Let's Do It Online?! Challenges and Lessons for Inclusive Virtual Participation

Abstract

Within the broader framework of the EU-H2020 EdiCitNet project—a large-scale collaborative project with a multi-stakeholder approach—there is the opportunity to observe participatory planning approaches to mainstream nature-based, edible solutions to solve specific social urban problems in an international group of six cities—Berlin (Germany), Carthage (Tunisia), Sant Feliu de Llobregat (Spain), Letchworth (United Kingdom), Šempeter pri Gorici (Slovenia), and Lomé (Togo). One year after the project started, the COVID-19 pandemic made it necessary to transfer most participatory planning processes to online platforms. This new format presented challenges to planning and voluntary stakeholder engagement due to different capacities regarding technical requirements as well as location-specific social circumstances. In this paper, we aim to shed light on the potentials and trade-offs in shifting to online participation and who gets to participate under digital Participatory Action Research (PAR) circumstances. We used a mixed-methods approach to evaluate the planning progress and the transition to working online in the six cities during the first wave of the pandemic. The study identifies critical implications of COVID-19 on participatory planning processes, the challenges for online participation, and the effectiveness of measures applied to tackle those challenges. The transition to online participatory planning described in this paper emphasizes organizational rather than technical remedies. While the planning progress in all cities was delayed, some faced significant challenges in the transition to online due to the lack of technical or community capacities. This was fostered through the diverse and new realities of the stakeholders ranging from meeting existential needs to adapting to alternative forms of working and caring. The reflections in this paper offer learnings from the disruptions caused by COVID-19 to better understand how participatory planning processes can be managed online along the lines of equity, access, and participation. The findings demonstrate how participatory processes in the ongoing crisis can be maintained, with relevance to future waves of this and other pandemics.

Participatory Action Research Challenges Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review and Comparison across Two European Projects

“…The authors of 29 papers mention issues in the digital transition category; this is equivalent to 76% of all papers analysed in this study, making digital transition challenges the most common ones in the literature. Indeed, authors frequently commented on how changing their projects to virtual environments was a necessary response to the conditions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, usually as a result of government-decreed stay-athome orders and limitations on social gatherings [10,[29][30][31].…”

“…The reason this particular challenge is considered so impactful goes beyond the forced adoption of a new way of conducting research: it is also due to the extensive ramifications of the process of transition and the necessary adjustments it entails. Much of this extra effort revolves around the need to make sure all components of the digital approach meet the participant's capacities [30]. One of these challenges is deciding which platform or application to adopt, as there are numerous options, and the time it takes to explore each platform and make a decision is considerable [30][31][32].…”

“…Much of this extra effort revolves around the need to make sure all components of the digital approach meet the participant's capacities [30]. One of these challenges is deciding which platform or application to adopt, as there are numerous options, and the time it takes to explore each platform and make a decision is considerable [30][31][32]. Videoconferencing platforms, in particular, have varying degrees of ease of use and various features, such as breakout rooms, varying call times, polls, emoticons and text chat options.…”

“…Finally, Manderscheid et al [30] commented on the age of the participants as being associated with technological challenges, as a certain group of participants they were working with was of an older age, and reported having "little experience with computers, the internet, and online tools".…”

“…Most of these difficulties consisted of delays in research activities, as several authors explain, simply as a result of COVID-19 restrictions [47,50,51]. Others saw their research hindered as a result of resources being allocated to priority actions in times of intense stress caused by the pandemic [30,52].…”