Evaluation de la participation citoyenne dans le cadre du projet d’aménagement de la baie d’Alger

Abstract

In the course of these last decades, and in answer to the new challenges facing our cities, we attend the rise of new urban planning methods. These methods promote integrated approaches that take into account the urban system complexity and seek different actor’s participation, including that of "ordinary" citizens. Indeed, citizen participation is now one of the main urban actions’ principles throughout the world. Within an overall reflection, already started by several scientists, on the citizen participation in the field of town planning in Algeria, this work tries to contribute to the comprehension of the general context of its application on the ground through a concrete case study. The example in question is that of the proposed development project of Algiers Bay. To achieve this goal, we treat, initially, the theoretical and practical aspect of citizen participation through the scientific literature relating to the topic as well as the study of several foreign examples. Then, we approach the general context of implementation of citizen participation in urban actions in Algeria. Finally, through two analytical tools that we have developed, namely the evaluation sheet and the questionnaire, we study the various participatory mechanisms implemented in the proposed development project of Algiers Bay. The research results enabled us to check how citizen participation has been sought as part of this project and to assess the degree of involvement of citizens in the latter by referring Sherry Arnstein’s ladder.