1.
CREATING SPACES FOR
STORYTELLING IN
NEIGHBOURHOOD
PLANNING
Jennifer Manuel | Open Lab, Newcastle University
@jenhmanuel

2.
NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING
LOCAL AUTHORITY
CREATING
PLANNING POLICY
CITIZENS CREATING
CREATING
PLANNING POLICY
SPACES FOR STORYTELLING IN NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING @jenhmanuel

3.
CITIZEN PARTICIPATION
SPACES FOR STORYTELLING IN NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING @jenhmanuel
Image by Locality

4.
PARTICIPATION PRACTICES
CONSULTATION METHODS
MATERIAL PLANNING CONSIDERATIONS
SPACES FOR STORYTELLING IN NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING @jenhmanuel

5.
We don’t experience place through
material planning considerations.
SPACES FOR STORYTELLING IN NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING @jenhmanuel

6.
WE TELL STORIES OF
SPACES FOR STORYTELLING IN NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING @jenhmanuel

7.
“Policy reports produced by government planning agencies, and
also by consultants for those agencies, are cut from the same
clichéd cloth. They are dry as dust. Life’s juices have been
squeezed from them. Emotion has been rigorously purged as if
there were no such things as joy, tranquillity, anger,
resentment, fear, hope, memory, and forgetting, at stake in
these analyses.What purposes, whose purposes, do these
bloodless stories serve? For one thing, they serve to perpetuate
a myth of the objectivity and technical expertise of planners.
And in doing so, these documents are nothing short of
misleading at best, dishonest at worst, about the kinds of
problems and choices we face in cities.”
- LEONIE SANDERCOCK (2010)
SPACES FOR STORYTELLING IN NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING @jenhmanuel

8.
SPACES FOR STORYTELLING IN NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING @jenhmanuel
Image by Shutterstock

9.
PARTICIPATORY MEDIA IN
NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING
SPACES FOR STORYTELLING IN NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING @jenhmanuel

10.
MEDIA COMMISSIONING PLATFORM
SPACES FOR STORYTELLING IN NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING @jenhmanuel

11.
CASE STUDIES
6/7 TOPIC GROUPS
WORKSHOPS
ONSITE FILMING
BUILDING EVIDENCE
STEERING GROUP
WORKSHOP
SHARING STORIES
FRAME THE FUTURE
SPACES FOR STORYTELLING IN NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING @jenhmanuel

12.
FILMING
CHANGING
CONVERSATIONS
STORY
MULTIPLICITY
INFLUENCING
POLICY
382 VIDEOS CAPTURED
AVERAGE OF 27 SECONDS
PLANNED VS. UNPLANNED
CONFIDENT WITH THE TECHNOLOGY
SPACES FOR STORYTELLING IN NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING @jenhmanuel

13.
FILMING
CHANGING
CONVERSATIONS
STORY
MULTIPLICITY
INFLUENCING
POLICY
EARLIER PARTICIPATION
DEMOCRATISING CONVERSATION
SHARED NARRATIVES
SPACES FOR STORYTELLING IN NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING @jenhmanuel

14.
FILMING
CHANGING
CONVERSATIONS
STORY
MULTIPLICITY
INFLUENCING
POLICY
“I think we should stay focused on the streetscape on the
main street, it’s too busy.”.
“No, it’s pointless suggesting that. I know the businesses
wouldn’t agree to that, they’d fight against it so it’s pointless
to consider it.”
SPACES FOR STORYTELLING IN NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING @jenhmanuel

15.
FILMING
CHANGING
CONVERSATIONS
STORY
MULTIPLICITY
INFLUENCING
POLICY
“We need more bike routes that are safe and we need to
encourage people to walk into the town centre. Like the
people who work in the centre, a lot of them could walk
from home to work but they choose to bring the car”.
“We do still need to consider cars and lorries. We need a
way for lorries to get into the centre for deliveries. Plus, we
said we want to encourage people to come here from
further afield so we need to make sure they can come here
by car”.
SPACES FOR STORYTELLING IN NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING @jenhmanuel

16.
FILMING
CHANGING
CONVERSATIONS
STORY
MULTIPLICITY
INFLUENCING
POLICY
MULTIPLE TRUTHS
SYNCHRONOUS STORY CAPTURE
SEEKING MORE STORIES
SPACES FOR STORYTELLING IN NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING @jenhmanuel

17.
FILMING
CHANGING
CONVERSATIONS
STORY
MULTIPLICITY
INFLUENCING
POLICY
P6: We need to be careful about what we’re saying and how we’re
saying it. Think about it, if we’re sharing this with people, they’ll
think we’ve ignored their neighbourhood.
P7: Yes, we have to remember that we’re supposed to be looking at
the whole neighbourhood planning boundary. What do we want to
include about that?
P5: I don’t think we have much information about the rest of the
boundary.
P7: We don’t so what do we do? People will think we’re too focused
on the town centre and we’re neglecting everywhere else.
SPACES FOR STORYTELLING IN NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING @jenhmanuel

18.
FILMING
CHANGING
CONVERSATIONS
STORY
MULTIPLICITY
INFLUENCING
POLICY
TANGIBLE OUTCOME
DIRECTLY LINKED TO POLICY
FUTURE USE
SPACES FOR STORYTELLING IN NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING @jenhmanuel
Image by USC

19.
Synchronous story capture through
participatory media can support citizens
in neighbourhood planning to consider
alternative views, open up participation
and influence policy creation.
JENNIFER MANUEL | OPEN LAB, NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY
j.manuel2@ncl.ac.uk
@jenhmanuel