Scenario workshops and urban planning in Denmark

Denmark has a strong tradition of integrating both representative and participatory (or 'direct') democracy. By law, local authorities have to make a plan for any change in a local area, and this is sent out for a local hearing among the citizens before the final decision. The focus of Scenario Workshops (SWs) differs from that of most consensus conferences and citizens' juries that focus on society's use and regulation of technology. Like the Citizen Foresight approach, SWs start with a commonly recognised problem and then look for solutions. The Scenario Workshop is a local meeting that includes a dialogue among four local groups of actors: citizens; policy-makers; business representatives; and experts.

The core of the Scenario Workshop is a presentation of possible future developments in the area. These so-called Scenarios have been formulated in advance and describe different ways of solving a problem. They have to be different with respect to both the technical and organisational solutions described and the social and political values embedded in them.

This article was published in PLA 40: Deliberative Democracy and Citizen Empowerment (February 2001). Participatory Learning and Action (PLA, formerly PLA Notes) is the world's leading series on participatory learning and action approaches and methods. PLA publishes articles on participation aimed at practitioners, researchers, academics, students and activists. All articles are peer-reviewed by an international editorial board.