This document compiles a highly discussed issue present in many cities of the developing world today; it brings forward the importance of facing the challenges that slums create to today’s cities and the mechanisms used for tackling such challenge. The study focuses on the use of Participatory Planning approaches in the context of slum upgrading, giving the reader an insight to the advantages and challenges that such an approach has. It is built around a case study in the city of Medellin, Colombia where there has been a strong political will and commitment to implement programs and projects in the poorest areas of the city. This initiative emerged as a need to tackle deep rooted problems present in the slum areas of the city that together with other issues placed Medellin as the most dangerous city of the world during the 1990s. For tackling such a problem, the local Administration (2003-2007) created a slum upgrading model called “PUI - Proyecto Urbano Integral” (Integral Urban Project) which is said to be based on “participatory planning” and “slum upgrading” principles. The results of the first project following the “PUI Model”, the “PUI Noriental”, have been promoted by the Administration as highly successful and been considered as a model for slum upgrading both nationally and internationally. Therefore, there is the need to acknowledge and critically asses the PUI Model by evaluating its principles, its methods and its results having a deeper understanding and assessment of the concepts behind such an approach; specially since it has been internationally recognized that there is a lack of cases in which the ideals of participation and slum upgrading are put in practice. In this order of ideas, the principles, methods and tools of the “PUI Model” and its implementation in the “PUI Noriental”, are evaluated based on international theories and experiences dealing with the topic. By doing so, it is shown the close link between the principles of participation and the very nature of slum upgrading processes. As well it is brought forward the need to implement such kind of a approaches in cities presenting problems with slum areas. The results of the evaluation show that even though there is a strong political will towards using principles of participatory planning and slum upgrading approaches in Medellin, there is still a high need to have a deeper understanding of such concepts and the way they can be implemented. Nevertheless, it is shown that even with these shortcomings the significant outcomes produced by the PUI Noriental are a clear example that participation in the context of slum upgrading is a strong tool to bring benefits to the people of such areas. / The thesis was not publishes (printed) by the department. The copy I am uploading is the final version accepted by the department.

The purpose of this study is to define and apply an engagement framework built upon Inclusive Management theory to examine the practice of participation as understood by administrators, elected officials, NGO leaders and public participation practitioners across multiple countries and to illustrate the framework through three case studies. Specifically, it asks how does Inclusive Management guide us in understanding participation as practiced by managers/leaders with responsibility for this work? It also considers the potential connections between management and participation as demonstrated in the data, and further, it seeks to identify how IM as a theory may be enriched or empirically elaborated as a result of this examination. This research examines the observation of phenomena identified by study participants ordinarily not considered a consequence of efforts that engage the public. Using inclusive management theory, the resulting engagement framework includes clusters of outcomes, continuous events and capacity-building as its core elements. The framework shows inclusive management in action and offers a different way of knowing (Feldman, Khademian, Ingram, & Schneider, 2006; Gomez, Bouty, & Drucker-Godard, 2003; Nicolini, Gherardi, & Yanow, 2003) participation in government decision making than generally is depicted in the public participation literature or characterized anecdotally. The engagement framework also corresponds in several ways to the techniques of dialogue, deliberation and appreciative inquiry. As the data will demonstrate in this dissertation, the engagement framework may draw upon these techniques, and moreover, that the relational, informational and stewardship dimensions of engagement reinforce one another. This dissertation also addresses a longstanding gap in the participation literature, in that it provides strategies that connect management theory and practice with participatory principles. / Ph. D.

The Human Genome Project, a multi-national initiative to map and sequence the entire human genome, is expected to reach completion in the year 2003. One of the more immediate and direct results of this remarkable scientific effort is an increase in both the number and range of genetic tests available. Although there is enormous value in the knowledge gained from information that predicts present or future disease, there are also some risks. This thesis, based on the content analysis of genetic nondiscrimination legislation and evidence obtained from individuals involved in the policy formation process, reveals how the Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications (ELSI) Program of the U.S. Human Genome Project is dealing with the possibility that insurers and employers will misuse genetic information. The findings from both the content analysis and the lived experience survey demonstrate that the ELSI program has made a substantial impact on forming this legislation. / Master of Science

