Lauri and Tuomas discussing citizen participation in urban development

CROPS research group (Center for Research on Project and Service Business) of Tampere University has started its research work in the CaPs project by studying participatory funding experiments in Tampere and Tuusula in Finland.

Postdoctoral Research Fellow Lauri Vuorinen and Associate Professor (tenure track) Tuomas Ahola participated in a panel discussion about citizen participation last week. The discussion took place at the Finnish Housing Fair (“Asuntomessut”) and it was organized by the city of Tuusula and the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra. In the discussion, Vuorinen and Ahola spoke about topics such as critical factors for successful citizen participation and the role of digital channels and the typical characteristics of active participants in citizen participation. Vuorinen and Ahola emphasized also the importance of tailoring the participation channels and mechanisms for different stakeholder groups, for example.

Other participants in the panel discussion included also three representatives from the city of Tuusula: Vice Mayor Jussi Salonen, Community Manager Katja Repo and Chairman of the Youth Council Eemi Vaherlehto. The event was moderated by Development Manager Heidi Hagman from Tuusula and Elina Eerola from Sitra.

More information (in Finnish): https://www.tuusula.fi/tiedotepalsta/show.tmpl?id=7330&sivu_id=2345&fbclid=IwAR3Q5TxKdkXaMJ1_prIBObgugbb_aenb5cWurp1KoqBpVHdQ6ufPcBQE23E

Recording of the discussion (in Finnish): https://youtu.be/aBikJoPIUNs

Images: The Finnish Housing Fair