‘Invited participation’, equity and planning: intentions, processes and institutionalization in Sweden and beyond

Nils Hertting and Alexander Hellquist

European Planning Studies, 2025, vol. 33, issue 3, 398-420

Abstract: It is repeatedly argued that social justice, equity and the interests of the marginalized and disadvantaged, benefit from government-driven ‘invited participation’ in spatial planning. In fact, often equity planning is described as participatory by definition. On the other hand, empirical research has repeatedly demonstrated that participatory governance initiatives may in fact be driven by other motives and has entirely different effects. By specifying four theoretical mechanisms and by arguing that Sweden fulfils crucial structural conditions as a most likely case for participatory governance success, this paper examines the opportunities for more equitable planning through invited participation based on a nationwide survey. The process-oriented analysis demonstrates that the inclusion of marginalized individuals into planning is primarily a strategy for ‘top-down’ implementation of policies already decided on, but also that also such ‘instrumental’ mechanisms suffer from weak and vague participation and obscure links to decision-making. The overall conclusion suggests that invited participation has limited potential to strengthen the interests of marginalized groups. Drawing on these observations, and elaborating on the initial theoretical expectations, an alternative ‘analytic narrative’ on the prospects for participatory governance as a means to promote equity in planning is outlined.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09654313.2024.2439561 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:eurpls:v:33:y:2025:i:3:p:398-420

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/CEPS20

DOI: 10.1080/09654313.2024.2439561

Access Statistics for this article

European Planning Studies is currently edited by Philip Cooke and Louis Albrechts

More articles in European Planning Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().