Citizen Participation for Sustainable Transport: Role of Self-organizing Civil Society Organizations to Innovate in Complex City and Transport Planning Systems

20th century, citizen “revolts” against urban highway projects have influenced thinking about public transport (Toronto, Vancouver, New York), governance (Portland), and cycling (The Netherlands) to this day. Less is known, however, about how these emerge in developing countries, and what they can tell us about citizens’ role in innovation to achieve more sustainable transport systems. Using a complexity-based methodology, this case study examines a social movement that emerged in opposition to the country’s first major highway concession, in Santiago, Chile (1997), challenging and changing urban planning paradigms. In 2000, the anti-highway campaign founded a citizen institution, Living City (Ciudad Viva). Twelve years later, it has become a prize-winning, citizen-led planning institution. Although participation’s role in improving transport systems has become increasingly recognized in recent years, it still tends to be rather ritualistic. This experience offers insight into how strategic approaches to participation can reinforce the role of self-organizing civil society organizations in introducing innovation into existing systems. Findings suggest that traditional large formats should be supplemented by small groups, with more attention paid to the quality of communication and how new consensuses are transmitted (or not) through networks of relationships. This experience suggests that rethinking the city and transport as complex systems, and providing room for leadership from citizen, as well as “technical” and “governmental” planners, opens the way to more effective strategies for innovating in transport, to address the social, environmental and other challenges humanity faces today.