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General Maptionnaire: A Smart Lesson in Democratising Engagement the Fun Way
General


MAPTIONNAIRE: A SMART LESSON IN DEMOCRATISING ENGAGEMENT THE FUN WAY



By Karl Dickinson
February 21, 2023
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Anna Broberg and Maarit Kahila. Image credit: Mapita
Karl Dickinson

Enthusiastic about real change that impacts real lives. Believer in the power of
the individual; it can make all the difference. I enjoy connecting with people
who have the wildest ideas and the enthusiasm to bring them to life.

Got a story to share? Let's connect!




Public participation matters. It brings democracy and diverse perspectives to
city design. But it can be difficult to get right. Smart technology hands us new
opportunities for engagement. Today we learn about one of the pioneering tools
in this field – Maptionnaire – and get pointers from the experts in increasing
your reach in consultations.

How do we build a city that people want to live in? The short answer: by asking
them what they want.

These days, an urban planner worth their salt consults with the communities they
serve and delivers on the feedback. Naturally, the more participants, the truer
the representation. That’s why decision-makers need to attract a broad
demographic and numerous responses from the neighbourhoods they are active in.

One way of doing that is employing tools suited to the task.


PUT IT ON THE MAP

Enter Maptionnaire, an aptly named citizen engagement platform with online
spatial surveys at its core. It provides a visual representation of an urban
space in map form, on which planners can directly pose pertinent questions.

End users get to see the challenges and/or proposals presented in a geographical
context, enhancing their comprehension and ability to formulate informed
answers.

Spatial questions – for example, “Where is your favourite green space?” and
“Where should there be more street lighting?” – can be answered with a simple
click.

It can also be used to gather qualitative responses: open text fields invite
comments on an area, feature, or planning proposal in the city.

Maptionnaire collates quantitative and qualitative GIS (geographic information
system) data, which can then be easily analysed and compared, removing ambiguity
and the need for interpretation.

The software was developed by the founders of Mapita, Maarit Kahila and Anna
Broberg – CEO and COO respectively.

They knew that they didn’t need to reinvent the wheel. The “online consultation
sphere” partially replicates methods used in traditional townhall meetings, Anna
tells us, such as “discussion boards, vision surveys, and voting”. By throwing
geospatial data into the mix, Maptionnaire enhances this traditional
consultation toolkit with “robust spatial functionalities”. Pretty neat!

Going digital does have other advantages too. Being online, more people can
access a citizen engagement survey, and timing is flexible. That matters;
genuine representation is a matter of equity.

Image credit: Mapita


WHY DIVERSE PARTICIPATION MATTERS

In public meetings, we always hear from the same loud voices.

Maybe surprisingly, we don’t want to drown them out, but we do want everyone to
be heard equally.

It will never be perfect, our CityChangers point out. Some people just don’t
cash in their democratic rights. It’s the same in elections.

We can, however, improve access for those who welcome it, as Maptionnaire has
proved.

This was demonstrated in a land management project in Peja, Kosovo.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t tech-savvy young men who engaged with the digital tool
the most, but middle-aged women – a demographic, Maarit confirms, that isn’t
typically engaged with urban planning processes.

“Within just ten days of launching the Maptionnaire survey,” their website
claims, “the municipality had received 1,663 responses” – more than double the
attendance of the public meetings. It attracted a 45% female response rate
compared to the rate of female submissions in-person of just 5%.

That’s a triumph! But that brings us to our next question: is an increase in
participation ever a bad thing?

Screenshots of Maptionnaire’s user-friendly interfaces. Image credit: Mapita


PARTICIPATION – A PLANNER’S CONUNDRUM

The year 2000 ushered in a new stumbling block for Finland’s urbanists: the
requirement for urban planners to always seek consultation.

Maarit explains how they would go about it backwards: draw up a proposal, and
then hope to get the official document passed at a public hearing.

Suddenly, the people had more influence.

If they objected to an idea, “this prolonged the processes a lot,” Maarit
continues. Appeals taken to court often ended with the plans being quashed
altogether.

The result? Underutilised land, resulting in missed revenue and lost
opportunities for housing and new businesses, Anna adds.

