while
they a re in the spatial boun daries of a sample project a nd experiencing it. For instan ce ,
expert 13 mentioned :
"... mobile participation is much more conte xt sensitive than online
participation with desktop computers because there you cannot say that
people have experienced the place, do they know the p lace, i n what kind
of m ood a n d situation are people wh e n they respond questions and when
you have mobile participation, you have then them on the spot."
Or expert 5 explained:
"What about somebody riding public tra nsit and you wan t them to
participate based o n that location or b ased on that cu r rent e xperienc e?
There are probably not gonna do that on a lap top and they a re definitely
not gonna do that on a desktop or some other kind of fixed devices. So, I
do see a role for that mobile and especially when it is loca tion -based,
smartphone and tablet w here yo u a re a ble to contact o r identify people
based on a certain geography, that’s mobile. That’ s need to be flexible."
The last d istinguishing p oint, that experts empha sized, is related to technical an d design of
the engagement plat form. This aspect is ind eed important, as th ese a ngels no rmally get less
attentio n and o ften are even being neglect ed. The main u nderlying aspect here is the user
experience and how these technical and visua l featu res could influence this experience, as
experts 11 and 7 e xplained.
Expert 11 :
"I th ink there is a difference. I mean like you always try to like develop a s
you said a responsive website tha t also look g ood on a smartphone but I
think if you rea lly p lan a n app on smartphone and it is rea lly mea nt to be
used when you are on the street, it probably has to be planed differently
from just a no rmal website which is re sponsive. So I think it should be a
difference because otherwise probably the user experience won’t be th at
great"
Expert 7:
"I distingu ish o nly because o n mobile application you have to build it more
compact t h at on l ap top. Just to giv e you one e xample w e recently built
planning model that runs on 80 -inch screen. Now, to actua lly take that
model and make it ready fo r lapto p, you have to compress all the
information and you have to delete a lot of inf ormation . Now we build a
mobile version of the tool, you have to scroll, so user b ehavior is ve ry
different. So given that from a design perspective, yo u will be h ave to think

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differently in te rms of what do the u sers want, and also how are they going
to interact and how often. That’s only in the desig n."
 Advantage (potentials) and dis advantages (cha llenges) of mParticipa tion
After reviewing the tran scription of co nducted interviews, 1 2 code s were ide ntified
concerning advanta ges o f mParticipa tion comparing to conven tional type. The table be low
shows distributio n of codes related to advanta ge of mPa rticipation across the cond uct ed
interviews ( Table 14 ).
Table 14 Dist ribution of th e codes under advantag e of mParticipation (ADV MP) category across th e
interviews

P 1

P 2

P 3

P 4

P 5

P 6

P 7

P 8

P 9

P10

P11

P12

P13

P14

P15

TOTAL

adv mp: Broaden
Participation range

adv mp: having
feedbacks based on
real experience

adv mp: easing
accessibility (pu shing) to
the context related
information to
participants

adv mp: lowering
time/place barr ier

adv mp: complem entary
for reaching ot her group
of people

adv mp: Having
smartphone a lways with
you/portability

adv mp: location -based
(geo- tagged and
context-awar e)
communication

adv mp: usability /
userfriendliness of
smartphones

adv mp: immed iate
participation (acting
possibilities)-
Readiness for
participation

adv mp: cost- saving for
government

adv mp: real tim e
information
gathering/ur ban sensing

adv mp: en abling self-
organized par ticipatory
processes

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Analyzing mentioned advan tages in deep er level indicate s some interesting aspe cts
regarding their conceptu al backgrou nd. A ccordingly, the advantag es of mParticipation could
be ca tegorized in three thematic group s: a dvantage s regarding pa rticipation process es,
advanta ges regarding technical features of mobile de vices and advan tages regarding the
conten t of participation. A dvantage s regarding participation proce sses include different
aspects such a s the participation range (broadening the range of p articipant s range and
complementa ry for reach ing n ew participant g roups), participation b arriers for con ventional
methods (lowering time/place barriers), participation costs (cost -saving fo r governmen t), a nd
communication in participa tion (location -based and context -aware communication,
readiness for participation, e nabling self -organ ized pa rticipation). Advantag es regarding
participation content include feed back b ased on real experience, easing accessibility to
relevant information and real -time info rmation ga therin g. The last set of advan tages is
regarding the technical fe atures of mobile d evices, which includes portability of d evice, use r -
friendliness, rea diness as well a s context -awaren ess aspects.
According to the occurrence frequency of code s, broadening rang e of p articipants, fe edback
based on real-experience in the field stand on the top of the list. In terms of broadenin g
participation rang e, for instan ce, expe rt 1 mentione d h ow enab ling participation via
smartphone s could broad en participatio n range in thei r project:
“I th ink as soon as we laun ched ou r smartphone ca pa bility, we had 30 %
of our participants using smartphones to participate. So it went from 0 to
30 right away. So and we ex pect th at numb e r to go u p to 50 ov e r t he next
years. So I think tha t an y application that is n ot accessible by smartp hone
is missing a huge demographic.”
Expert 8 a nd 9 e xpressed this b roadening process with some n umbers.
Expert 8:
“I think you can spread the words to a big group of thou sa nds and millions
of people in the best mom ent.”
Expert 9:
“Well, I mean, ob viously, using electronic forms of co mmunication is more
efficient in reaching massive a mount of people without n eeding th e labor
force to go ou t an engage. So I a m working with like a team, it is only fo u r
of us. So, to reach 2 50,000 people and go to e very sin gle festival e v ery
weekend, it is impossible. There is no money for that. So , mob ile makes
it a lot more financially feasible, to communicate with.”
Regarding the seco nd code (feedback based on real experi ence), d ifferent exp erts illustrate
this aspect as a b ig advan tage of mParticipation comparing to the conven tional methods.
For instance:

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Expert 2:
“I think the big advantage that I see and I think barely an ybody is gonna
tapping that or taking advantag e of this at this point is th at is so rt of
enabling this participation on the g o so the idea of you know you are
working on transportation pl a n and people are staying on the b us and they
see a sign and they ca n participate. Let their o pinion not be known w hen
they are sitting on the bus, whe n they are reading on the bus stop while
they are checking ou t whatever ren tal b ike at li ke a bike share program or
whatever that is.”
Expert 3:
“So this shows there is a big potential and I think this is a good example
because when you use mobile p hone, it is mostly interesting be nefits, is
that p eople actually e n gage on topics right next to, when they ar e a ctually
in the space, which is the topic o f discussion.”
Expert 5:
“I th ink if it is again about that pa rticular experience or mayb e even
difficulties or suggestion th a t t hey h ave based on a particular loca tion, if
they are waiting for transit, or some other kind of public service that they
ar e experi encing, or if they are o nly in places and yo u wanna get their
reaction on how does it feel safe? Or is it acce ssible? I th ink that’s is the
advantage.”
After these two co des, easing accessibility to relevan t info rmation, lowe ring time/place
barriers and its complementariness for rea ching e xcluded g roup of pe ople a re three oth er
important ad vantages o f mParticipation f rom experts' po int of view.
In terms of ea sing accessibility to the relevan t information, experts emphasized on two
aspects. The first aspect is relate d to technical possibility of smartp hones in sending
notification (push notification) to users (pa rticipants) while delivering information in terms of
participation p rocess. Expe rt 12 and e xpert 15 re spectively explain ed this aspe ct:
" So if I could send you pu sh notifications to be able to give you alerts on
what is happening with the project, then that migh t be a real advantage to
you if you know, oh, this new development is coming to my neighborhood,
here is what is h appening with that, then that would be g ood for you to
have."
“I think what mobile can d o, they can d o with laptops, computers don’t
always do that well is getting a format for putting information fo rward like
that backg roun d information in a manner that can be understood and

