The high expectations of community participation are based on a number of assumptions which I have found unreliable. The community is a entity. Community cohesion can be relied upon. A high level of community cohesion means that people will cooperate for the community good and that their collective decisions will be sustainable. People will abide by community consensus.
People make meaningful contributions in group or in public settings.
People know what they want. People consider themselves bound by decisions they were party to at some time in the past. Group processes are a valid means of prioritising needs. Participation processes can be conducted by facilitators without the presence of planners. Making participation processes fun and ensuring that participants enjoy themselves makes the outcomes of the processes valid.