PARTICIPATORY POLICY MAKING IN FORESIGHT STUDIES AT THE REGIONAL LEVEL - A METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH

The issue of stakeholders’ and citizens’ engagement in policy decisions is nowadays at the forefront of participatory planning efforts at the various spatial levels. Involving stakeholders and citizens in participatory planning is always a challenge for planners, which stresses the need for effective tools, capable of dealing with respective planning efforts. The focus of the present paper is on the development of a methodological framework, which builds upon the integration of an analytical scenario planning model – the LIPSOR model, in support of future anticipation and structuring of scenarios, with a tool supporting stakeholders’ and citizens’ engagement - the Focus Group methodology, which aims at the support of planners in structuring the context of the participatory process and producing the necessary qualitative information, used in the scenario planning process. The use of the proposed framework can guide the efforts of planners to incorporate views and visions of a range of local actors, when exploring future development paths of a region/problem at hand. The experience gained from the application of this framework in a specific case study at the regional level is also presented, drawing upon the advantages and disadvantages of such an approach, while finally some conclusions are drawn.