Landscape architecture as democratic practice: learning from participatory methods and motivations in community-engaged design

Nan Yang, Mallika Bose and Paula Horrigan

Landscape Research, 2025, vol. 50, issue 1, 58-73

Abstract: To guide and advance participatory and democratic landscape architecture practice, this study investigates the participatory methods and motivations of community-engaged design (CED) practice aligned with the principles of democratic professionalism (DP). A content analysis of semi-structured interviews with 17 experienced scholar-professionals in landscape architecture and related professions whose praxis is rooted in participatory principles (1) identified a toolbox of essential task-sharing methods and strategies based on typical landscape architecture project stages (site analysis/data collection, planning and design, and implementation and post-implementation), and two key themes—relationship-building and communication, and (2) found the principal motivations driving democratic design practices to be empowerment and advocacy, community engagement ethics, and democratising professional paradigm. Task-sharing approaches identified in landscape architecture practice exemplify how DP values can be embedded in all phases of a CED project. This study also affirms the position that landscape architecture as a profession has the potential to advance DP.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/01426397.2024.2409745

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