Recitoire: a tool for qualitative surveys involving citizens in urban planning projects

Abstract

The difficulty to involve citizens into projects that influence or transform their experience of the urban space is underlined by public authorities and professionals such as urban planners. The implication of citizens in the existing modes of consultation (public meeting, opinions polls) is often limited and not representative. New solutions for facilitating citizens’ involvement in both the diagnosis and the construction of the city need to be found. We propose here a prototype called Recitoire, as a support for qualitative surveys involving citizens in urban planning projects. Using a mobile application, a data collect is performed which includes the path followed by a citizen (her/his trace is kept) and the different kinds of media files she/he produces all along the path to illustrate her/his feelings and impressions on a given thematic - chosen for the survey by urban planners. A server application centralizes the collected data and offers an interface for both their exploration and their exploitation by the actors of the urban project.