Abstract
The confluence of governance and inclusive development agendas has once again brought the debates about citizen participation and empowerment to the forefront of contemporary development and governance discourse. Citizen participation is considered to be a sine qua non for inclusive urban development. This is especially important given the rising rates of urban inequality and exclusion around the world. There exist differing schools of thought regarding the potentials of citizen participation processes in the empowerment of local communities to actively participate in urban (re)development processes on the one hand; and for their participation to result in real urban transformation on the other (Cornwall and Coelho, 2007; Fung, 2015; Zakhour, 2020). The optimistic strand, which has by far dominates academic discourse advances the benefits of participation. The critical strand criticizes the ostensibly poor performance of participation in empowering especially the deprived communities. With seeming increase in citizen participation in governance and development processes, and evidence pointing to governance in various climes operating at a distance from and in contradiction to the needs of the ordinary citizens, particularly the deprived communities (Fung, 2015), there is need for further empirical exploration (Chilvers, 2009) of citizen participation in urban development processes. This paper explores the dynamics of citizen participation in urban development processes in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city. We cast a critical lens in interrogating the notion of citizen participation in empowering the agency of the local communities to actively participate in the development process and cause inclusive urban development policy change, drawing on the case study of Lagos’ physical development plans. Since 2000, Lagos has witnessed the preparation of various development plans (model city and master plans), which emphasised participatory planning at the core of the development process. In this paper, we seek to provide empirical evidence regarding the dialectic of participation and empowerment of local communities, and theoretically contribute to the ongoing discourse of the participatory turn in governance and urban development. Methodologically, we confront theory with an empirical case (Douven, 2017) to provide nuances and critical perspective on the governance space of participation in urban development process in Lagos, particularly on the logic and dynamics of citizen participation and empowerment. We focus on the various interest groups identified as Habitat Agenda Partners (HAPs) : Local Authorities, NGOs and CBOs, Trade Unions, Professionals, Academics and Researchers, Human Solidarity Groups, Indigenous People, Parliamentarians, Private Sector, Foundations, Financial Institutions, Youths and Women. Citizen participation is promoted in the claims of empowering citizens particularly the deprived communities which are ordinarily excluded in the urban (re)development process. This paper reflects on the possibilities of citizen participation to translate to empowering the agency of the local communities. Our paper is guided by two questions: What is the nature and scale of citizen participation embedded in the urban development process in Lagos; and How effective are current citizen participation processes in empowering the agency of local communities for inclusive urban development? In answering these questions, we draw on the analytical lens of Arnstein's ladder of citizen participation and the theoretical lenses of participatory governance and citizen participation literature, with insights from the various model city and master plans prepared since 2000. We explore these case studies through policy analyses, interviews with civil society organisations, community development associations, urban planners and policy actors involved in the preparation and implementation of the various development plans.
