Using different communications and engagement methods can be a useful way of lowering barriers to entry, particularly for under-represented segments of a population. Involving people who are not trained in spatial thinking, reading maps or drawing, likely to be the case in marginalized communities, can also be particularly challenging.

Involving multiple stakeholders is challenging and requires considerable planning and preparation.

Participatory outcomes are often aspired to, but hard to implement in practice. This creates an engagement gap which is particularly prevalent among marginalized communities with fewer resources and lower levels of education, for example, with youth, people living in informal settlements and disabled, and, as a result, when deliberation occurs it is often biased towards more powerful stakeholders with greater resources. The lack of such tools makes it difficult for non-professionals to engage in dialogue with professionals because they lack the technical skills, confidence and language toĪdequately communicate their ideas. The Programme provides technical support in developing city-wide public space strategies, conducting participatory design/visioning workshops, setting up public space management frameworks, conducting city-wide public space assessments, developing indicators to monitor implementation and assess impact, amongst others.Ĭentral to Block by Block is the notion that in order to make urban planning and design processes more participatory, people without design or architectural skills need easy ways to use tools to effectively describe their ideas and desires to professionals. UN-Habitat has integrated the Block by Block methodology in its Global Public Space Programme, a programme launched in 2012 to develop local policies, plans and designs for safe, inclusive, and accessible public spaces for all to support cities to become more compact, integrated, connected, socially inclusive, and resilient to climate change. The purpose of this playbook is to outline UN-Habitat’s approach to using Minecraft as an enabler to encourage community participation in urban design and governance.

Minecraft blocks