An Exploratory Research On Participatory Planning, Sociability, And The Urban Space In Romania

In the context of an ongoing process of global urbanization, the need for urban planning to develop a strong participatory component has long been addressed by public authorities, citizens, scholars, and other relevant social actors. The urban space, as the site for more than just the material well-being of citizens, has also been explored at length, with works that have focused on how cities foster sociability. However, there are still few studies that inquire into sociability and participatory urban planning. Therefore, drawing on data from an online survey, this exploratory research tackles the interplay between sociability and participatory planning in the urban space. The data was gathered from 40 Romanian students and professionals, through nonprobability sampling. The main research questions looked into definitions and examples of sociability and participatory planning initiatives, as well as how the definitions of each concept refers to the other. Results showed that the definitions of sociability mainly relate to the psychological and social dimension of the concept, with a relatively weak link to the urban space and participatory planning. A second conclusion was that many of the examples of participatory planning initiatives had an explicit sociability component.