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digested and doesn’t require a n e x traordinary high reading level and the
language in which has been conducted and I think it is c rucial.”
The secon d aspect is related to anoth er technical possibility of smartpho nes and t ablets as
being location -aware (Locatio n-Base d Services). This tech nical feature in combination with
the push no tification possibility is repeated often in the qu otation o f expe rts in terms o f easing
accessibility to relevant information. The relevant info rmation was mostly men tioned
regarding the spatial conte xt that is the subject of participa tory process. For inst ance, expert
1 illustrated t his aspect:
“Well, I think th at is a real a nd ver y strong role and the best application
for smartphone technology because they are aware of where they a r e in
the world. That gives us the opportunity to push information that are
relevant to whe r e pe ople are, what do th e y do , what kind o f activities t hey
are engaging, what their search terms are, that sort o f things. For
example, if I am walking down town and my iPhone says that there is a
public meeting th at is happening righ t over here a nd by the way cross the
street a movie starts in 15 minutes. That’s u seful inform ation de livered at
the right time. When I am s ta nding at the bus stop, I can key in the bus
stop number, and it tells me tha t in 3 minutes the bu s will be here, that is
real time information at the ri gh t time. So I think the capacity of our pho nes
to be a ware of their location and de liver u s that information is the next
wave of where technologies gonna leverage in itself.”
Or expert 1 1 explained the same a spect as:
“Of course you can use it for the planning when like I as a citizen don’t
know where something is pl a nned. So when I am walking down th e street,
if th ere is not a big si gn o r something, I do n ’t know th a t there is something
planed. S o I guess it is probably like th e real cool idea about using like
apps on your mobile phones that you co uld get a message automatically
and then you get informed.”
As it was m entione d a bove, lowering temporal and spatial barriers was commonly men tioned
by most of the experts (12 out o f 15) a s on e of the important advanta ges o f mParticipa tion .
For inst ance, expe rt 6 a nd expe rt 8 mentione d th em in the ir int erview. This adva ntage can
also increa se flexibility for the participants to be engaged in the process as expert 7 or expert
9 respective ly highlighted t hat:
Expert 6:
“I think mParticipation is ea sier in te rms of the fact that p eople are n o t
limited to the limitation of tim e and space... ”

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Expert 8:
“so you can just in every s pace and every time you c an take part in the
participation processes.”
Expert7:
“Through mobile, you can engage larger nu mber of in dividuals, you can
also engage th em a long the planning process, so eve rybody doe s not
have to be in a m eeting at 8 a.m., they can give their opi n ion over a week.
So that increases flexibility,”
Expert 9:
“Because it is like, you k now, you always have your shop open, rather
than close it on a specific time.”
However, it shou ld b e said tha t this fle xibility in this sense could be also achieved by any
kind of e Participation p rocess.
The other a dvantage of mParticipation mentione d by experts is in line with br o adening range
of participants but as a complementa ry process to includ e “ d ifferent” groups of people. These
“different” groups of citizens vary in experts’ opinion, but it is commonly agreed that
mParticipation can a ttract the g roup o f citizen s that are n ot normally invo lved in th e decision -
making processes. Some e xperts believed that mParticipation co uld include peo ple with
different demograph ic charact eristics such as a ge, inco me leve l o r eth nicity. For instance,
expert 6 a nd expe rt 5 expressed this aspe ct below:
Expert 6:
“it is about providing the opportunity for ch ildren and youth to participate.
A lot of young people a nd young generation a re now using technologies
and mobile p hones so… Maybe it is better instead of asking…umm…
maybe it is be tter to go where they are, where they already acted, instead
of a sking them to co me to ou r public meeting. Maybe it is better that we
go where they are and we go to their communities.”
Expert 5:
“I think what we h ave seen in US is that smartph one ownership just a s
high among racial minorities and even low income classes, so that is
almost seen as an opportunity. We have got a mean to communicate more
directly with some of these g roups that have a lw a ys been n early
impossible to get to public meetings for whatever re ason.”
Some other experts considered these diffe rent group s o f citizens as “moderated view”
citizens or “silent” citizens. These g roups o f citizens are basically the ones who can no t

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normally attend public mee tings as expert 1 explaine d below. Howeve r, this grou p of citizens
can be reached via e Participation p rocess and n ot necessa rily through mParticipatio n.
“When we lower the ba rrier [spe cific time an d place] to p articipation, we
start to bring in peop l e who h ave moderated viewpoints or even support
the project. It turns out that anger and fear is the best motivation for the
participation.”
Portability of smartphone an d possibility of location -base d (con text-aware ) communication
are indicat ed by many e xperts (9 out of 15) as advantag e point s. P ortability of smartphones,
their being p ocketsize a nd the repetitive use of them makes them “always with you” devices,
which is a clear a dvantag e from the view of interviewed e xperts. Moreover, it is a po tential
for the p articipation proce ss. For instance , expert 1 e xplain ed this ad vantage a s followed:
“Maybe they have their iPad or they have their smartphone in their
pockets. Maybe they are sitting on the bus and they ha ve a few minutes.
And everybody you see in the bus is like lo o king at thei r smartphone [….]
Usually whenever anybody h as some extra minutes at their hands, th ey
pull ou t their phones and they are d oing something. Th at’s the pe rfect time
for them to do a little bit of a civic engagement.”
The location-based communication advanta ge mostly discussed in easing acce ssibility to
the relevant info rmation advantag e, but wha t should b e added here is th at this con text -aware
communication ca n provide va luable geo -information as e xpert 14 e xplained:
“With all those issue management apps, it is very h elp fu l to h a ve a geo-
tag photo of a like dirty area or whatever that s hould be done away with.”
Usability/user-friendline ss of smartpho nes and readiness for participation were two o ther
codes that were mentioned by 6 experts as advan tages of mParticipation. The usab i lity/user-
friendliness of smartphon es is related to their int uitive de sign as for instance e xpert 2 and
expert 5 illustra ted that, respectively:
“I mean if you use good mapping tool then you can pinc h zoom in and out
then yo u know I mea n everybody u ses Go ogle map on th eir phones to
navigate around t he towns. I don’t really see a disadvantage in that and I
think it is more often or not you k no w there is likely it is gonna be that
there”
“The de vice that somebody is using for their regular c ommunication and
other types of uses, and so, you know, versus having to h ave somebody
go home and get on a website, fill out th e questionnair e, or discussion
forum, I th ink that mParticipation, smartphone, tablet and whatever the
next devices gonna be, makes sense.”

