Abstract
First, I want to congratulate Katrin Hofer and David Kaufmann on their excellent article on public participation (Hofer and Kaufmann, 2023). Their review of the literature is informative and insightful, and their 3A3 model offers a potentially useful framework for future researchers.
The comments that follow are not critiques, but meant to be helpful to the authors and others interested in this topic, both as producers and/or consumers of research. I address two items in their article: one where they perhaps cover too much; the other where the article may have too little.
1) Expanding public participation: In defining and describing public participation the authors paid too little attention to limiting the scope of the definition and explanation of their topic, neglecting to focus on public participation, rather than just relating to participation in general. The inclusion of State actors (under Roles) as elements in their model of the participation process, rather than as elements in the planning process or the context, is evidence of their broad and inclusive concept of participation.
Not that researching participation, in this inclusive sense, is wrong; it just has to be intentional. There are even advantages, such as exposure to a wider literature (e.g. political science and organization theory) with other, perhaps useful, frameworks for analysis e.g. Ostrom's (2005) IAD model.
2) Limiting public participation: Like most research on public participation, their article implicitly identifies it as active public participation: active engagement of the general public, as members of interested and affected groups and interests, in the relevant planning process.
But, as my multidimensional model shows, there is not only active participation. Reflecting an institutional perspective, this model supplements active public participation with institutionalized participation of the public in planning. This includes public representation on planning institutions and consultation in planning processes. Institutionalized public participation that gives affected and interested publics formal channels to participate in making planning decisions is an important, but often ignored, part of public participation in planning (Alexander, 2008).