Sustainability, community and smartness: exploring the role of community-centered participatory planning in achieving sustainable-smart

Abstract

This paper explores the interplay between community-centered participatory planning and sustainable-smart urbanism in the global South. Drawing from an existing conceptual framework developed from participatory theories, a multi-method approach comprising a narrative literature review and empirical data from focus group discussions is employed. Against the backdrop of environmental degradation and resource scarcity, the paper underscores the necessity of a deeper community perspective informed by the urban planning ethos of the common good, the political ethic of care and a post-humanist position as a normative structure. This underpins a conceptual framework, developed from 17 participatory theories, that is applied as a lens to explore the relationship between community-centered participatory planning and sustainable-smart urbanism within a specific vulnerable, informal township in South Africa. Commonplace socio-environmental challenges, such as soil and water contamination, litter, living-with-livestock, food insecurity, poor health and social isolation frame the complexity of township life and having limited resources at your disposal to impact your future. One resource in particular, participatory processes, is the focus of this paper. The main question being addressed is how community-centered participatory planning can shape relevant sustainable-smart urbanism; this is especially pertinent as participatory measures face potential removal from global development agendas. The findings of this paper underscore two critical dimensions essential for shaping contextually relevant sustainablesmart urbanism: the significance of context and having a deep and authentic understanding of community identity.