Negotiating strategic planning's transitional spaces : the case of 'guerrilla governance' in infrastructure planning

Strategic planning can begin as a deliberative and inclusive process of plan making, but then transition into a decisive and exclusive process of investment and priority setting at the stage of implementation. Citizens who once participated in the formal plan making process through government-designed engagement events fade into the background in this critical latter part of strategic planning. At this point they must invent avenues to influence investment priorities. In the context of bicycle infrastructure planning and delivery in Sydney, Australia this paper examines how strategic plans that embrace cycling as an important transport mode translate into decisions to commit to some projects over others. The paper explores four ways community groups seek traction in a highly contentious and transitional space of planning through a process we call 'guerrilla governance'. Evoking aspects of advocacy and insurgent planning, guerrilla governance broadens how the term 'governance' is used within urban planning scholarship, by incorporating such 'legitimised' agitation from beyond government.