At SYMP26, Molly Steeves, Associate at DIALOG, and Josh White, General Manager of Planning, Urban Design and Sustainability at the City of Vancouver, came together for a fireside on the tensions at the heart of public engagement: consultation versus participation, community versus expertise, individual versus collective.
Their conversation centred on a single, grounding idea — that trust is cultural infrastructure, built slowly through transparency and accountability. Molly and Josh unpacked how to approach engagement in an increasingly complex world, focusing on building trust and a sense of ownership, and bringing lived experience and technical knowledge together in a constructive way.
Share