Online Public Engagement and Planning Practice: a Serbian Perspective

Abstract

In Serbia today we can witness a certain planning paradox — on one hand the planning practice is shifting from the traditional, top-down planning approach, to the more collaborative one, and the communication with the community and involvement of the public in the planning process and decision-making is slowly becoming the crucial element in the planning practice. On the other hand, people in Serbia have a poor sense of community, lack community engagement, trust in government, and in general have no knowledge and information about planning process. The widespread adoption of the Internet, especially the social web, dramatically altered our society, changed the way we interact socially and facilitated communication and exchange of ideas and information. Adopting a viewpoint that the Internet can be an effective tool for public empowerment, this paper will examine current examples of online platforms for public engagement in planning process, such as civic networks, social networks etc. The paper will analyze these approaches, particularly the way they can be used to enhance and support the traditional planning methods, and enable new types of innovation and creativity. We will compare and observe their strengths and weaknesses from urban planning context, taking into account specific Serbian context.