COMBINING PARTICIPATIONS. Expanding the Locus of Participatory E‐Planning by Combining Participatory Approaches in the Design of Digital Technology and in Urban Planning.

The thesis is a trans-disciplinary work on participatory e-planning. So far, participatory e-planning, as approached in the urban planning and e-planning fields, has only focused on conventional types of participation in urban planning, which are enhanced by the use of single pieces of software. This approach is not in tune with the realities of the emerging digital age and its emerging cultures of participation. These are cultures of information-centred and digitally mediated peer production and sharing that are supported by activities of tinkering with technology. I argue that in order to meet the realities of the digital age, participatory e-planning has to recognize the necessity of combining different types of participation. I particularly emphasize the importance of participation in the design of digital technology, which comprises different types of participation, such as staged participation and participation as design-in-use. By acknowledging participation in the design of digital technology, it becomes easier to understand and tap into the dynamics of the new cultures of participation, as well as face the challenges and uncertainties of the new technological landscape of mundane digital tools associated with it. The research questions that guide the work are the following: 1) How should we re-conceptualize participatory e-planning? and, 2) What and how should we design for participatory e-planning? The outcome is a work that introduces a mixed conceptual vocabulary and a novel analytical tool, the matrix of multiple participations. Participatory e-planning is re-conceptualised as comprising different types of participation that take place in urban planning, as well as in the design of digital technology. The different types of participation can occur simultaneously in different combinations and affect one another. My quest for a new conceptualization of participatory e-planning has emerged from and gone hand in hand with my involvement in the participatory design of the Urban Mediator (UM), an online map-based tool for locative media creation and sharing. The concrete participatory design of the UM gave impetus to the Expanded Participatory Design (EPD) approach, which combines different but interconnected activities of participation in the design of digital technology. The EPD can also be embedded in different types of participation in urban planning. The EPD approach expands the locus of participatory e-planning towards collaborative work based on digital media production and sharing by experts and non-experts alike.