Engaging Vulnerable Populations Using Participatory Mapping: Lessons Learned and Guidelines for Community Advocates and Transportation Planners

Individual travel behavior shapes every aspect of transportation planning, ranging from the development and maintenance of key infrastructure to the routine management of transportation operations. The research that frames this paper takes the position that contemporary transportation planning models and decision frameworks do not directly address the travel needs of low-incom

Placeworx: A model to foster youth engagement and empowerment

The Placeworx project is an innovative community-university partnership between the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum located in Pilsen, the heart of Chicago\u27s Mexican community. This field report describes a participatory research initiative that created opportunities and spaces for young people to creatively participate in planning the future of their community. The Placeworx project offers a model for engaging and empowering young participants. The participants used a variety of communicative tools and techniques to describe community assets as well their concerns about rapid urban development and gentrification in their immediate neighborhood. Based on our experience, we provide some guidelines for creating and sustaining community partnerships

Information technologies and civic engagement: Perspectives from librarianship and planning

Urban planning and librarianship are parallel fields in many ways. Both have theoretical and practical underpinnings driving each discipline; are interdisciplinary in focus; and both professions gather and disseminate information to stakeholders. Essential to the success of each discipline is an engaged user population. The authors use a case study from the Village of Oak Park to examine and reflect upon the effect of the Internet and other technologies in the public\u27s ability to participate in an open planning process. The Village of Oak Park is known for its architectural heritage and outspoken community. Within its 4.5 square miles live a diverse population of approximately 52,000 people from different cultures, races, ethnicities, professions, lifestyles, religions, ages, and incomes where a majority of the population have some advanced education and over 80% of the households report home Internet use. How does a community like the Village of Oak Park engage in the planning process? What role does information play in this process? Can modern Information Technologies facilitate civic engagement? These questions are examined during a year-long case study conducted by the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) in cooperation with the Village of Oak Park (VOP). Specifically, the investigators examined how information is gathered and used in the planning process and how the introduction of Information Technology (IT) tools influenced public participation and introduced many citizens to e-government through the planning process. The use of these tools is compared to the traditional planning process. Data from the project is presented to demonstrate a different kind of role librarians play in the research process. Last, the authors discuss the role of privacy in the gathering and sharing of information with the reliability of that information and the impact of privacy on the public planning process

Mapping Madras--geographic information systems applications for metropolitan management in developing countries

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1991.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 100-102).by Laxmi Ramasubramanian.M.C.P