Introduction

This chapter presents a practitioner's perspective onneighbourhood-based participatory planning – as aform of civic urbanism – and its communitybuildingpotential. Community building is broadly understoodas the building of relationships within and beyondthe community, for the purpose of effecting changeand solving community-defined problems. It ofteninvolves the development of different types ofsocial capital, the mobilization of existing assets,the grooming of local leaders, the participation andvoluntary actions of local residents, and thebuilding of consensus (Hess, 1999; McNeely, 1999;Saegert, 2006). Participation is variously seen as abasis, part, or instrument of community building (DeSouza Briggs, 1998; English, Peretz, andManderschied, 2004; Foster-Fishman, Cantillon,Pierce, and Van Egeren, 2007; Ledwidth, 2011; Choand Ho, 2020).

Critical perspectives of both participatory planningand community building often point to the need tounderstand the interplay between, on the one hand,contextual factors, larger agendas, politics, andurban processes at wider city, regional, and globalscales, and on the other hand, actions and outcomesat the local neighbourhood level (see e.g., Fraser,Lepofsky, Kick, and Williams, 2003; Foster-Fishman,Cantillon, Pierce, and Van Egeren, 2007; Moulaert,Swyngedouw, Martinelli, and González, 2010; Van denBroeck, 2019). Spaces for civic urbanism may befraught with power relations particularly where theyinvolve, or lead to, partnerships with governmentactors (see Cho, Križnik, and Hou, Chapter 1, thisvolume).