Labyrinths and laboratories of urban participation: an adventure of comparative and dialectic social research

Abstract

Main results of a wide comparative study on three cases of urban participation are described. Each case represents a distinctive level of collective action (micro, macro and meso), a distinctive urban context (Spanish intermediate city, Latin-American big city and several Spanish cities of intermediate and big size) and distinctive strategies of citizenship political expression (neighborhood participation in a renewal planning of a city center; community organizations in relation with an Strategic Planning; and a squatter movement). Comparison was made under three parameters: a) models of participative democracy; b) models of city; c) explicative factors and social conditions of possibility of urban participation. Dialectical methodology consisted on priority given to analysis of social practices, social discourses from meetings and assemblies, processes of self-knowledge, etc. Reached conclusions allow us to determine a relationship between predominant styles of urban participation and social levels of urban conflict in each historical context. Thus, we can distinguish a ‘consensual and corporative co-management” style at a macro level, a “negotiating citizen back-control” style at the micro level and a “provocative and counter cultural self-management” style at the meso level. Finally, I argue that the squatter movement analyzed was the case with less contradictions between their own models of participative democracy and wished city.