Listening to Every Voice: Improving Participation in Disadvantaged Neighbourhoods

Abstract

Participation activities areoften dominated by individuals who are easy to recruit, vocal, and comfortablein public arenas. As a result, white, older, higher-educated, and male citizenstend to overshadow other citizens, which can lead to a misinterpretation of thetrue community interests. This leaves underrepresented groups – such as ethnicminorities, youth, women, and lower-educated citizens – with a lack of voice orpower. This research examines how public participation processes of projects inthe urban environment in disadvantaged neighbourhoods can be improved to betterrepresent the voices of these vulnerable groups.

The study involved a policydocument analysis and semi-structured interviews with ten experts and thirteencitizens from two disadvantaged neighbourhoods, Feijenoord and Meerwijk.Through this secondary and empirical data, this research found that expertsemploy various strategies in the following areas: accessibility, communication,existing networks, human aspect, location, and rewards. This study alsoformulated a definition of disadvantaged neighbourhoods based on literature andthrough the perspective of the experts. Next, experts formulated multiplechallenges they experienced during participation processes in terms ofengagement, expectations, outside influence, participation design,representation, and understanding the neighbourhood. Lastly, the barriers andmotivators of residents of disadvantaged neighbourhoods to participate arediscussed. The thesis concludes with eleven recommendations for policy andpractice aimed at improving inclusivity and effectiveness in publicparticipation for disadvantaged communities.