Engagement, but for what kind of marriage?: community members and local planning authorities

In recent years there has been an international trend to encourage greater participation by community members in making decisions over local developments. A small study of the experiences of community activists residing in the City of Moreland (Australia) indicates that existing political and economic structures are neither flexible nor supportive of greater, substantive, democracy. Indeed the kinds of barriers reported at the grassroots suggest that deep reforms in the traditional patterns of engagement between political and bureaucratic authorities and neighbourhood communities are necessary in order to enhance the power of community members. This analysis of community engagement practices draws a parallel between the multi-various scales of struggles necessitated for women's liberation and the breadth of reforms necessary for neighbourhood residents to achieve greater power in decision making over local developments.