Citizen participation enabled by technology in urban planning
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Citizen participation in urban planning has long been recognized as a democratic imperative for fostering equitable, liveable, and sustainable cities. Yet urban planning presents a particularly complex arena: it involves heterogeneous stakeholders, unfolds over extended timescales, and results in decisions with far-reaching social and material consequences. To investigate how technology influences citizen participation in this context, we conducted a scoping review that maps how participatory urban planning has been practiced, supported, and discussed in relation to digital tools. This review examines not only whether technologies support participation, but also how, for whom, and to what extent, highlighting the sociotechnical dynamics through which participation and technology co-evolve in planning processes. The paper contributes (1) a comprehensive overview of the field, including intersections among participation modes, planning domains, and technologies; (2) a resource for researchers and practitioners seeking to advance technology-enabled citizen participation in urban planning; and (3) the identification of eight key challenges for computer-supported cooperative planning.