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Readi ness for participation is mainly relate d to spe cific feature of smartphone s as “always -
on” device. Expert 2 discussed this advan tage in the context of contemporary u rban life a nd
emphasized th e necessity of th is readiness aspect in futu re participation pro ce sses from the
citizen’s side.
Expert 2:
“So this immediate ability, so th at we live in a society that our societies
where sort of instant gratification you want to know y o u know where is
your opinion right here no w o r I think they enable that I think h ere and new
kind of participation that e nables that, I think that is wh at people are more
and more looking for.”
The last n oticeable ad vantage of mParticipation, which was mentioned only by two experts
(from US) is related to the cost of participation proc ess for government. It is o ften discussed
in the literature th at using o nline engage ment an d online too ls would be co st effective fo r
governmen ts as the main o rganizer of participatory eve nts in urba n planning fie ld. For
instance, expert 9 men tioned:
“We ll, I mean , obviously, using electronic fo rms of communication is more
efficient in reaching massive a mount of people without n eeding th e labor
force to go ou t an engage. So I a m working with like a team, it is only fo u r
of us. So, to reach 250,000 people and go to every single festival every
weekend, it is impossible. There is no money for that. So , mob ile makes
it a lot more financially feasible, to communicate with.”
As very few e xperts o nly mention ed th is aspect, it could be interpreted tha t the cost of
participatory p rocess may not be considered an advantage. However, it could b e stated that
in bigg er scale and long er participatio n processes (spatial territory an d nu mber of
participants) this can be cost e ffective for citizens a s the gove rnment co uld sa ve
organization al costs as we ll as promotional/ca mpaigning co sts.
In add ition to man y advanta ges and possibilities of mParticipation, the e xperts were asked
about disadvanta ges and challenges of mParticipation. To gether 1 9 codes were identified
by the researcher after reviewing the cond ucted interviews. Th e d istribution o f th ese codes
across th e interviews is sh own in the tab le below ( Table 15 ). According to the tota l occurrence
frequen cy of codes, limitation of scree n and cha racters, lack of best practices, lack of
deliberation a nd dialo gue, less equita ble and inclusive participat ion , less rich conten t and
short atte ntion spa n on mobile device were repea tedly mentioned by experts. However, the
distribution of codes across d ifferent inte rviews indicates that the limitations of screen and
characters as well as lack of deliberation an d dialogue were highlighted by many of
interviewees (11 out of 1 5). Ad ditionally, more th an half of the inte rviewed experts (8 out of
15) e mphasized less equitable and inclu sive p articipation, short a ttention spa n o n mobile
device an d mobile app as barrier as disad vantages a nd cha llenges of mParticipa tion.

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Table 15 Dist ribution of th e codes under disadvan tage and challenges o f mParticipatio n (DISADV MP)
category across the interviews
Codes

P 1

P 2

P 3

P 4

P 5

P 6

P 7

P 8

P 9

P10

P11

P12

P13

P14

P15

TOTALS

disadv mp: limit of the
screen/char acters

disadv mp: lack of best p ractices
despite huge potential

disadv mp: lack of deliberation an d
dialogue/lower participation le vel

disadv mp: not equ itable/inclusive

disadv mp: less rich conten t

disadv mp: short tim eframe spending
on
mobile device/short a ttention spa n

challenge mp: app as barrier

challenge mp: privacy issue

challenge mp: requires know-ho w
and human cap acity

disadv mp: not su itable for compl ex
issues

challenge mp: building
mParticipation kno wledge upon f ace
to face participation

disadv mp: financial co sts for
government

disadv mp: lack human face to face
communication power

challenge mp: danger of overflow of
information
while using mobile phon e

challenge mp: compressing
engagement process for
people with low time

challenge mp: danger of
manipulating results

disadv mp: certain te chnical
prerequisites for smartphone

disadv mp: sign up a s barrier

Taking a deepe r analytical look at the code s in Table 15 , disadva ntages a nd challenges of
mParticipation can be divide d in four the matic ca tegories: Disadvan tages a nd challenges
regarding process, regarding the te chnicality of mobile devices, regar ding the co ntent of
participation and regarding participants (as u sers). Disadva ntages and ch allenges regardin g
process include differen t a spects such as participation leve l (lack of deliberation and
dialogue ), pa rticipation range (less equ itable and inclu sive participation , lon g tail e ffect),
participation b arriers (app as barrier and sign -up as barrier), co sts (finan cial costs for
governmen ts), communication in th e process (lack of p ower o f h uman face - to -fac e
communication, d anger of ove rflow of informati on), compressing e ngagement process a s
people ha ve less time, ap plying co nventiona l participation meth ods rules in mParticipation

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processes a nd lack o f best practices in this filed. In terms o f th e te chnicality of mobile
devices, d isadvantag es and challeng es a re screen limitation, short a ttention span on mobile
devices and ce rtain te chnical prerequisite for smartphon es. Disadvanta ges and challen ge s
regarding participation content are less rich co ntent, not suita ble for complex issues a nd
dange r of manipulat ing results of participation. The last ca tegory compiles disad vantages
and ch allenges regarding participants , which are privacy issues, prior knowledge and know -
how and existence o f human cap acity for organ izers of process.
In terms of limitation in screen size and input leng th (characters) as a te chnical ch allenge o f
smartphone s experts expressed different implication s. The first implication of this
disadvan tage is on ho w you present the ne eded information to participan ts and how you
receive their contrib ution. For inst ance, exp ert 5 mentioned h is opinion o n the presen tati on
of information as followed:
“you cannot p rovide much information with smartphone with sp aces and
characters; you cannot show pictures ve ry well and so on. So the depth
of information y ou provide before participation is not so b ig.”
Or expert 1 1 discussed o n capturing of contribu tions from participan ts:
“So I guess when p robably you are on y ou r mobile phone, you are kind o f
forced to make info rmation really clear. Because you don’t have much
space. Mayb e this could he l p to make informatio n… o r visualize it better.
[...] if you want to type in li ke a long statement of w h at you think a bout
something you probably won’t want t o do it on your mobile phone you want
to do it on your laptop at home. So you always have to consider wha t is
doable on a mobile phone.”
Contrary to the se opinio ns, expe rt 10 sees th is disadvan tage as a possibility fo r ge tting more
focused and well elab orated con tribution from pa rticipants:
“So, you instead of asking 15 d ifferent questions about someone’s
background, so th e peopl e span attention won’t last so long, and s urprise
in th at is that it tu rns out when you ask p eople something o n their mobile
device, o ften their feedbacks are very focused, there is no room for th em
to trample…”
The second sort of implication of this limitation is relate d to the te chnical backen d of
mParticipation a nd is a cha llenge for technical develop ers to design the mobile platform in a
way that does n ot effect the respon siveness and reflexive ne ss of mParticipation a pplication.
Expert 9 a ddressed t his aspect:
“So th at is totally altere d the way, in which we are g onna go about sh owing
our needs plan on community remarks. S o this week I started to heavily
focus on the mob ile version of t his with all the bells and whistles that it
needed to m ost user friendly yet not sa crifices. Y ou know, th ey are not

