Exploration of Public Participation Method from the Humanistic Perspective: Perception Stimulation

Some scholars believe that formalism and utilitarianism in the process of space creation are precisely the reasons why humanism theories and practices have failed to establish an effective connection for a long time, causing problems such as the loss of urban space local identity and the weakening of social connections with users. Public participation is an important step in all kinds of planning practices. However, the exploration of public participation methods and scales varies largely. This paper raises a new public participation method — perception stimulation, which starts from a discussion on the principles, methods and practices of public participation, as well as on the existing major public participation methods of their advantages and disadvantages. The perception stimulation is a participatory method developed on the basis of environmental psychology to obtain the will of the public. It includes four major steps, which are ‘stimulate, guidance, capture and identification’, characterized with flexibility, accuracy, efficiency and inclusiveness. This method not only guarantees the depth and breadth of public participation, but also tries to overcome communication barriers between different groups by involving newly developed technologies. It provides a new perspective for researches carried out on the public participation.