Danielle Spurlock

Layering Community Engagement Techniques to Influence Local Policy
Danielle Spurlock, Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Department of City and Regional Planning

This lecture explores community mapping as a method of combining the lived experiences and expectations of residents with technical information from neighborhood socio-demographics and a property value analysis. The lecture describes a case study that integrates three engagement techniques popular in planning, public health and landscape architecture (Community Mapping, PhotoVoice and Walkshops) with a more traditional demographic and property value analysis. The central research questions are if community mapping can 1) act as an effective process to integrating local and technical information and 2) yield a product that will complement existing community capacity to participate in policy discussions on issues of environmental equity and affordable housing. The ultimate goal of this project is to create a framework that facilitates the assemblage and synthesis of technical and local information in communities vulnerable to gentrification and displacement. As a contribution to the planning practice and literature, the project explores how a range of community engagement methods can be integrated to address one of the fundamental challenges of planning argumentation: the balance of empirical and normative support for policy.

The Lectures in Planning Series (LiPS) is an initiative of the Urban Planning program at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.

All lectures are free and open to the public; refreshments are provided. For more information or to make program suggestions, email lipscolumbiaplanning@gmail.com.