The theory and practice of community participation in provision of urban structure
| dc.contributor.author | Abbott, John | |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | McCutcheon, Robert | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2016-07-06T08:59:09Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2016-07-06T08:59:09Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 1993 | |
| dc.department | Department of Civil Engineering | |
| dc.description | A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 1993. | |
| dc.description.abstract | The thesis develops a new approach to community participation, for application to infrastructure provision projects in developing countries, based upon social surveys and case studies of negotiations in five South African communities. Existing approaches to community participation are analysed and shown to be unsuitable for infrastructure provision. The thesis compares the characteristics of infrastructure projects with those of other types of development projects and demonstrates how these characteristics can be used to situate a given project within a project environment defined in terms of two variables: the openness of government to community involvement in decision-making, and project complexity. Social surveys carried out in Soweto and KwaThandeka showed the centrality of infrastructure to social change in South Africa. Existing urban management systems were unable to cope with the stresses placed upon them. Four facets of urban management were identified as being under stress: institutional capacity, legitimacy, affordability, and user convenience. These stresses change the nature of infrastructure provision from the supply of end products into a complex process. Central to this process are: an increased number of actors influencing decisions, the enhanced role of technical professionals, and the social implications of different levels of service. The case-study of KwaThandeka included a study of the negotiation process with the provincial administration. This research led to the development of a performance specification for comparing social, economic and technical measures of value. A new conceptual framework for community participation was derived, based upon the different actors involved in the decision-making process and the different needs of each of those actors. Three case studies from Natal identified different implementation strategies for community participation. Communities were found to have three distinct needs: involvement in the political process; involvement in technical decision-making; and representation as consumers of services. An analytical tool was developed to assist project managers in understanding the relationships between actors in a project. The thesis shows how technical project management can be integrated into the participation process. The success of community participation can be evaluated by assessing the degree of consensus achieved between actors, and the intensity of community involvement. | en_ZA |
| dc.description.sponsorship | Urban Foundation, who funded original study into community participation in 1988. | |
| dc.faculty | Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment | |
| dc.identifier.citation | Abbott, John. (1993). The theory and practice of community participation in provision of urban structure. [PhD thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg]. WIReDSpace. http://hdl.handle.net/10539/20554 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10539/20554 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_ZA |
| dc.publisher | University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg | |
| dc.rights | © 1993 University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. | |
| dc.rights.holder | University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg | |
| dc.school | School of Civil and Environmental Engineering | |
| dc.subject.lcsh | Community development -- South Africa -- Case studies. | |
| dc.subject.lcsh | Community development, Urban -- South Africa -- Case studies. | |
| dc.subject.lcsh | Local government -- South Africa. | |
| dc.title | The theory and practice of community participation in provision of urban structure | en_ZA |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_ZA |