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作者

Santina Contreras

来源

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN PLANNING ASSOCIATION,Vol.85,Issue3,P.219-235

语言

英文

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作者单位

摘要

AbstractProblem, research strategy, and findings: Arnstein’s (1969 Arnstein, S. R. (1969). A ladder of citizen participation. Journal of the American Institute of Planners, 35(4), 216–224. doi:10.1080/01944366908977225[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) ladder of citizen participation has been prominent and influential in the planning field. By detailing a continuum of approaches for citizen involvement, the ladder provides a foundation for addressing questions of participation and power in theory and practice. However, despite its significant influence, questions regarding the practicality of the framework persist. This is particularly a concern in relation to its use in guiding different applications of participation in practice and its ability to outline specific methodologies for evaluating participatory activities. I explore the use of Arnstein’s ladder as an evaluative framework for participation through a quantitative analysis of primary survey data collected from organizations working on postdisaster recovery projects in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. My findings suggest that Arnstein’s ladder provides a useful tool for evaluating the participatory work of organizations. Through its empowerment approach toward engagement, Arnstein’s ladder encourages the assessment of community roles frequently overlooked in broad evaluations of participatory activities. My results indicate that participation measured through an Arnstein evaluative framework produces results that are significantly different from those of general participatory assessments. Ultimately, the proposed evaluation framework provides an opportunity to account for the underlying power dynamics in participatory activities that are important to address with projects in the development or postdisaster contexts.Takeaway for practice: Planners and practitioners working on projects with participatory elements should actively prioritize and implement quality assessments of their participatory activities. The framework I present here allows practitioners to undertake evaluations in a critical but efficient manner through tools derived from theory and practice, such as those from Arnstein’s ladder. These actions can assist in improving the quality and long-term sustainability of participatory work in practice.Keywords: disaster, evaluation, Haiti, participation, recoveryAdditional informationAuthor informationSantina ContrerasSANTINA CONTRERAS (contreras.78@osu.edu) is an assistant professor in the City and Regional Planning Section in the Knowlton School of Architecture at The Ohio State University.AcknowledgmentsI thank the organizational representatives for their involvement in the study as well as the anonymous reviewers and my colleagues for their comments and guidance on the development of the article.SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALSupplemental data for this article can be found on thepublisher’s website.Notes1 I found data sources using the following methods: a) using well-established data sources for information on organizations in Haiti (Office of the Special Envoy for Haiti/Inter-American Development Bank Civil Society Organization Registry and the Unité de Coordination des Activités des ONG); b) sourcing data lists cited in recent articles and studies of organizations in Haiti (Sapat & Esnard, 2015 Sapat, A., & Esnard, A.-M. (2015). Directory of non-governmental organizations involved in Haiti’s post-disaster recovery. Retrieved from https://www.fau.edu/spa/research/diaspora/sapat-and-esnard-directory-of-organizations-haiti-recovery-8-17-2015.pdf [Google Scholar]; Schuller, 2007 Schuller, M. (2007). Invasion or infusion? Understanding the role of NGOs in contemporary Haiti. The Journal of Haitian Studies, 13(2), 96–119. [Google Scholar]); and c) an internet search using words such as “Haiti,” “organizations,” “list,” “data,” and “database.”2 Organizational characteristic variables were drawn from two locations: the organizational theory literature and past studies of organizations. The classic organization literature identifies key variables such as age (Freeman, Caroll, & Hannan, 1983 Freeman, J., Carroll, G. R., & Hannan, M. T. (1983). The liability of newness: Age dependence in organizational death rates. American Sociological Review, 48(5), 692–710. doi:10.2307/2094928[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Stinchcombe, 1965 Stinchcombe, A. (1965). Social structure and organizations. In J. P. March (Ed.), Handbook of organizations (pp. 142–193). Chicago, IL: Rand McNally & Company. [Google Scholar]), size (Blau, 1970 Blau, P. (1970). A formal theory of differentiation in organizations. American Sociological Review, 35(2), 201–218. doi:10.2307/2093199[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Child, 1973 Child, J. (1973). Predicting and understanding organization structure. Administrative Science Quarterly, 18(2), 168–185.doi:10.2307/2392061[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), resources (Pfeffer & Salancik, 1978 Pfeffer, J., & Salancik, G. (1978). The external control of organizations: A resource dependence perspective. New York, NY: Harper and Row. [Google Scholar]), and experience (Weick, 1988 Weick, K. E. (1988). Enacted sensemaking in crisis situations. Journal of Management Studies, 25(4), 305–317. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6486.1988.tb00039.x[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Examples of past studies of organizations include Haiti: NGO Sector Study (Morton, 1997 Morton, A. L. (1997). Haiti: NGO sector study (Vol. 1). Washington, DC: The World Bank. [Google Scholar]), the National Survey of Economic Development Organizations (Green, 1999 Green, G. P. (1999). National survey of economic development organizations. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2007-09-17. doi:10.3886/ICPSR04434.v1[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), and the Handbook on Non-profit Institutions in the System of National Accounts (United Nations, 2003 United Nations. (2003). Handbook on non-profit institutions in the system of national accounts. Retreived from https://unstats.un.org/unsd/publication/seriesf/seriesf_91e.pdf [Google Scholar]).