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being able to interact with t he map for this that the other. Bu t you know,
have all the same desktop functionality bu t on mobile, which is very
diffi cult design challenge.”
Lack of best practice in th e field of mParticipation and urban planning is a very controversial
issue that experts have a greed is a disad vantage of mParticipation . Looking at the quo tatio ns
of experts regardin g this code indicates t hat many experts explaine d th is lack of b est practice
regarding the level o f enga gement a nd de liberation in the participatory process o f the current
mParticipation p latforms. For instance, expert 2 a ddressed th is issue:
“…like I th ink you know there is som e specific use cases that are you kn ow
mobile o nly think of t h e pothole re po rting or so mething like that. I don ’ t
know if that is truly civi c e ng agement but I think there is b eside of s ome of
those rare sort of edge cases…”
or expert 1 :
“as I said I don’t thi n k that usua lly there is only very f ew projects that I
think they are fully sort of tapping the potential of that at this point. I think
it is not just on people radars enough. Even though I see everybody talks
about yo u know we need to engage people o n their mobile phones they
don’t think it th roug h u ntil that level of like well how do we get th e people
to take their phone out of their pocket and te ll us something while they are
there.”
Following the same line of thinking , many exp erts highlighte d dire ctly the lack of delibe rati on
as one of the important disadvanta ges of mParticipation. For insta nce, expe rt 5 a nd e xpert
12 ap pointed th is aspect in th eir interviews, respective ly:
“For example, when we are talking about engagement, a lot o f cases we
are talking about trust bu ilding, we are talking a bout reaching to mutual
understanding, we a re talking about moving to w ard co nsiste nce building,
and those types of th ings, w hich is probably hard in s ome cases if we want
to just use only mParticipation.”
“You have challenge that you cannot g et as de ep of engagement to ward
information and that is probably the biggest one. And you cannot go t o
significant detail.”
Additiona lly, receiving less rich conten t via mParticipation as a disadvantag e su pports the
low level of delibe ration code. E xpert 5 explained th is aspect b y comparing mParticipation
to face - to -face participatio n as:
“On the other hand, what ki nd of a platform do you provide, so th at you
can get a rich so rt of response from them like th ey would get you i n face-
to -face int erview. So, let say you just going to send them a qu ick little

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survey on their phone (i t’s going to be yes, no , maybe, I do not k now, an d
maybe some really fix sort of cho ic es) you are not ge tting the rich
responses that you would get int e rviewing them.”
Anothe r disadvanta ge of mParticipatio n is that it is n ot equitab le or inclu sive. Th is code
contradicts one of th e important ad vantages of mParticipation as broa dening participation
range. Take a deeper look at quota tions shows th at most of the e xperts saw this inequity in
terms of a ccessing to techn ology (smartphon es) or having a compatible device for
participating in the process. For instance , e xpert 11 pointed ou t th is issue; however,
considering oth er codes rega rding wide access to smart phone among d ifferent demograp hi c
group may ju stify this disadva ntage.
“I think It is always a small use r group that they have the right app, the y
have the right smartphone, they have understo od how to use it.”
The code “disadv mp: short timeframe spendin g on mobile device/ short atten tion sp an”
explains anoth er technical limitation of smartphones, which is also related to the small size
of screen compa ring to bigger devices like desktop computer or laptop as for instance expert
9 and expert 11 illustra ted, respective ly:
“… and a very short attention span. So, those to me are disadvantages
over the desktop version, people a re more likely to sp end a li tt le bit longer
on the website.”
“If you want to type in like a long statement of what yo u think about
someth ing you probably won’t wan t to do it on yo ur mobile phone you want
to do it on your laptop at ho me. So you always have to consider what is
doable on a mobile phone.”
Mobile apps were seen as an importa nt barrier in mParticipation and q uite cha llenging issu e.
On the one hand, the exp erts addressed d ifferent obstacles regarding a pps such as
installation, technical compatibility of smartphone s, having different operating systems (OS)
or being e xpensive. Fo r instance:
Expert 4:
“Sometime, I do not even wan t to update my syste m an d the apps and
when I d o the update, m a ybe the app is not compatibl e with t he system
version. I mean, there was a time that a pps were amazing and cool, but
at the moment, there is millions of app and it is annoying.”
Or expert 3 :
“Maybe Teleg ram is a nice app, b ut it is a big step for citizens to install the
app in order to use it in this resp ect. That’s one of the b iggest down tu rn
with apps, that’s why we a ctually focused on designing websites in a

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responsive manner. Because we think th at is a big step for citizens to
install the app.”
On the oth er ha nd, using native Apps have its p ositive a spect as it may be the on ly way to
fully use th e se nsors a nd technical fe atures of smartphon es (e.g. Loca tion -Ba sed S ervice,
GPS, or p ush notificatio n). E xpert 2 exp lained this issue :
“I think there is a specific use cases that require a ll these additional
features that a phone provides I think that also shows where to draw
barriers, web apps don’t o r are not feasible anymore when you n eed a
native app like the whole idea of road tracking and sort of those kind of
stuffs is on ly possible wit h those kind o f apps so I think it is sort o f media
driven input or specific feedback.”
Looking at the quo tation of the code “challange mp: requires know -how and hum an capacity”
reveals that many e xperts see th is know -how requirement n ot o nly for p articipants but also
for the g overnment o r planner side. Expert 14 a ddressed t his issue:
“It n eeds some technical know -ho w, so in o rder for adm inistra tion to use
mParticipation also eParticipation, they need someone who has ce rt ain
knowledge of setting up th i s format and co mmunic ating them, which is
also different like you need to use diffe rent ways o f channels of
communication. So, mPartic ipation certainly needs differ en t sk ills to some
extent. Some different skills also needed by the particip ants.”
“Not suitable for complex issue ” is one oth er disad vantage mentioned by experts. The co -
occurrence of this cod e with the cod e “limitation of screen” and “short a ttention span”
indicates that d ue to th ese te chnical limitation mParticipatio n can not be a pplicable in
participatory processe s whe re a long deliberat ive p rocess is happe ning due to its complexity,
which is a no rmal case in urban planning field. Expert 6 , for example addres sed t his point:
“On the other hand it depend s on the type of pro blem that people are going
to discuss. For exa mple, if the problem is very co m p licated, maybe it is
better not to use maybe sm artphone. Maybe it is better to us e another
type of prog ram which work on desktop, where people can ea sily look a t
other sources, or I don’t know.”
An interest ing point made by th ee expe rts during th e interviews was rela ted to the existing
knowledge of mParticipation. These experts be lieved that the cu rrent mParticipati on
examples a nd projects transfe r th e face - to -face method s and te chniques (or frames) to
mobile aspects as for instan ce expert 14 mentioned :
“… I also think there is not much experience fo r practice of using th ese
devices because there are no new methods yet, s o it is mostly transferring
existing face - to -f ace methods to the mobile aspect and there is not
enough expe rience to develop proper tool, because there is n ot much

