Terezie Lokšová: Consultants as important policy mobility actors: the evolution of participatory place-making in Czech cities
Organised public involvement in various projects has become at least rhetorically part of urban place-making understood as good and desirable – in contrast to development led by the interests of oligarchs, developers or local politicians seen as neglecting the needs of residents.
One of the leading proponents of participatory approaches in the Czech cities were and perhaps still are the consultants: local actors with various backgrounds (social sciences, architecture, environmental protection), mostly with connections to the western communities of practice and NGOs. As such, they facilitated the implementation and appropriation of specific approaches to urban space and its co-creation in the Czech cities. They served as important policy mobility actors and partially as intermediaries between international donors and local governance. Moreover, it is not merely a matter of the past decades. They actively co-shape urban policies and particular urban plans or designs until today. However, these actors still need more research attention among the many human actors involved in place-making in CEE cities.
The presentation will explore their roles through semi-structured interviews with architects and consultants who focus on promoting and providing organised participation in urban projects and plans in the Czech Republic. It will show how their role, means, and notions of place-making have changed in time, thus introducing the temporal dimension into the debate. Last but not least, the presentation will open the question of to what extent the term “consultation” fits when contrasted to the Western urban contexts and literature.
Keywords: consultants, public participation, urban development, planning, policy mobility