- The Architecture of Community Participation    135 kb by    Francis-Brophy, Ellie | efrancis@wlf.com.au    Short Outline This paper focuses on broad based community consultation processes of two Australian cities strategic visions 'Melbourne 2030' and 'Hobart 2030'. Abstract This paper analyses community consultation processes used by two local governments in the development of their strategic vision frameworks. ‘Melbourne 2030�Eand ‘Hobart 2030�Eare two separate Australian cities plans for growth and development. These visioning strategies and community consultations take place at a time when there is increasing focus on local community embedded approaches and the capacity of local governments to strengthen and integrate divergent communities. Social and economic disadvantage impact on an individuals likelihood of contributing to formal consultation processes. Individuals or groups whom institutions define as difficult to contact or engage fall into this ‘hard to reach�Ecategory. This group often possessed various demographic characteristics that may affect participation due to either difference and disadvantage or barriers. Initial evidence from ‘Melbourne 2030�Eand ‘Hobart 2030�Eshows some significant results in broadening the range of individual participants, including ‘hard to reach�Epopulations, and the manner in which they participate in these place-specific actions. This paper considers these new models for community consultations which move beyond traditional methods like focus groups and surveys. The conceptual issues and practical challenges that arise from community consultation carried out by local government are analysed within a larger contextual discussion of Australian and international debates about social cohesion and participation. Finally, this paper addresses the changing ways in which community consultations are defined and represented across a range of future city ‘visioning�Ediscourses related to ‘Melbourne 2030�Eand ‘Hobart 2030�E These include marketing and communications documents, formal speeches from relevant state Government Ministers, the Mayors and Councillors and public presentations and showcase events like Melbourne 2030: From Vision to Reality. Keywords Community participation, social inclusion, social cohesion, local government, strategic visions Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2006: Cities between Integration and Disintegration   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper