Community engagement and infrastructure planning: A troubled relationship?—Crystal Legacy seminar with InfUr-

his presentation took place on Thursday 14th November 2024 with Crystal Legacy.

Abstract: Community engagement exists as a paradox. On one hand, participation is core to the creation of climate just and democratic cities. On the other hand, participation can also seed the production of social licences for infrastructure proponents seeking outcomes that are otherwise agnostic to the delivery of just places. This paradox has a politics and a structure that is challenging to discern. In this seminar, I draw from feminist and political philosophers writing on structural gaslighting to consider how it takes shape at the intersection between public participation and infrastructure planning.  By exposing structural gaslighting at this interaction, I hope to contribute to a conversation about the possibilities for future planning practice; that which engages at the edges and takes seriously the potential of informal participation in cities.

Crystal Legacy is Associate Professor of Urban Planning at the University of Melbourne, Australia where she is also the Co-Director of the Informal Urbanism Research Hub. She resides on Wurundjeri Country where she writes, teaches and works with communities on issues related to urban transport politics, public participation and the post-political city.  She publishes in a range of academic journals, provides critical commentary for local and national media outlets, and works in solidarity with a range of community-based groups seeking climate just outcomes in transport planning. Crystal is an Editor of the journal Planning Theory and Practice and is the co-Chair of the Australasian Cities Research Network.