Resumen de Consensus Building by Blended Participation in a Local Planning Process: The Case of the Public Stadium Swimming Pool in Bremen.
Herbert Kubicek, Hilmar Westholm
This chapter presents a case of "real participation" which happened in The Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, Germany. When the city government felt that the largest public swimming pool, the Stadionbad, needed renewal and different proposals for the future design were made, they decided to open a public consultation. City Government and the City Parliament, who has the final budget authority, committed themselves to adopt the outcome of this participation process, if a consensus was reached out of a process, which would be considered as inclusive and fair. A combination of online tools and face-to-face meetings was chosen in order to include as many stakeholders as possible and to reach a consensus. The chapter describes the decision-making environment and the measures taken in the formulation, the analysis and the decision phase as well as the evaluation of the process requirements, which finally led to the adoption of the outcome of this process. A particular focus lies on the combination of different online- and offline forms of communication in the participation process and the important role the traditional local mass media have played in drawing attention of the public to this participation offer and thereby contributing to increase the inclusiveness of the process. The most important lesson learnt is that for a long time to come "real participation" has to be blended participation.