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communication between d eveloper and participation re searchers yet. So,
it needs much more communication in order to u nders ta nd the practical
potential of using smartphone and tablets.”
This cou ld be also o ne of the rea sons tha t many experts believe d in very few successful
examples of m Participation p rojects in the current situation . Theref ore, the main q uestion as
expert 15 said, shou ld be:
“I think the big question is going to b e, I think the tensional, we need to
define basically a new language. and I don’t mean lan guage in terms of
letters a nd numbers b ut I mean a new way of framing tha t in the mobile
context.”
 Characteris tics of mParticipation
One o f th e important aspects fo r po sitioning mParticipation in the pu blic en gagemen t
discourse is the specific characteristic related to mParticipation. Th is aspect has attracted
less atte ntion in the previo us line s of research, howeve r, some resea rchers d id ind ee d
endea vor to investigate this aspect regarding mParticipation. The terms such as p articipatio n
on the go (Ertiö, 2 013), participation on -demand (Fey and Landau , 2010) , e tc. a re some of
these ch aracteristics h ighlighted in the th eoretical ba ckground of this research.
Nevertheless, these specific c haracteristics to some extend are de rived from the advantag e
and possibilities of mParticipation processes. After asking q uestion abou t a dvantage s and
challenge s of mParticipation , the expe rts were a sked to give their o pinion on the
characteristics of mParticipatio n. M ost o f the interviewees found th is question interesting and
mentioned that they need ed a bit more time to think about it. Nevertheless, experts' opinions
were ca tegorized in 10 co des. Their reputation an d distribution a mong different e xperts a re
shown in Table 16 .
Convenien ce was th e most important aspect tha t most e xperts (13 out of 1 5) highlighted.
Looking de eper at quota tions, th ree th ematic g roups of q uotation s a re recogn izable. The
first group of quotatio ns e xplains the con venience of mParticipation in terms of user
experience. This fo cuses on how easy it would be fo r participants to u se th eir smartph on e
device in o rder to contribu te to th e participat o ry process. For insta nce, expert 2 mentioned :
" I think there is an added value when we look a t mapping a nd you know
submitting places that we like around town or these kin d of activities that
using smartphone is convenien t because you can just you know press a
button and get the location so like the GPS enabled phones really have
an ad vantage whe re you don’t have to drag and mark it and na vi gate the
map but like you k no w yo u just say, hey th is is interaction that I don’t t hink
is safe, h ere is why and yo u sta rt typ ing and you sa y ok you know locate
me and drops mark right where you are and then you know you su b mit it.
So I th ink there is a co n venience element t o that, too th at comes to play it
depending on the sort of activities. ... I think it is ultimate ly easier done on

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a mobile phone where you j ust like go to the forum a nd say hey I don’t like
this and then snap a picture and upload it and then you ta g it."
Table 16 Dist ribution of th e codes under characteristics o f mParticipat ion (CHRCH MP) categ ory
across the in terviews
Code

P 1

P 2

P 3

P 4

P 5

P 6

P 7

P 8

P 9

P10

P11

P12

P13

P14

P15

TOTAL

charch mp: conven ient
participation

charch mp: par ticipation
on the go/ anywhere

charch mp: geo -
centric/site
specific/embedded/con te
xt

charch mp: richer
engagement -media rich
(enhanced with geo a nd
new information )

charch mp: par ticipation
on demand

charch mp: timeliness
participation

charch mp: inclusive for
broader audience

charch mp: quick and
immediate ( real-time)

charch mp: micro-
participation

charch mp: ad ho c
participation

The second group of quotation s co nsiders th e convenience o f mParticipation in terms of
flexibility in time a nd place of pa rticipation. However, this a spect could b e sha red between
most electron ic devices such as d esktop computer, lapto p, smartphones and tablets;
therefore, it would no t be spe cifically for mParticipation processes. Neverthe less, o ne o f the
possible un derlying points reg ard ing this asp ect is that th e participants are enabled to
contribute when it is convenient for them while th e time and place barriers are removed. Fo r
instance, expert 12 a nd 10 h ighlighted this aspect in their interviews:
Expert 12 :
"So, I th ink t he op port unity for online partici pation whether it is through
mobile devices, through the Web, or through whatever, it offers the
opportunities t o p eople to p a rticipate when it is convenient to them, rath er
than having to be tight to a f ix time and place. "
Expert 10 :
"the biggest advantage is that people can do it o n their (own.), it is more
convenient for everybody."

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The third group of quotatio ns explains co nvenience in reg ard to portab ility of mobile devices,
which makes it an "always-with-you" device. This fe ature in combination with intuitive design
of smartphones resu lts in more frequent use of these devices b y contemporary citizen s and
transforms it to a very influentia l part of urban life while being easy to use. Therefo re, using
this existing pote ntial fo r participato ry processes cou ld be considered as a convenient form
of participatio n. Expert 5 and 12 emphasized t his aspect a s follows:
Expert 5:
"Well, I think, th at goes to the point a bout convenience. We see so many
people carrying this around, o bviously smartphones in lots of people’s
hands as well as the tablets or some other kin d of a port able device. T ha t
seems to make a lot of senses as far as the qu estion of convenience is."
Expert 12 :
"And s o, if you have something that is with you all the time, then why w ou l d
not you use it? So if we loo k ba ck twe nty yea rs ago, people were really
into doing phone surveys, because you could catch someone at home and
you could spend 10 or 20 minutes and talking to them. N ow, it is the mobile
device, right? An d so it is with you all the time, a nd so it is qu ite e asy for
you to be able to participate. The cha llenge is then of course, ok you have
this device, but I still I have to motivate participation."
In order to investig ate more deeply the con venience aspe ct of mParticipa tion, th e co -
occurring of the co de "charch mp: con venient participation" was analyzed (table b elow). As
it is sh own in the table, the codes "adv m p: usability/user -friend liness of smartpho nes", "adv
mp: Having smartph one always with you/po r tability" a nd "chrch citz: smartph on e
ownership/smartp hone access" co -occurred man y times with co nvenience aspe ct a s the
characteristics of mParticipation. These ad vantages of smartphone s in combination with the
high rate of smartphone ownership can explai n th e u nderlying reasons for conven ience of
mParticipation co mpared to oth er type o f participation.
Furthermore, the codes "adv mp: Broaden Participation ran ge" also co -occured in regard t o
convenien ce of mParticipa tion. Th erefore, it may be interpreted t h at th is convenient
possibility for participation can lead to more inclusive participatory process. Co -occurrence
of th e cod e "ad v mp: immediate pa rticipation (act ing p ossibilities) - Read iness for
participation" and "charch mp: quick and immediate (real -t ime)” , in this context, can be
considered as one of the other rea sons for co nvenience of mParticipation, because it is
possible fo r the citizens to quickly contribute via their de vices.

