LAND-USE PLANNING AND PARTICIPATION - THE CASE OF INUIT PUBLIC-HOUSING (NUNAVIK, CANADA)

This article examines the role of participation in land-use planning. It discusses a concrete example of planning, related to the constructi on of social housing in Nunavik, the most northerly region of Quebec, Canada, inhabited mainly by Inuit. It looks at how the responsibilitie s of the various parties involved in the planning process have changed over the past 30 years and strives to understand the exact nature of their responsibilities at the present time. In so doing, it focuses on the role of citizens. This study shows that citizen participation pla ys a relatively limited role in planning, even though existing legisla tion makes it an integral part of the process. It helps to fulfil basi c land-use planning functions, namely, an economic rationalization fun ction and a political legitimization function. From this perspective, discourse on the democratic virtues of participatory planning is misle ading. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.