Monday, 24 August 2009

Maybe neighbourhood blogs reflect neighbourhood demographics?

A week back the ever-alert Nick Booth linked to this article claiming that 'Neighborhood blogs drive participation in city planning'. (Thanks to Hugh for nudging me onto it).

The city of Seattle has been encouraging residents to fill out a survey to provide their feedback on the growth plan for each of their neighborhoods. How sensible. And it turns out that those neighbourhoods with a high level of responses 'already have a really strong blog presence in the neighborhood'.

“There’s a lot of people already engaged in neighborhood issues through the blogs, and I think that’s what’s driven a lot of people to respond.”

A reasonable assumption - so let's all jump to the conclusion that having a local online presence results in increased civic participation. Lots of us would like to believe it.

But wouldn't it help to step back and think about the degree to which populations predisposed to offline civic participation (this is often closely associated with educational attainment) were getting active in neighbourhood online networks? Could it be that those more likely to be active in civic affairs are more likely to be active in neighbourhood blogs?

To put it another way, isn't it just possible that people in the areas where a higher proportion are less affluent, less connected and less accustomed to having influence, might have neither the time and motivation to establish neighbourhood blogs nor the collective confidence or readiness to engage with civic structures? Just curious.

24 Aug 2009 21:37:24 | Governance and participation, Information and communication

4 Comments

Yes, I think it takes a certain amount of affluence and education create an environment for neighborhood blogs to fourish. Blogs augment citizen participation in Redmond, WA. but, their (http://redmondblog.org) primary usefullness is shedding light on government process to create positive, municipal government change and movement.

Sustainability of local neighborhood blogs is another question. The model for my blog is "non profit funding" and affording a hobbiest mentality. Most others in the Puget Sound area combine technology, infomercials and local advertising for a winning combination. Real estate is a popular sector for sourcing neighborhood ads.

Posted by: Bob Yoder | Tuesday, 25 August 2009 at 04:05

I have a question related to this: do we know anything about the demographics of who actually participates in planning? I am an urban planning grad student at the University of Washington, and I am trying to figure out if a representative sample of the population participates in planning? I am less looking for anecdotal evidence and I am more interested in finding empirical data on who participates in the planning process: what is their income, race/ethnicity, neighborhood within King County, etc? If you have any info, it would be appreciated.

Posted by: Derrick Hiebert-Flamm | Monday, 26 October 2009 at 07:09

Just to clarify my above comment: since you are in GB, I would expect that you might not have info on the Seattle area (although it is interesting that both myself and the above poster live in the Seattle area). If you have info on anywhere, I would be interested in knowing about it. Thanks!

Posted by: Derrick Hiebert-Flamm | Monday, 26 October 2009 at 07:12

Hi Derrick, maybe start with your local planning office and see what they say? Ask someone who teaches planning at a university? Here in the UK we have a list called STREETS used by planners to discuss issues of concern to them - maybe you might find a similar list in the USA to ask the question?

In practice I'm sure the answer varies enormously according to the degree of community engagement that goes behind the consultation. Consultation can be effortlessly shallow or even spurious, as we all know. If there has been a degree of engagement behind it, and people feel empowered to contribute their views and feel that some account will be taken of them, it seems only reasonable to assume that will affect the levels. So if your question is, can we discern differences in who participates in planning according to the way they've been asked to participate? - then I think it's a great question deserving some decent research, and I'd be keen to hear what answers there are.

Incidentally I would add housing tenure and educational attainment in categorisation those who participate, if I had the chance.

Posted by: Kevin Harris | Monday, 26 October 2009 at 07:23

The comments to this entry are closed.

NEXT POST
Good legislation makes good neighbours? Planning Resource announces a Scottish government consultation about hedge disputes, in an article by Matt Scotland (who else?). The consultation follows the efforts of a campaign group called Scothedge, which offers this report on a recent (July 2009) survey of its members. Question 1. Approach to the Hedge Owner. All respondents have asked the hedge owner to sort the problem. Question 2. Response from the Hedge Owner Helpful 5% Unhelpful 55% Hostile 38% Comment. The helpful responses came from cases where the problem was overcome by the arrival of new neighbours. 55% of respondents could take their cases no further because the hedge/tree owner would not do anything. A serious 38% were hostile to any approach, resorting to verbal and even physical abuse sometimes requiring police intervention. This is the Antisocial Behaviour dimension and it occurs because it can. Question 9. Do you still speak to your neighbour? 40% of respondents remain able to speak to their neighbours whilst in dispute. 60% find speaking to their neighbours both unproductive and unpleasant. Understandably they withdraw from making any further attempt. The report blames the absence of appropriate legislation in Scotland, claiming that 'there is no vehicle for “arms length” resolution which would dilute the personality and vested interests of the protagonists.' The expectation is that if there is legislation, it will have a fairly direct impact on neighbourly relations, in that a hostile response by a neighbour to a representation about a tree or hedge could quickly be referred to a council with all parties aware of the available powers. Would legislation eradicate much of the hostility and contribute to improved neighbourly relations? The classic source here is a book called Order without law, by Robert Ellickson. Ellickson explored the preference among rural neighbours for informal procedures and customs rather than legal measures to govern minor irritations such as cattle-trespass or boundary-fence disputes. I suspect this points to subtle differences in urban areas where local norms and informal interactions are not well-established but other compensating social relations are readily available.
PREVIOUS POST
Civic society survey The Civic Trust closed back in April but its vital role in defending local built environments has necessarily been reasserted - the Civic Society Initiative has been busy over the summer and just announced a survey of civic activity by local community groups. Deadline for responses is 30 September 2009. There are also a few f2f events around the country.

Kevin Harris

Search

My Other Accounts

Recent Comments