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Table 17 Co -occurrence tab le of codes wit h the code charch mp: convenient p articipation
Code

charch mp :
conven ient
participatio n

Code

charch mp :
conven ient
participatio n

Code

charch mp :
conven ient
participatio n

adv mp: usability /
userfriendliness of
smartphones

charch mp: par ticipation
on the go/ anywhere

com actors: rea l-time (instant
and iterative ) communication
feedback possibil ity

adv mp: Having
smartphone a lways with
you/portability

adv mp: cost- saving for
government

disadv mp: less rich conten t

charch citz: smartph one
ownership/smartph one
access

adv mp: easing
accessibility (pu shing) to
the context related
information to p articipants

disadv mp: not
equitable/inclusi ve

charch mp: richer
engagement -media rich
(enhanced with geo a nd
new information )

adv mp: en abling self-
organized par ticipatory
processes

disadv mp: short tim eframe
spending on mob ile
device/short attentio n span

adv mp: Broaden
Participation range

challenge ftf: T ime and
place barrier in face- to -
face methods

disadv mp: sign up a s barrier

adv mp: immed iate
participation (acting
possibilities)- Readi ness
for participation

challenge mp: long tail
effect

enhce cp process: incr easing
the convenience/attr activeness
of participation

charch mp: geo -
centric/site
specific/embedded/con text

challenge mp: requires
know-how and hu man
capacity

flow info: huge volume o f non-
processed
information/inter actions in short
time frame

charch mp: quick and
immediate ( real-time)

charch citz: contem porary
life situation and new
needs from pa rticipants
side

qul eng: less quality because of
less spending time

adv mp: location -based
(geo- tagged and context-
aware) com munication

charch citz: new
population accessing
web/social media v ia
smartphone

qul eng: providing ne w type of
information

adv mp: lowering
time/place barr ier

charch citz: personal
relationship with
smartphone

qul eng: quality out o f quantity

adv mp: real tim e
information
gathering/ur ban sensing

charch mp: participation
on demand

qul eng: visual
elements/structur es for info
helps for better understanding

The ease of participation could result in limited form of participation or lower leve l of
engag ement via mobile d evices. The co -occurrence of the code s "disad v mp: less rich
conten t" a nd "qul eng: less qua lity because o f less spen ding time" ca n confirm this p oint.
Expert 5 me ntioned th is point very clea rly:
"You kno w on one hand, we a re trying to make it convenient as possible,
but on the other hand , are we really getting the depth and richness of their
feedbacks or in puts? On a mob ile de vice are we just asking them a simple

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kind of survey type q uestion o r are we really letting them to give their full
kind of reaction. Can they actu ally fully de scribe what they are f e eling?
But like I a lso men tioned before, that can be overcome by creative sorts
of approaches on getting people’s input."
The secon d charact eristic o f mParticipation tha t was mentione d by th e experts was
participation on the go, as 8 out of 1 5 e xperts emphasized on this aspect (cod e "ch arch mp:
participation on th e go/e verywhere"). The basic idea of participation on the go or everywhere
refers to the p ossibility fo r p articipants to contribute while th ey are on move or not in a fix
place an d time frame, a s for instance experts 8, 1 0 and 1 4 highlighte d in the ir interviews.
Expert 8:
"The things that I a lso sa id about time and space. mParticipation has th e
advantages of getting connected every time, at nearly every place..."
Expert 14 :
"… b ut I suppose that the m ob ility of the devices makes some diffe rences
in cases. So that would be the main major difference having the mob ile
devices being taken with you wherever you go and like participating
around the clock all over the world."
Expert 10 :
"And for the participants, they can do it o n their own time. So they can do
it if they have 5 minutes at their home, they can do it from a bus. It is really
about bringing participation to where they are."
The co-occurrence of the code "participation o n the go/everywhere" ( Table 18 ) with the code
"adv mp: Havin g smartphone always with you /probability" and "adv mp: lowering the
time/place barriers" shows th e importa nt role of portab ility as a fe ature of smartp hones in
term o f this characteristics o f mPa rticipation. Therefore, the main idea here is that
mParticipation can ena ble participants to con tribute aroun d the clock. The co -occurrence
with the code "charch mp: g eo -centric/site spe cific/embedded/context related " shows also
the slight e dge betwee n p articipation o n the go/eve rywhere a nd the geo -centric aspect as
the oth er characteristics of mParticipation.
The third characteristics of m Participation men tioned by 8 o ut of 15 exp erts is ge o-ce ntric or
embedde d participation (the co de "charch mp: ge o -centric/site specific/embedde d/context ") .
Looking at the qu otations from the exp erts ind icates that the main fo cal un derlying point is
the sp atial context that th e partici pa tory process is embedde d in. This aspe ct of Urban
Planning is considerable as most o f urban deve lopment projects have a spa tial territory.
Expert 3, expert 5 and expert 9 described this characte ristic o f mParticipatio n in th eir
interviews as:

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120

Table 18 Co -occurrence tab le of codes wit h the code charch mp: participat ion on the go/everywhere
Code

ch arch mp:
participatio n on the
go/everywhere

Code

ch arch mp:
participatio n on
the go /everywhere

adv mp: Having smar tphone always with
you/portability

adv mp: immed iate participation ( acting
possibilities)- Readi ness for
participation

charch mp: geo -centric/site
specific/embedded/con text

adv mp: real tim e information
gathering/ur ban sensing

charch mp: timeliness participation

charch mp: richer engage ment-media
rich (enhanced with geo and new
information )

adv mp: lowering tim e/place barri er

com actors: r eal-time (instan t and
iterative) com munication feedb ack
possibility

charch mp: conven ient participation

disadv mp: lack of best p ractices
despite huge potential

charch mp: inclusive for broade r audience

disadv mp: short tim eframe spending on
mobile device/short a ttention span

charch mp: par ticipation on dema nd

enhce cp process: incr easing div ersity
and broadness of participation

charch mp: quick and immediate (rea l-time)

enhce cp process: incr easing the
convenience/attractiven ess of
participation

fact strg mp: pr omotion ways/imp ortance of
PR

ep vs mp: m obility (type) of the d evice

qul eng: increasing q uality of inpu ts ( people
in the setting)

ep vs mp: not distingu ishable

adv mp: cost- saving for governm ent

eval crit: integration o f inputs to plan

adv mp: easing accessib ility (pus hing) to
the context related info rmation to
participants

fact strg mp: M ulti-device function ality

adv mp: having fee dbacks based on real
experience

qul eng: more e fficient and accur ate
inputs

Expert 3:
"I wou ld call it embedded. It refers to what I said before. It is really trigg ing
to have p eople participating on issue s which surround them a t the same
time. It is n ot, when the people on their desktop computers, they are
somehow physically remov ed from the enviro nment, which is the topic.
That’s what I found. Maybe embedded participation"
Expert 5:
"I mainly co nnected to y o u kn ow where it’s based on that you know that
while somebody is in th at experience. If there is some kind o f information
that ca n only be gathered, then. Because again along with th e transit
experience somebody could go h ome and say the vehicle th at I was in,
was dirty, I d idn’t feel safe it didn’t ta ke me to where I wanted to go I mean

