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Top-down approaches often fail to involve, collaborate with, and consider social actors in the process of planning, design, and maintenance of public spaces (PDMPS). This research addresses how social participation is included in PDMPS in the Mexican case, by identifying the actors, the level of communication achieved, and their authority and power in the PDMPS process. The paper employs a case study approach, informed by semi-structured interviews. We use a democracy diagram to uncover the diversity of involved actors and how they are involved in the process. We show how government could provide support for social participation to implement participatory processes in PDMPS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research indicates that information and communication technologies (ICTs) can support social participation in the planning, design and maintenance of public spaces (PDMPS), specifically to create comprehensive knowledge among different stakeholders. However, critics point out that the use of ICTs by planners and decision-makers often ignores the needs of local residents. For this research, we inquired how ICTs can support social participation in PDMPS. Our case study combines a literature review and 21 semi-structured interviews with government officials, non-governmental organisations, academics and architecture/urban planning consultancy companies in Mexico to understand how different stakeholders use ICTs to improve the quality of public spaces. We developed an approach that facilitates the analysis of ICT aspects related to hardware and software supporting social participation in PDMPS. The findings show that Mexico has a base of digital tools requiring technical capacities and spatial literacy at various stages of PDMPS, and ICTs are seen as an opportunity to engage with residents. However, in practice, our interviewees mentioned that ICTs are rarely implemented to support participatory processes due to high costs, a lack of political support and the insufficient technical expertise of technical staff to engage with residents using ICTs. The paper closes with recommendations and suggestions for future research on how ICTs can better support participatory processes in PDMPS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]