Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Aligning Public Participation To Stakeholders’ Sustainability Literacy—A Case Study On Sustainable Urban Development In Phoenix, Arizona, Matthew Cohen, Arnim Wiek, Braden Kay, John Harlow

Earth and Environmental Sciences Publications

In public planning processes for sustainable urban development, planners and experts often face the challenge of engaging a public that is not familiar with sustainability principles or does not subscribe to sustainability values. Although there are calls to build the public’s sustainability literacy through social learning, such efforts require sufficient time and other resources that are not always available. Alternatively, public participation processes may be realigned with the sustainability literacy the participants possess, and their capacity can modestly be built during the engagement. Asking what tools might successfully align public participation with participants’ sustainability literacy, this article describes and evaluates …