Designing for inclusion and designing for exclusion: The influence of digital tools on political inclusion in Medellín’s participatory budgeting process

Abstract

ABSTRACT A growing number of information and communication technologies (ICTs) are being used worldwide to support participatory budgeting, a process that allows citizens to decide how to spend part of the public budget. Nevertheless, the effects of ICTs on political inclusion in participatory budgeting processes remain underexplored in the literature. This paper aims at contributing to the cited scholarship. The research takes the form of a qualitative case study of the participatory budgeting process in Medellín, Colombia’s second-biggest city, from its launch as a city-wide policy in 2004, until its last regulatory change in 2017. The article analyzes the influence of the use of ICTs in Medellín’s participatory budgeting process on political inclusion in the view of the process participants. The qualitative data collected suggests that ICTs can change the power dynamics in Medellín’s participatory budgeting process; nevertheless, their use has mixed results, depending on how they are designed and implemented.