Citizens' participation during COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons for the future

Abstract

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, the scientific community around the world has been trying to explain and study many newly formed issues, from health problems, but also to how the city can function in adaptation to changing environment with the importance of citizen participation. The focus of these issues is mainly on city areas that have been the biggest hotbeds of infection and have seen the biggest shift in the way these areas function on daily basis. This paper gives a brief overview of some research that primarily relates to the role of how pandemic motivated the change in participation methods and how we perceive meeting spaces in physical and online spheres. Part of the paper descibes the importance of citizen participation in emerging conditions along with chosen case study of the ConnectGREEN project’s participation process during live and online workshops organized from 2019 to 2021, in which the authors of this paper participated. Lessons learned through research and projects aim to help understand the impact of specific, often unforeseen situations, that can change existing patterns of urban planning and design, but also change and challenge the existing quality of life, show the need for proper community involvement, good governance, etc. The paper concludes that future cities will have a semi-online way of functioning, which in the post-pandemic period opens new possibilities in different public initiatives (some already started in various cities), and also creates specific conditions with advantages and disadvantages for participation in wider initiatives, but also in scientific and similar small projects.