Transparent community engagement at an early stage is proven to help avoid such
disappointment. This explains why Maptionnaire has been involved in more than
14,000 projects since the company formed in 2011.


THE PEOPLE’S PERSPECTIVE

Our CityChangers admit, though, that this is a top-down process. It has to be.
The municipality is uniquely positioned to reach the spectrum of a city’s
stakeholders and hold the power – and budget – to turn findings into
street-level change.

To level the field slightly, some cities hand some of that power back to the
citizens.

Participatory budgeting allows citizens to make firm and transparent decisions
on spending, and Maptionnaire facilitates this complex process with a special
module. But the platform also offers a low-threshold alternative for budget
prioritisation called geobudgeting: the survey presents options for where and on
what the money can be used for.

 * 
 * 

Screenshots of the Maptionnaire participatory budgeting and geobudgeting tools.
Image credit: Mapita

.

Even so, one of the greatest barriers to participation is citizens’ own
mindsets.

A few days before our interview, Maarit was asked by a workshop attendee whether
planning shouldn’t be left to the professionals – those who really “understand”
what a city needs.

Despite missing the point somewhat – city design should reflect the needs of the
people, not the other way around – it’s a fair question.

Democratising city planning raises an interesting philosophical debate. Just
because the majority wants or expects something, does that make it the right
choice?

If 85% of people responding to a mobility survey turn out to be drivers calling
for traffic relief, could we justify building more roads?

What if those responses only represent, say, 30% of citizens? Are planners
duty-bound to make good on promises to follow through? If they’re ignored, what
detrimental impact will that have on future engagement activities?

Maarit has reflected on these themes on Mapita’s blog. She believes that tech is
an effective way to include diverse voices over time, not as a one-off. Neither
a single survey nor a single tool is enough.


DIVERSITY DATA COLLECTION

It’s important to allow people to engage in different ways.

“We should not think of these types of tools as the only tools. There always has
to be different kinds of channels,” Maarit explains.

Some people still feel more comfortable in a face-to-face setting. “That should
be possible as well.”

So, public meetings are still on the table.

This was demonstrated recently in an old military barrack ground in the
Pihlajaniemi area of Turku, Finland, which has now been redeveloped as a
residential area. This small municipality’s survey pulled in hundreds of
responses, but only two in a public meeting of 60 were among those ranks.

The two formats appeal to different audiences. Each complements the other.
Progress doesn’t mean disposing of what we got right in the past.


DON’T WAIT FOR PEOPLE TO ACT

Digital tools work extremely well. However, Anna suggests that planners should
not just post a link online, sit back, and wait for the responses to flood in.
Social media marketing appeals most to younger age groups. It’s not enough.

> You need to be very tactical and recruit local residents from the groups that
> you’re trying to reach.
> 
> Anna Broberg

Ambassadors, community leaders, and citizen groups can be effective allies in
promoting your survey.

Take Helsinki, for example: during their master planning project, the city
integrated a survey into their popular blog.

And Tallinn, in Estonia, who ran a public art survey in three languages to
capture the opinions of the local communities and – unusually in city planning –
international visitors. In another development project in Tallinn, QR codes,
hyperlinking to the survey, were made available around the city to spark
curiosity and spontaneous engagement.

Image credit: Ann Kristiin Entson

If there’s a chance, Anna advises, meeting people to walk them through the
survey (“assisted answering”) extends reach even further.


ONE LAST HURDLE…

For all Maptionnaire has taught us about effective surveying, our CityChangers
see one area that still needs a lot of improvement: we’re asking really bad
questions!

The questions we pose need to be relevant, easy to understand, and result in
answers that fill in gaps in our knowledge – not replicate what we already know.

You only get data as good as your questions, Anna stipulates. “The content has
to be very focused and precise.”

What’s the secret? Try to be concise, Anna adds. Don’t ask pages and pages of
questions “but really think about what is relevant in this situation right now
and then do that well”.

Use easy, friendly language. And remember: you’re asking people to invest their
time, and they have limits. Sometimes less is more.


GIVE IT A GO!

Like the sound of spatial surveys and want to try it out for yourself? Play
around on Maptionnaire’s fun engagement demos here.

 * Tags
 * citizens
 * CityChangers
 * participation
 * public authorities
 * tools
 * urban planners

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