Families with children is a large group in the society that rarely participate in planning processes. As socie-ties have become more differentiated due to the globalization citizens’ – including families with children, interests are more complex than before. This means that planners cannot know the interests of the com-munity as the community is multi-cultural and –social. This development has led to a discussion of citizen participation in planning. Especially communicative planning has emphasized the need of involving citi-zens in planning processes. Through communication processes of dialogue and discussion, citizens will learn of mutual interests. Inclusion of citizens and their interests in planning develops democratic process-es and anchoring of the final decisions. However, as families with children do not attend participatory pro-cesses knowledge about their interests stay unknown. Thus, it is important to engage this group in planning processes.
I have researched this group’s expectations about participation in planning processes. Further, the frames shaped by the planners within which the citizens are able to participate are studied. The aim of this thesis is to investigate which rationales shape the participatory processes in practice and how the citizens’ expecta-tions to participation is in line with this.
The processes of the projects På Forkant and the masterplan of Sæby is the case of this project as the aim of the processes is to include the citizens and especially the families.
The planners of Frederikshavn Municipality argue that citizen participation is important processes in plan-ning as it secures the democracy and knowledge about interests of different groups. The planners shape a process, which relies upon the communicative rationales. The processes are open to every citizen. The citizens have the opportunity to present their interests. However, as the aim of the process is not consen-sus, the citizens do not have the chance to discuss their interests. This leave the process according to the communicative rationale rather closed. In addition, the planners evaluate the individual interests. The in-terests, which supported by the majority of the participants, are argued to be the most important.
The families with on the other hand argue that they participate in order influence the project. However, it is not necessary to their participation to be empowered during the entire process, but they want the mu-nicipality to listen to their interests. This means they do not expect the municipality to include every indi-vidual interest, but the planners must incorporate the overall interests.
This perception of participation in practice differs from the argumentation of the rationale of communica-tive planning.