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

121

they could provide th at information without b eing kind of Mob ile- b ased I
think its."
Expert 9:
"What originally comes to my mind is geo -centric. So, for mobile
engagement its, I think its very p lace -specific so it kind of like, whe re am
I standing and what is in relationship to where am I located right now and
how can I augment that interaction with government base on where I am.
I am physically, or if I even physically am moving throu gh space."
The co -occurrence o f this code ( Table 19 ) with the code "adv mp: having feed backs based
on real exp erience", "qul eng : increasing quality of inputs (people in the setting)" and "qul
eng: more efficient and accurate inputs" (table below) shows the possible positive influence
of mParticipatio n on th e outp ut of engag ement processes specifically in urba n plann i ng
discourses. The above quotations are aligned with this aspect as they concretely emphasize
the exp erience of p articipants base d on th e spatial con text.
Table 19 Co -occurrence tab le of codes wit h the code charch mp: geo- centric/site
specific/em bedded/con text
Code

charch mp : geo -centric/site
specific/em bedded/con text

adv mp: having fee dbacks
based on real expe rience

adv mp: usability /
userfriendliness of
smartphones

charch mp: conven ient
participation

charch citz: contempo rary
life situation and new ne eds
from participan ts side

charch mp: par ticipation on
the go/ anywhere

charch mp: ad hoc
participation

qul eng: increasing q uality
of inputs (pe ople in the
setting)

charch mp: par ticipation on
demand

charch mp: timeliness
participation

charch mp: quick and
immediate ( real-time)

qul eng: more e fficient and
accurate inpu ts

charch mp: richer
engagement -media rich
(enhanced with geo and
new information )

adv mp: easing
accessibility (pu shing) to
the context related
information to p articipants

com actors: rea l-time
(instant and iterative )
communication feedback
possibility

adv mp: immed iate
participation (acting
possibilities)- Readi ness
for participation

disadv mp: lack of best
practices despite huge
potential

adv mp: real tim e
information
gathering/ur ban sensing

disadv mp: short tim eframe
spending on mob ile
device/short attentio n span

eval crit: integration o f
inputs to plan

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122

The other charact eristic of mPa rticipation that experts (5 out of 15) mentio ned is m edia -rich
engag ement (the code "ch arch mp: richer engage ment -media rich (enhanced with geo and
new information)"). The main aspe ct that th e experts emph asized in this regar d was the use
of visualization a nd oth er media so urces (such a s video , g raphics, etc.) in mParticipation
processes. Fo r instance, exp ert 12 exp lained this ch aracteristic as:
"...then I also think through mParticipation there is so much opportunities
with streaming media, that you can sha re videos, yo u can share other
things that can really help tell th e story of planning a nd engage people i n
a way that you might not otherwise be able to engage people. ".
The co -occurrence of this characteristic ( Table 20 )with th e cod e "qul eng: visual
elements/stru ctures for info s helps fo r b etter unde rs tand ing" combined with "charch mp:
convenien t participatio n" indicate s the p ossible influence of visual elements a nd media
(charts, diag rams or video ) on the e ngagemen t proce ss in terms o f higher q uality outpu t as
well as more convenien t proce ss, th rough bett er and ea sier understanding of problems and
removing some la nguage b arriers as expert 1 4 explaine d:
"One should be aware that the possibility of using visualizations a nd
mobile devices might have different consequences tha n using text. This
is also saying its not only bad to use visualization, it can also be good, like
overcoming language problems with written text. And sometimes one
picture shows much more than one page o f text. So it should b e looked
quite care fully in what ways you wou ld allow using visua l ization and texts."
Table 20 Co -occurrence tab le of codes wit h the code charch mp: richer engagem ent-med ia rich
(enhan ced with geo an d new information)
Code

charch mp : richer engag ement-
media rich

charch mp : richer engag ement -
media rich

charch mp: conven ient
participation

disadv mp: financial co sts
for governm ent

qul eng: visual
elements/structur es for
info helps for bette r
understanding

disadv mp: lack human face
to face commun ication
power

adv mp: usability /
userfriendliness of
smartphones

disadv mp: lack of
deliberation and
dialogue/lower pa rticipation
level

adv mp: Broaden
Participation range

ep vs mp: not
distinguishable

challenge mp: requires
know-how and hu man
capacity

flow info: huge volum e of
non -processed
information/inter actions in
short time fram e

charch mp: geo -
centric/site
specific/embedded/con text

napp vs resd: bett er usage
of phone features in native
app

charch mp: par ticipation
on the go/ anywhere

qul eng: pr oviding new type
of information

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

123

In addition to these positive opinio ns, it must be stated that one of the
disadvan tages/challenges of mParticipation is the relative small size of smartpho nes '
screens, which may decrease the willingness of p articipants to stream fo r instan ce a video
on th eir phone o r check a big map on th eir mobile devices.
On deman d pa rticipation was anothe r important charact eristic of mPa rticipat ion in th e mind
of some (6 out o f 1 5) expe rts (the code "charch mp: participatio n on demand"). This
characteristic of mParticipation is focused on the possibility of reaching out participants and
asking fo r their contribution s. For instance, expert 4 d escribed this cha racteristic as follow:
"they (participants) will be prompted and asked for participation. I walk in
the city and receive a push notifica tion that here is something happening
and I c an say what I think or I can even develop my idea about the place
that I am in it ri ght now. This is huge potential but it is not really well applied
and used yet".
Looking a t the co -occurrence tab le of this co de ( Tab le 21 ) with th e codes "adv mp: easing
accessibility (pushing ) to th e conte xt related info rmation to participants", "adv mp: Having
smartphone always with you/p ortability" a nd "adv mp: immediate pa rticipation (acting
possibilities)- Readine ss for participation" can illustrate how some adva ntages a nd features
of smartph ones (e.g. push notification , location-based services, porta bility and bei ng always-
on de vice) can shape this characte ristic of mParticipation.
Table 21 Co -occurrence tab le of codes wit h the code charch mp: participatio n on demand
Code

charch mp :
participatio n on
deman d

charch mp: par ticipation on the go/ an ywhere

adv mp: easing accessib ility (pus hing) to the conte xt related information t o
participants

adv mp: having fee dbacks based on real experience

adv mp: Having smar tphone always with you /portability

adv mp: immed iate participation ( acting possibilit ies)- Readiness for participation

charch citz: personal r elationship with sm artphone

charch mp: conven ient participation

charch mp: geo -centric/site specif ic/embedded/con text

charch mp: timeliness participatio n

disadv mp: lack of best p ractices despite huge potential

Timeliness, immediate and qu ick participation are some other ke ywords that exp erts used
to d efine the characteristics of mParticipation. The se terms refe r to the tempo ral aspects and
are concentrate d on the timespan that participatory proce ss will happ en. Timeliness
participation basically mean s ha ving p articipation a t the right moment, which suite s the
participants at their most convenien t time and remove s time barriers (co-occurrence with the

