People’s Plans: Co-production and participatory action research in social housing
Submitted: 2025-09-03
|Accepted: 2025-09-11
|Published: 2025-10-31
Copyright (c) 2025 VLC arquitectura. Research Journal
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
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Keywords:
Social housing, regeneration, community-led planning, participatory action research, co-design, participation
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Abstract:
This paper presents three case studies of participatory action research projects, where researchers have collaborated with communities living in social housing estates in London. The paper first introduces the context of social housing regeneration in London, providing both historical context and discussing current debates. Then, it explains the methodological approach and the three case studies: William Dunbar and William Saville Community Plan, Alton Estate People’s Plan and Trellick and Edenham Community Plan. These cases refer to social housing estates where residents were facing the demolition of their homes or other type of densification development in their neighbourhood and where local communities were not included in decision-making process. Through these participatory action research projects, researchers and communities worked together on co-designing a community-led vision for their area – a People’s Plan or Community Plan. From these case studies, the paper discusses the process for establishing these collaborations, and the impact they can have both on local communities and on wider debates (both in theory and practice) on social housing regeneration, participation, and community-led planning.
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