Using Deliberative Democracy for Better Urban Decision-Making through Integrative Thinking

Abstract

This article expands the evidence about integrative thinking by analyzing two case studies that applied the collaborative decision-making method of deliberative democracy which encourages representative, deliberative and influential public participation. The four-year case studies took place in Western Australia, (1) in the capital city Perth and surrounds, and (2) in the city-region of Greater Geraldton. Both aimed at resolving complex and wicked urban sustainability challenges as they arose. The analysis suggests that a new way of thinking, namely integrative thinking, emerged during the deliberations to produce operative outcomes for decision-makers. Building on theory and research demonstrating that deliberative designs lead to improved reasoning about complex issues, the two case studies show that through discourse based on deliberative norms, participants developed different mindsets, remaining open-minded, intuitive and representative of ordinary people’s basic common sense. This spontaneous appearance of integrative thinking enabled sound decision-making about complex and wicked sustainability-related urban issues. In both case studies, the participants exhibited all characteristics of integrative thinking to produce outcomes for decision-makers: salience—grasping the problems’ multiple aspects; causality—identifying multiple sources of impacts; sequencing—keeping the whole in view while focusing on specific aspects; and resolution—discovering novel ways that avoided bad choice trade-offs.

The Impact of Urban Democracy as a Policy in Evolution and Developing the Master Plan of the City

“…The use of deliberative democracy in order to enhance life in cities, and the formation of sustainable urban spaces, is very important, as most cities are characterized by the complexity that is a feature of their system, the latter resulted through the presence of unknown and unoccupied spaces, and kinetic paths that are not connected with the old urban center, In addition to the growth of the city and the interaction of its components due to the increase of individuals, it appears in new non-linear suburbs that are not linked to the mother city; All of this contributes to making city spaces repelling and influenced by the social and environmental conflicts that do not encourage economic development and sustainable growth, in addition to climate change, loss of biodiversity, and inefficient use of natural resources [5].…”

Can Deliberative Democracy Work in Urban India?

“…It is important to acknowledge that deliberative democracy, originating from political theory [40], is a normative concept that lays down how political practice should occur, rather than explaining it [41,42]. Hence, it is deeply linked with practice and empirical social science research [40,41]. Firstly, the disaffection of the public with government decisionmaking and government-led participation is outlined.…”