Abstract
ABSTRACTThere has been widespread recognition in the Global South of the role of participatory governance approaches to urban development in responding to citizens’ immediate concerns. However, critiques note that participatory initiatives are often avenues for the political and economic elite to ensure their interests and profits, rather than improving the livelihoods in non- serviced urban peripheries. This article investigates how transition management (TM), as a promising participatory governance framework, can be implemented effectively to improve access to water for disadvantaged groups. First, we highlight lessons learnt from the TM applications in urban and water sectors. Second, we draw on empirical data from low-income urban areas in Ghana and Tanzania to bring the importance of social relations to the fore. By employing open-ended interviews, following the water points and conducting narrative walks, we identify three precautions that need to be addressed through adaptations of the TM approach in order to achieve the emancipatory promises of participatory governance models. In suggesting some guidelines for facilitators and active groups in participatory arenas, we discuss the importance of power dynamics in the communities, potentials and shortcoming of reflexive governance processes, and the need for capacity-building in transition teams.
Highlights
Citizen participation in processes of decision-making for planning current and future cities in the Global South has been identified as a key principle for building sustainable urban futures (Evans, et al 2016; United Nations (UN) DESA 2015a)
When the Pangani Basin Water Board (PBWB) does identify an unregistered borehole, they encourage the users to apply for permits, which contribute to the annual budget of the PBWB
We argue that the least resourceful actors need to have a space created for them, in order to be able to form a shared agenda based on their needs and concerns and to make their claims visible, prior to their engagement with other actors in transition arenas
Summary
Citizen participation in processes of decision-making for planning current and future cities in the Global South has been identified as a key principle for building sustainable urban futures (Evans, et al 2016; UN DESA 2015a). Critiques against the discourse of participation within development identify dual, competing objectives of development efficiency over empowerment, often failing to deliver on its emancipatory promises for a city’s poorest residents (Cleaver 1999), and the tendency of many development initiatives to ignore power relations determining uneven outcomes of what are envisioned as power neutral participatory processes (Kemerink, et al 2013) These same critiques are seen in analyses of participatory governance, whereby market-based approaches to service delivery under a mode of neoliberal governance use participation to make citizens responsible for their own development, rather than being truly transformative (Mosse 2006). While levels of access to improved water sources in SSA cities has declined since the 1990s, the rate of urban population
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