Jessica A. Shea, PhD

Case Study: Transforming Community Engagement from Formal to Authentic

The Challenge Planning departments and community organizations struggle with traditional community engagement approaches that often fail to capture authentic input from diverse residents. Formal charrettes, public workshops, and town halls frequently attract only the most vocal or advantaged community members, while marginalized populations—including elderly residents, low-income families, and non-English speakers—remain unheard. Organizations needed a more flexible, inclusive approach that could adapt to different cultural contexts and elicit genuine community perspectives rather than just counting participants.

My Approach I developed an innovative community engagement pedagogy that shifts from highly structured formal methods to flexible, informal interactions that meet people where they are. Through two real-world projects—one in Singapore’s Whampoa neighborhood (aging population) and one in Bangalore’s Hebbal settlement (unplanned urban community)—I created and tested a methodology that:

• Built foundational knowledge in participatory theory, addressing two critical flaws in traditional practice: the false assumption that communities are homogeneous, and the tendency to privilege expert knowledge over local knowledge
• Empowered stakeholders to design their own engagement strategies rather than imposing predetermined formats
• Created low-barrier interactions in informal settings (hawker centers, parks, local shops) where residents naturally gather
• Integrated multiple engagement methods including face-to-face surveys, observation, informal conversations, and visual tools
• Addressed cultural and language barriers through strategic use of translators and culturally-sensitive question design
• Focused on problem-setting, not just problem-solving—allowing communities to frame challenges in their own terms

Key Innovation: Informal Over Formal Rather than extracting residents from their daily routines to attend formal events, the approach brings engagement to community spaces. In Whampoa, this meant conversations at the hawker center over coffee. In Hebbal, it meant meeting residents at their shops and in the streets with visual survey tools that overcame literacy barriers.

The Process

1. Foundation Building: Introduced stakeholders to critical theories of knowledge, degrees of participation, and the problematic assumptions underlying traditional engagement
2. Strategy Development: Facilitated workshops where teams designed context-appropriate engagement approaches
3. Flexible Implementation: Supported informal interactions that allowed for organic conversations and follow-up questions
4. Sense-Making: Guided analysis workshops using SWOT and visioning exercises to synthesize community input
5. Integration: Helped teams translate community insights into actionable design interventions
6. Reflection: Facilitated evaluation of what worked, what didn’t, and how to improve

Results & Impact

More Authentic Community Input:

• Participants felt comfortable expressing themselves freely, including criticisms of government and authorities they wouldn’t share in formal settings
• Discovered local knowledge unavailable through secondary data (e.g., demolished buildings, historical significance of spaces)
• Reached elderly Chinese speakers, low-income residents, and illiterate community members typically excluded from formal processes

Designs That Better Reflect Needs:

• 85% of participants (11 of 13 in Hebbal; majority in Whampoa) integrated community findings directly into design interventions
• Uncovered community preferences (e.g., community farming over individual gardens) that shaped program priorities
• Identified the hawker center as social hub and void decks for introverted activities—insights that informed spatial design

Reduced Conflict Through Understanding:

• Acknowledged diversity within communities rather than seeking false consensus
• Built trust through repeated informal interactions rather than one-time formal events
• Allowed residents to “problem-frame” on their own terms, revealing underlying concerns beyond surface complaints

More Inclusive Participation:

• Engaged elderly residents with 20+ years of local knowledge in Whampoa
• Reached religiously and economically diverse populations in Hebbal
• Overcame language barriers through visual tools and cultural interpreters
• Met people in familiar spaces where they felt safe and comfortable

Skills Transfer:

• 100% of participants in Whampoa rated community engagement as important to design
• 79% (11 of 14) in Hebbal planned to engage in community-based work in their careers
• Participants developed confidence in navigating unstructured situations and became “street smart” in community interactions

Transferable Value This methodology demonstrates that meaningful community engagement doesn’t require extensive resources, long timelines, or formal institutional backing. It works in:

• Time-constrained projects (9-day site visit in Bangalore yielded actionable insights)
• Cross-cultural contexts (Singapore to India)
• Low-resource settings (informal settlements to established neighborhoods)
• Linguistically diverse communities (multiple languages, literacy barriers)

Services Offered Based on this proven methodology, I provide:

• Staff training in informal community engagement methods and participatory theory
• Strategy development for context-appropriate engagement approaches
• Facilitation of community interactions, sense-making workshops, and design integration
• Cultural interpretation and adaptation of methods across diverse contexts

Key Insight The most effective community engagement happens when we question who participates, whose knowledge counts, and who defines the problem. By moving from extraction (pulling residents into our formal spaces) to immersion (entering community spaces with humility), we create conditions for authentic participation that produces better, more sustainable, and more equitable outcomes.

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Published: Diehl, J. A., & Yong, K. W. (2018). Active learning in a participatory design studio: Enabling students to reach out to communities. Paper presented at Great Asian Streets Symposium / Pacific Rim Community Design Network / Structures for Inclusion. Dec 14-16, 2018. Singapore, SINGPORE.