Enacting participatory democracy through futures making in the city

Abstract

This paper examines how futures thinking can support participatory democracy in urban development. It does so by analysing the tensions and contradictions that emerge when inhabitants lead futures‑making processes. Grounded in a case study of the Badedammen neighbourhood in Stavanger, Norway, the study explores how inhabitants engaged in critique, utopian visioning, and collective realisation through an extended Utopian Future Workshop (UFW) process. Drawing on Pateman’s participatory democratic theory and Gilmore’s conception of democratic life as ongoing rehearsal, the analysis highlights how futures‑making becomes a situated practice in which democratic ideals are enacted, negotiated, and contested. Methodologically, the study integrates participatory photography and utopian sketching to support inhabitants in articulating alternative neighbourhood visions. The findings reveal that while inhabitant‑led futuring can broaden participation and nurture democratic capacities, it also generates frictions around representation, timing, and trust—each shaping how legitimacy is conferred or withdrawn during the process. These insights contribute to debates on participatory futures and democratic innovation by showing how futures methods can extend agency and imagination while simultaneously exposing the practical and ethical challenges of enacting more inclusive urban development. • Futures thinking can enhance participatory democracy in urban development. • Inhabitants collectively imagined and enacted alternative urban futures. • The Utopian Future Workshop method builds futures literacy through creative methods. • Local knowledge pluralizes futures scholarship and challenges power relations. • Tensions in inclusion and impact reveal limits of participatory urban futures.