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EURBANITIES POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS 8 Recommendations to improve urban participatory processes

Participative processes are never ending stories. Unlikely development projects that have a clear frame based on a planning procedure, a governance and a financial structure, participative processes are long lasting stories, that themselves may contain several projects, or aim at the realization of projects. In any case, participation only exists if it is continuous and sustainable.

Even in the case of a negative turning of a story (for instance the rejection of an initiative by the local municipality), there still remains a possibility of the reinforcing of the community or of the launching of new participative methods. Thus, although for the sake of simplicity and scenario building, the experiences are presented here with a clear beginning and a more or less clear ending, in the reality these stories should have (or should have had) further turning points and phases.

There are only some specific cases when the stories end suddenly, with no possible way of follow-up. These cases might be considered as real negative ones, where participation probably was not based on the effective need of the local community. In these cases, any external or internal problem (lack of financial resources, political tensions etc.) may blow up the whole process of participation.