What do we mean by community? Co-creating practical tools for planning practice

Summary

Anna Rose Hope of the University of the West of England, and of social enterprise Ecomotive, will use her RTPI Early Career Research grant to develop tools intended to support planners in understanding and working with community more effectively. The project will draw on Anna’s recently-completed PhD research which introduced PORTAL, an integrated framework for understanding ‘community’ across multiple dimensions: from tangible, physical features (people and places) to more intangible, liminal aspects (such as its role as a source of creativity and new ideas).

PORTAL also provides a simple model for explaining how appropriate, targeted investment in one dimension of community can ripple out more widely to create more resilient, empowered communities under the right conditions. It also highlights factors that can undermine community cohesion, confidence, trust and so on. This has particular relevance for planning, where community is often invoked across a wide range of functions – whether as a consultee or as an active agent of change – but not always with a clear understanding of who or what community is, why it is important, and how best to engage with it to generate the best outcomes for all.

The project will engage with planners and community representatives within the South West region. It will draw on their experiences and insights to identify how the PORTAL framework can inform engagement with community across a range of planning activities.

We will develop, pilot and launch a set of resources, including a simple community diagnostic checklist and a set of practice cards. The aim is to help planning officers see community dimensions clearly and plan engagement activities that are effective, proportionate and fair.