Community landownership in Scotland is a unique phenomenon from which to study the role of democratic participation within decision-making, future visioning, and sustainable planning. Over 500,000 acres of Scotland is owned by communities seeking to repopulate areas, and develop land to support civic needs and sustainable objectives (Wightman, 2013).

While policy is supportive (The Scottish Government, 2015; 2016; The Scottish Land Commission, 2018), one-size-fits-all approaches impose micro-hierarchies of power.
Alternative models of decision-making are the result of activists (Baillie and Baillie, 2018; McFadyen, 2018).
Fragmentation between grassroots and top-down approaches highlights two issues with participation in future planning:
1. Diverse voices must be included to ensure future visions respond to genuine community needs. However, tradition consultation supports “usual suspects” and restricts future-
focused discussion.
2. Planning events that do promote marginalised voices rely upon grassroots volunteers. Requirement for voluntary commitment is unsustainable and reduces access to participation.

Social Design (SD), explored as a solution, addresses complex social challenges through community engagement and participatory action research (Björgvinsson et al, 2012; Ehn, 2014; Koskinen and Hush, 2016; Manzini, 2015). It’s bespoke methods, such as codesigning events and future visioning workshops, can create novel models for participation with communities. Translating community designs into adaptable frameworks and toolkits addresses issues of scalability, but how might communities retain ownership of planning models? Who is responsible for sustaining democratic participation: can governance use SD methods to engage communities directly and create models of participation that are bespoke, accessible, and sustainable?