This presentation explores the complexities, tensions, and political dimensions of participatory processes at the intersection of urban planning, socially engaged art, and civil society. Drawing on practice-led research and an autoethnographic account from a workshop in Botkyrka, Sweden, the presentation critically examines the normative framing of "collaboration" and "dialogue" as inherently democratic and desirable. It questions what is made possible — and what is excluded — when public institutions invite citizens and artists into planning processes.

Central to the analysis is the concept of listening, not as a passive or technical act, but as an active, embodied, and political practice. Drawing on the work of philosopher Nicholas of Cusa, the article introduces a distinction between ratio and intellectus as two forms of reason — one concerned with measurement and control, the other with not-knowing, ambiguity, and openness. In the presentation I argue for the importance of cultivating intellectus-based listening in participatory settings, where unpredictability, dissent, and discomfort can hold transformative potential.

The presentation calls for a shift from a results-oriented logic of best practices and consensus, toward a deeper engagement with friction, conflict, and the not-known. It also explores the danger of instrumentalizing art and participation in the name of inclusion, and instead advocates for creating space for critical reflection and situated judgment — what Aristotle would call phronesis. Ultimately, it suggests that valuing discomfort and complexity is not a failure of professionalism, but a necessary condition for democratic and meaningful co-creation.