Landscape architecture as democratic practice: learning from participatory methods and motivations in community-engaged design
Year: 2024
Type: article
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.
Source: Landscape Research
Authors: Nan Yang, Mallika Bose, Paula Horrigan
Institutions: Pennsylvania State University, Cornell University
Language: English
Subfield: Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Funder: Pennsylvania State University
OpenAlex ID: W4403200351