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

124

code “adv mp: lowering time/place barriers” ). Expert 10 and exp ert 12 exp lained this
characteristic, respe ctively:
“And the third is timelin e ss. With face - to -face event you have to schedule
it so far in advance.”
“it makes participation spatial and just in time.”
Looking at the co - occurrence o f the code “timeliness p articipation” with other co des ( Tab le
22 ) shows tha t portability of mobile d evices (cod e “adv mp: having smartph one with
you/po rtability” ) is importan t in terms of th is characteristic. Anothe r aspect is the co -
occurrence with the cod es “charch mp: participation o n the go/ anywhe re” an d “charch mp:
geo - centric/site sp ecific/embedde d/context” , which shows th e interde pendence of spatial
and te mporal dimensions in mPa rticipa tion.
Table 22 Co -occurrence tab le of codes wit h the code charch mp: timelines s participation
Code

charch mp : timelines s
participatio n

charch mp: par ticipation on the g o/ anywhere

adv mp: Having smar tphone always with you/portab ility

charch mp: geo -centric/site specif ic/embedded/con text

disadv mp: lack of best p ractices despite huge potential

adv mp: easing accessib ility (pus hing) to the conte xt related information t o
participants

adv mp: having fee dbacks based on real exper ience

adv mp: immed iate participation ( acting possibilit ies)- Readiness for
participation

adv mp: lowering tim e/place barri er

charch mp: par ticipation on dema nd

disadv mp: short tim eframe spending on mobile device/short atten tion span

ep vs mp: mobility ( type) of the d evice

ep vs mp: not distingu ishable

Quick and immediate participation mostly refers to a shorter participatio n process time -wise.
This means, mParticipation gives citizens the opportunity to quickly submit their contributions
and p articipate in the decision -making processes. Expe rt 9 and expert 13 e xplained this
characteristic in th eir interview as followed:
Expert 9:
“But for mobile, when I originally programmed community remarks I
envisioned, because I understand that citizens want an easy accessibl e
way to , I call it, “hit it a go ”. They just wanna g ive you their comment a nd
they are not really gonna spend a lot of time on the site.”

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

125

Expert 13 :
“I mean m uch quicker. W hen you h a ve questions, you can sen d them o ut
and you get the feedbacks immediately. You don’t have to o rganize fac e
to face events when you need some months for or som e weeks at least.”
This immediate p articipation cou ld a lso be to o quick making the participa tory proc ess ve ry
near to re al-time, as exp ert 5 explaine d:
“I gu ess the other th ing about mob ile participation if there is a use of that
information in re al time or close t o real time in ord e r to modify t he
experience or in order to send feedback to the system, th en the mobile
platform itse lf is the only way to do that in order to capture data information
at the time or on the go.”
The co- occurrence of the code “charch mp: quick and immediate ( rea l-time )” ( Table 23 ) with
the codes “adv mp: immediate pa rticipation (acting possibilities) - Readiness for
participation”, “adv mp: rea l time information gathering/u rban sen sing” and “ com acto rs: real -
time (instant and iterative) communi cation feed back possibility” illustrate s the underlying
aspects for this characteristics o f mParticipatio n. Anothe r remarkable aspect in this regard
is th e co- occurrence with the co des related to convenien ce of mParticipation (codes “charch
mp: conve nient p articipation” a nd “adv mp: easing accessibility (push ing) to the con tex t
related information to participan ts” ). A p ossible inte rpretation of this is th at an immediate and
quicker participa tion process co uld increase co nvenience of participating for citize ns.
Table 23 Co -occurrence tab le of codes wit h the code charch mp: quick an d immediate ( real-time)
Code

charch mp : quick and
immed iate (real- time)

adv mp: immed iate participation ( acting possibilit ies)- Readiness for participation

charch mp: conven ient participation

adv mp: easing accessib ility (pus hing) to the conte xt related information t o
participants

adv mp: real tim e information gather ing/urban sensing

charch mp: par ticipation on the g o/ anywhere

com actors: rea l-time (instant a nd iterative ) com munication feedbac k possibility

adv mp: having fee dbacks based on real experience

adv mp: location- based (geo- tagged and context -aware) com munication

adv mp: useability / user friendliness of smartph ones

challange ftf: Time and place barrier in face- to -face methods

charch mp: geo -centric/site specif ic/embedded/con text

eval crit: integration o f inputs to plan

Anothe r effect of this quick, immediate or real -time participation could be on the outpu t of
the pa rticipation, as e xpert 8 cha racterized it as micro participa tion:

#Mob ile Participation in Urban Planning Processes

126

“micro -participation I think is a qu ite good word when you just wha t I said
before, it is kind of short interaction”.
Therefore, on the one ha nd such short timespan for participato ry proce ss may increase more
input a nd contribu tion fro m citizens, but it may also limit the co ntributions of pa rticipants to
short interact ions and so me small inputs .
4.3.2 mPar ticipation, collaborative urb an planning and netw orked society
The second part of the interviews was concentrated on the theoretical aspects derived from
collaborative plann ing an d the network society (RQ2). Exp erts were asked to give their
opinion about possible influences of mParticipation on communication between actors,
information flow a nd the n etwork of relatio ns betwee n actors.
 Communication between a ctors
Communication betwe en acto rs is one of the investiga ted the oretical aspects reg ardin g
collaborative plan ning and networked society . E xperts were asked to give th eir opinion on
possible inf luences of mParticipation on communicat ion betwee n different actors involved in
the u rban planning processe s. After reviewing transcripts of all co nducted inte rviews, 13
codes were ide ntified. Their o ccurrence, frequen cy and distribution across all int erviews is
shown in Table 24 .
More than half of the e xperts (8 out of 15 ) repea tedly mentioned real -time/instan t
communication a nd feedback possibility as an influen tial factor in th is regard. For inst ance ,
expert 8 mentione d this point and explained ho w this insta nt communication enables citizens
for self-organ izing collective actio ns:
“in one w ay it could im prove the communication between the actors for
self-organizational processes or projects because people get insta ntly the
information that they need, Flashmob is like one exa mple where you can
organize a few hundred people or the ride clean up.”
Expert 1 0 also explain ed how this insta nt communication provide the u rban a uthorities for
quick organ ization and reach out in sponta neous situ ations:
“A th ird one is timeliness, like I mentioned, if you have so mething urgent
happening tomorrow, you can do that.”
Lack o f communication with the general public was emphasized by almost h alf of the expe rt s
(7 out o f 15). This aspe ct is not directly related to mParticipation as the focus of this research .
It shows a general problem that exists in the current p lann ing and p articipatory processe s .
Some expe rts conside r the po tentials of new communicat ion channels (e.g. mParticipation)
to tackle this problem.

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