Urban vision workshop methodology - a tool for spatial justice

Motives: Public participation in urban planning is institutionalized and generally regarded as good practice that should be promoted and implemented beyond the legal procedures for participation. A participatory approach is seen as the opposite of a hierarchical top-down approach and as a tool for achieving spatial justice. However, participatory urban planning poses numerous challenges in terms of both fundamental issues, such as superficiality and a threat to the genius loci of a place and process-related problems, such as technologies, methodology, and trust issues. Aim: This research aims to demonstrate the importance of participatory urban planning as a means to achieve spatial justice, and to present and test participatory planning tools – the Urban Vision Creation Workshop Approach. Results: The research has shown that the Urban Vision Creation Workshop Approach can improve citizens’ participation experience, provide more comprehensive data for urban vision development, and contribute to achieving spatial justice.