5 - Placemaking as Social Learning: Taipei’s Open GreenProgramme as Pedagogical Civic Urbanism

Summary

Abstract

This chapter examines the Open Green Programme in Taipei thatprovides funding support for community placemakingprojects to spur communitybased urbanregeneration. By involving multiple stakeholdersincluding community organizers, volunteers,professionals, and government staff, the programmeoffers an opportunity to examine processes andmechanisms that facilitate social learning incommunity-based planning and placemaking. Throughinterviews with different stakeholders, includingcommunity participants, professionals, andgovernment staff, this chapter explores theprocesses through which social learning andcapacity-building have occurred. It furtherexamines the ongoing issues and challenges facingthe programme and reflects on the implications forthe ongoing development of civic urbanism andurban governance in East Asia.

Keywords: Social learning,placemaking, community engagement, civic urbanism,Taipei

Community planning and placemaking have been a brightspot of progressive planning practice in Taiwan inrecent decades. The emergence of acommunity-engaged, participatory practice hasparalleled the process of political liberalizationin the country since the 1990s. The growingprominence of participatory practice and civicengagement in Taiwan was no small feat given thehistory of authoritarian rule and top-down planning,dating back to the colonial era under Japan whenmodern planning was first introduced. The transitionfrom a long-standing, top-down model of urbangovernance to one that supports community engagementbegs the following questions: How do differentactors and stakeholders, including those from thestate and civil society organizations, learn toengage in a participatory planning process? How doplanning professionals and government staff overcomepersistent institutional and cultural barriers toengage the citizens? How do community stakeholdersacquire the skills and knowledge necessary toparticipate meaningfully and effectively in theplanning process? Furthermore, how do these learningprocesses contribute to the practice of civicengagement and the emergence of civic urbanismlocally?

This chapter explores what and how multiple actors andcommunity stakeholders in Taipei have learnedthrough collaborative placemaking processes. Itexamines how such learning may lead to a greatercapacity for civic engagement in urban governance,distinct from the conventional, state-drivenapproach that characterizes the planning practiceunder the developmental state. As case-studyresearch, the chapter examines more specifically thelearning processes that have occurred through theOpen Green Matching Fund Programme (打開綠生活) in Taipeilaunched in 2014 (Figure 5.1).