Humanist thinking on development embraces a people-centred view in which people are considered active agents for change in society. However, the nature and success of public participation in development is a contentious and widely debated issue in international planning and development literature. Simultaneously, realities in planning practice such as the effectiveness and influence of public participation on decision making seems to be daunting. In South Africa public participation is a constitutional right and enforced by planning legislation. Although post-apartheid South African legislation devised strategies to increase the participation of the public on all spheres of government, the nature of participation seems to be contradictive and regarded by numerous authors to be ad hoc, incremental, unstructured, unbalanced and uncoordinated. While good intentions were laid by the Constitution and development legislation and policies, these documents do not necessarily ensure effectiveness of participation, nor create a culture of participation. The aims of the research were thus twofold: firstly, to determine the outcome of public participation in planning applications and secondly, to evaluate the effectiveness of public participation against the background of the current legislative framework in order to enable a greater inclusion of participation in planning. The research followed a quantitative approach and included an in-depth study of statutory town planning applications in Tlokwe Local Municipality completed over a period of sixteen years. The inclusion of both periods before and after democratisation in South Africa shed some light on whether the effectiveness of public participation increased or declined during this period. A database was compiled on the detail of applications and included the type of application, location, legislation involved, public participation involved, objections (if any), rebuttals on objections and the outcome of the application. To organise and summarize the raw data gathered, a descriptive statistical analysis was undertaken. Although participation of the public is needed in town planning applications and enforced by legislation in South Africa, the public’s view that their contribution through objections is not effective was negated by the research. For example, objections (as one indication of the effectiveness of public participation) did not feature prominently (only 6, 3% of applications had objections), but these showed efficacy to influence the outcome of the applications. Overall this research provided a first step towards a better understanding of the effectiveness of public participation towards improved and more inclusive decision making. / MArt et Scien (Urban and Regional planning), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Humanist thinking on development embraces a people-centred view in which people are considered active agents for change in society. However, the nature and success of public participation in development is a contentious and widely debated issue in international planning and development literature. Simultaneously, realities in planning practice such as the effectiveness and influence of public participation on decision making seems to be daunting. In South Africa public participation is a constitutional right and enforced by planning legislation. Although post-apartheid South African legislation devised strategies to increase the participation of the public on all spheres of government, the nature of participation seems to be contradictive and regarded by numerous authors to be ad hoc, incremental, unstructured, unbalanced and uncoordinated. While good intentions were laid by the Constitution and development legislation and policies, these documents do not necessarily ensure effectiveness of participation, nor create a culture of participation. The aims of the research were thus twofold: firstly, to determine the outcome of public participation in planning applications and secondly, to evaluate the effectiveness of public participation against the background of the current legislative framework in order to enable a greater inclusion of participation in planning. The research followed a quantitative approach and included an in-depth study of statutory town planning applications in Tlokwe Local Municipality completed over a period of sixteen years. The inclusion of both periods before and after democratisation in South Africa shed some light on whether the effectiveness of public participation increased or declined during this period. A database was compiled on the detail of applications and included the type of application, location, legislation involved, public participation involved, objections (if any), rebuttals on objections and the outcome of the application. To organise and summarize the raw data gathered, a descriptive statistical analysis was undertaken. Although participation of the public is needed in town planning applications and enforced by legislation in South Africa, the public’s view that their contribution through objections is not effective was negated by the research. For example, objections (as one indication of the effectiveness of public participation) did not feature prominently (only 6, 3% of applications had objections), but these showed efficacy to influence the outcome of the applications. Overall this research provided a first step towards a better understanding of the effectiveness of public participation towards improved and more inclusive decision making. / MArt et Scien (Urban and Regional planning), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Issues involving the use of human subjects converge at the intersection of research in engineering, science, ethics, medicine, and technology and society. Questions arise about risks and benefits to research participants and society and the governance of science. By law a group of individuals known as the institutional review board (IRB) must be established by research organizations to decide whether to approve research protocols with human participants. Approximately 6600 IRBs exist in the U.S. Previous research on IRBs, mostly quantitative, has not studied the relationship between member characteristics (such as role and gender) and member perceptions of the IRB process. In this research I draw primarily on participatory democratic theory to frame the central research questions and the resulting analysis. I examine IRB members roles, participation, and expertise on the IRB and how these relate to their perception of the IRB decision-making processes at seven leading U.S. research universities. Policymakers and researchers alike increasingly are focusing on the adequacy of the existing system that oversees research studies involving human participants. As tension continues to mount over the applicability of the current guidelines to all research involving human participants, federally funded or not, it is timely to examine this oversight system to increase our understanding of how these committees actually decide whether to approve or disapprove human subjects research in their organizations. In this study, data are collected from personal interviews with scientist, nonscientist and nonaffiliated members serving on IRBs at each of the participating universities and from observation of an IRB meeting in session at each site. The findings of this research provide a scientific assessment of the relationship between IRB member composition and members perceptions of the IRB process. This research contributes to our understanding of the decision-making process that takes place within IRBs. Furthermore it utilizes the IRB as a mechanism for expanding our understanding of larger questions about the interfaces of science and policy and science and society. By questioning who are the experts and how do different members attribute value to a research protocol on an IRB, we can begin to address broader issues of expertise and public understanding of science and research.

