Connect Located Knowledge with Specialized Knowledge

Introduction

Designing a participatory process is not easy. It requires a great ability to connect Located Knowledge (from citizens) with Specialized Knowledge (Professionals and Public Servants).

It requires imagination and creativity to design the process and tools.

A great tool is Storymapping.

Storymapping is a new approach to participatory design and planning that emerged from Civic Design. It aims to make civic design and planning more collaborative, information- and knowledge-rich, and participatory.

Storymapping uses physical markers (sticks, chalk, sticky notes etc.) to collect and display geographically-located stories and ideas about a specific place. The result is a vivid, interactive, and graphical visualization of what people think.

Storymapping can be used to visualize what happened in a city, where they propose to take action, what they estimate they need, and who the stakeholders are.

Storymapping help to describe how people see and evaluate the phenomenon they are concerned about. Additionally, can help get the most important inputs to help any Civic Designer on the definition of processes, workshop people’s ideas, and to stimulate stakeholders’ participation

Storymapping can be used as a participatory tool in some specific civic processes:
(1) Evaluation of city services,
(2) Planning and monitoring of the use of public spaces.
(3) Evaluation of transportation.
(4) Evaluation of civic spaces (I mean, infrastructure projects like libraries or community centers).
(5) Evaluation of security.
(6) Development and implementation of participatory budgeting or citizen’s initiatives.

This content is part of my work on a new version of the Civic Design Methodod White Paper.

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