Planners’ Changing Relationships With Participation: The Impact of New Training and Certification Schemes

Abstract

Public participation is increasingly designed and facilitated by specially trained practitioners drawn from within the planning profession as well as outside of it. This shift is at least partially driven by the rise of new training and certification schemes. Drawing on exploratory interviews, and the example of the International Association for Public Participation in Canada and Australia, this paper highlights how these new forms of expertise are changing planners’ relationships with public participation. Our research reveals several points of tension, including a bifurcation between planning and public participation professionals along with a consolidation around narrowed ideas of public participation.