Panel discussion topic – Parallel Urbanism : local people editing local spaces

Panelists – Lina Srivastava, Jyoti Hosagrahar, John Gerarci

Date – Feb 28th at Wix Lounge NYC

The panel on Parallel Urbanism : local people regulating local spaces addressed the topic of involvement of community in the decision making processes pertaining to their environments. The three panelists from diverse fields of design, technology and strategy came together to talk about this topic through their own lens.

The discussion started with focusing on how the community might not always respond to projects pertaining to local development. That said, if the framework created for community involvement is user centric,  and if there is a process of building relationships with the community and engaging them in a meaningful conversation, the results can be truly groundbreaking. If such steps are not taken, even if the design or service for city, county or a neighborhood gets implemented, it will never be used in the way it was meant to be used since the there was no community input. The process of good design depends not just on what the local people want. Its about capacity building and making the community understand good and bad design and policy by the experts.

There are always a variety of voices amongst the community members. Some are loud and some are not.  It is important that every voice is heard. This could be done using ethnographic interviews, surveys  and design charetes that gets the view point of a wide cross section of people. All the panelists agreed that the main role of the expert is not leadership but facilitation. Balancing viewpoints and being open to all the different interests is important. A solid framework around goals, interests and voices needs to be created in order to bring about systemic change. There is a need for professional intervention, inequalities that need to be set right, new directions need to created. The idea is to be able to identify and to see where the problems are by both the experts and the locals. There is a need to work with a larger policy framework. Restrictive convenance does not work so it is really important to generate alternates. That said, even though expert opinions are important, the frameworks around us are rapidly changing. The idea is not the experts coming to the community and making a decision for them but enabling new models and new frameworks that enable the community to make informed decisions.

The boundaries between government, experts and people are rapidly blurring as well. The line between the governed and government is becoming really fluid and its an exciting time for all of us.  Integrated solutions will come out of coordination of community groups, different policies and departments. Local governance and open budgeting process through crowd sourcing  has been successful in some places in the US and Mexico and there is surely more to come.

Technology is very powerful but is not the only tool to reach out to everyone. The question of access is always an issue. Jeff Jarvis once said ‘the internet is its own continent. If one wants to reach out to larger sections of people who dont have access to technology, alternative frameworks have to be created. The issues the people are confronting don’t always fit into existing frameworks, the ability to translate between interdisciplinary roles and identifing cultural landscapes is crucial.

John Geraci sums the conversation pretty well, “Its not about you solving the problem, its about you doing your bit and other people pitching in”.

Panel insight

by Ruhi Shamim

I am in the business of social innovation, which really means redefining how we interact with resources and our surroundings and restore (or preserve) holistic and informed solutions to our lives both personally and communally. I was excited to be part of the Designwala launch event which took place at the Wix Lounge in New York City on February 28th. “Parallel Urbanism:local people regulating local spaces” brought together an Urbanist, a Strategist, and a Technologist into an open forum for over 60 people, in a free space devoted to building community at the grassroots level. Accustomed to feeling like puny David looking up at Goliath, the energy of the event was an inspirational change that enlightened all in the audience about interdisciplinary action plans and the need for communication and design thinking to weave different skillsets into solutions for local communities taking the initiative to serve themselves through organization and entrepreneurship.

The three panelists, Jyoti Hosagrahar, Lina Srivastava , and John Geraci shared the insights on urban solutions. While they come from different academic and professional backgrounds, they all have forged independent paths that have allowed them to assess community issues on an individual basis to synthesize implementable action plans. They explored the differences between top-down and bottom-up solution-making and observed how diversity and communication are consistent factors in approaching local governance—valuable insights for the Designwala blog community to consider when taking their ideas into the real world.

As a cyber nerd following the blogs and tweets of social entrepreneurs, sustainability experts, cultural diplomats and tech savvy communicators, it was motivating to convene and meet the faces of forward thinking community members. As part of the Designwala team, I look forward to sharing news about urban design and connecting our resources and talent to create opportunities for change.

We would love to hear what our readers have to say about initiatives happening in their cities or solutions they would like to see. Please share your ideas on our video contest.

Lina Srivastava is the Principal of Lina Srivastava Consulting, LLC, which focuses on employing strategy, innovation, engagement and the use of cultural assets to create and demonstrate social change. For our new feature ‘The Indovators’, Lina talks about opportunities for indian designers in the fields of service design, information design, systems design, climate change and more.  She elaborates on how designers can use their inherent skills to create cross sector relationships and communication channels.  She also emphasizes the importance of fostering a climate of creation and risk taking in a conservative risk averse culture.  Overall, the first feature of our new series tells us why designing for the developing nations is a challenging yet gratifying and why innovation matters.