Sustainable Learning Society Applications

Abstract

Citizen participation is a key element in sustainably developing cities. When developmental decisions are left to governmental officials and decision-makers, political and economic factors tend to control the process. This leaves little room for humane values. As such, researchers have called for the development of a sustainable learning society, with the creative class and innovators at its lead, in order to direct the participation of citizens in the decision-making process, in issues related to the living environment. Based on the similarity between the environment of organizational creativity of both participatory sessions and design education, this research borrows an application performed in a design context. This takes place, in order to quantitatively and qualitatively test diversity's effect in a group on the creative output. As such, it was concluded that the same relationship is valid for group members working on development projects. Findings suggest tools that can be employed to select participants and to enhance creativity within groups focusing on development planning.