ENGLISH INFO

Welcome to the site mojemiasto.org.pl. The process of the site creation has just begun. The pages are to be completed with information concerning urban design and planning issues and the public participation in the urban planning. The strong tool for popularisation of the subject which emerged in the last few years are the new IT tools.

The purpose of the project is to present new methods of public participation in the urban planning which use the computer technology. The background for this task are contemporary polish planning conditions and possibilities of citizens contribution to the urban planning. The dissertation thesis assumes that Information Technology opens new ways for citizens participation at the local level. The descriptive method and the survey had been used to present the issue. The new participation paradigm is described in literature as net participation which means working in small informal groups over a particular problem. Nowadays the public interest in the planning issues becomes popular along with the increase of the role of private possession, yet it takes mainly the form of protests against authorities decisions. The formal procedures of citizens participation at the community level are defined by planning law. The social role of a planner has been evolving since the post war period. We observe rapid growth of information society nowadays. The technology development allows for multi-way communication which was impossible few years ago.

The basic IT uses in process of public participation in urban planning are: providing of communication platform compensating the non-professionalism barrier and enabling cooperation, facilitating distant contacts and managing of participation process.

The use of new technologies creates a milieu favourable for self-education and taking part in events and groups which function in the virtual world. The support from the part of authorities, the government politics, the development of e-government along with legal regulations favouring the SI development – all this support changes in citizens live. The processes mentioned above allows for transposition of contacts from real meetings to debates taking place in virtual spaces.

The contemporary planning theory evolves towards planning through communication and debate. The image of the city in the citizens’ mind is influenced by city images and visions of proposed transformation published in different media. There are many kinds of city representation created for different purposes: maps, plans and city models of various kinds and ways of use. The possibilities of use of new technology in polish conditions has been verified by the survey conducted among inhabitants of Lodz and its region, among local councilors and clerks of local authorities. Its results points out both to the need of such applications and its potential as to the restrictions for public participation in Poland with the use of the new media. Propositions of participatory planning procedures with the use of new information technology are to be enumerated.

05.01.2008. 07:28