The study topic of public participation is recently transferred from politics issue to living topic. The level of participation will depend on several factors: regional emotion, participation level and the social background. This study investigates the influences of the university campus place attachment and public participation relations of local user by studying the open and regional properties of the National Cheng Kung University. Four research purposes are investigated: (1) the place attachment of different local user; (2) the difference of public participation between different local users; (3) the relationships between place attachment and public participation and (4) providing some specific suggestions to the government for future space design. This study is carried out by collecting the well designed questionnaire and the campus users are chosen as the test subject. A questionnaire retrieved rate of 373/400 is achieved by the period of 2011 March 19th through 2011 April 10th and the data is further analyzed by using Windows SPSS 17 statistic analysis software, and consequently the assumptions can be verified clearly. The factor analysis indicates that place attachment includes four aspects: (1) user function satisfied; (2) lifestyle conformation; (3) emotion growing and (4) safe environment. And another four aspects are defined in public participation: (1) non-participation; (2) spirit participation; (3) Action participation and (4) leading participation. Further conclusions are specified as: (1) users with different social background lead significant difference in place attachment; (2) users with different social background cause significant difference in public participation; (3) significant difference in relationships between place attachment and public participation. Non participation shows negative correlation between the four aspects of place attachment. However, tokenism participation and citizen power participation indicate positive and significant correlation relation with place attachment and (4) regression analysis shows significant relation between the aspects of user function satisfied and leading participation in place attachment. However, not only the aspects of user function satisfied and leading participation but also safe environment are indicated to be significant relation in denizen place attachment. In this way, this study suggests the government regional participation planer should not only strengthen the user dependence and identification to local place but also encourage the democracy, planer and the government to work together for constructing the safe environment and hence increasing the people participation volition. Furthermore, we can find the key regional civilization by professional field investigation to have good realization about the need of the regional user and consequently increasing the people participation. Finally, we may be able to further link the place attachment and public participation by professional participation design to distinguish different local users and hence produce different plan for different regional users.

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Public Participation¡FNGT (Nominal Group Technique )

The public participation process is a vital and necessary part of planning that provides citizens with the opportunity to express their concerns and suggestions about projects that affect the overall well-being of their community. One contemporary planning issue is brownfield revitalization, which is the repurposing of former and abandoned industrial sites into residential, commercial or recreational sites. Brownfield revitalization is a timely and relevant matter in Ontario due to a) their locations, which are often within urban centres and are close to existing infrastructure, which reduces the need to develop on greenfield lands, and b) legislation, such as Places to Grow and various growth plans that require cities to meet intensification targets while preserving greenfield land, thus making brownfield revitalization an attractive option. In addition to their anticipated benefits, brownfield revitalization is a complex matter, as it invovles environmental contamination, heritage preservation, investment and financing challenges, and undesirable surroundings. For these reasons, it is an engaging and controversial focus in public participation. There is strong evidence in the literature that brownfield revitalization consultations often address the unique environmental, historical and demographic issues that are associated with these sites. Some strategies employed at the consultation sessions include informal meetings, consultations with experts in the sector, and legal agreements between community groups and developers to ensure projects are beneficial to the community. The intent of this thesis is to discover if the public participation sessions for brownfield projects in Ontario differ from participation sessions involving other planning projects. This research includes reviewing engagement, communication and retention strategies, and any exist specific policies or guidelines that are used when planning for the public participation process. Five site-specific and two municipal case studies were selected as a focus in this thesis. All case studies are affiliated with brownfield revitalization projects throughout Ontario. Data collection for this thesis involved: 16 semi-structured interviews with 13 individuals which included planners, public consultation facilitators or representatives of community groups who either organized or participated in public participation sessions involving brownfield sites, and content analysis of transcribed consultation sessions, survey responses, anecdotal information from participants, and document or media analysis. The data was then coded, and relevant themes were selected in order to answer the research questions. The overall findings in this thesis revealed that there are few differences between public participation process for projects involving brownfield revitalization sites and other planning projects. The most common strategies that were used in the participation sessions in these case studies (such as targeted invitations to special interest groups, the usage of social media, and liaisons with community ???champions???) are also common in standard public participation processes. Policies and legislation offer guidelines for conducting efficient participation sessions, and addressing issues such as financing and environmental concerns, but do not advise how to present this information or engage people. Issues that commonly arose in the literature, such as contamination concerns and demographic differences, did not appear to have the same presence in the Ontario subtext. Recommendations for this thesis include identifying the key stakeholders in each brownfield revitalization project, and establishing trust between citizens that live near brownfield revitalization sites and planners. The use of community benefit agreements can also create an efficient and equitable participation process. These recommendations are useful as brownfield revitalization is a common and beneficial strategy for achieving sustainability in Ontario and enhancing the societal, environmental and financial vitality of a community.