Participatory Arrangements Research Articles

Instrumental councillors? On the strategic interests that drive local councillors’ legitimacy perceptions of citizen participation

ABSTRACT Lately, municipalities in Western democracies have become increasingly more participatory. Local councillors have a fundamental role therein as they can either enable or block citizen participation. In that vein, their legitimacy perceptions towards different participatory arrangements seem key. This article analyses to what extent instrumental motivations steer these attitudes. Specifically, we distinguish between collective power (belonging to the governing majority or not) and individual influence (level of self-perceived political efficacy) as explanatory variables. Results based on a large-scale survey among local councillors in Flanders (Belgium) show that instrumental motivations indeed play a significant role: councillors with high levels of influence perceive traditional forms of decision-making (classic decision-making and consultative participation) as more legitimate. At the same time, majority councillors evaluate decisive forms of citizen participation as less legitimate than their colleagues in opposition. Additionally, feeling more powerful seems to be linked with an overall enthusiasm irrespective of participatory designs.

Placing civil society in water security governance: challenges and opportunities for engagement

ABSTRACT Achieving water security requires action at all levels of governance, and cooperation among state and non-state actors, including civil society. However, in many places, participatory arrangements to enable cooperation, such as river basin committees or water user groups, have not been created, due to resource constraints or scepticism regarding their effectiveness. Here, we develop a typology of five key ‘governance actions’ that non-state actors may undertake to address environmental problems. We apply this typology to empirical findings from a water scarcity situation in Johor, Malaysia, where subnational civil society actors undertook a range of responses. The analysis reveals that, despite the absence of formal engagement mechanisms, civil society positively contributed to the governance of water security through ‘defining issues’, ‘creating and sharing knowledge’ and ‘taking independent action’ that could potentially inform wider practice, but faced challenges in ‘monitoring and evaluating’ or otherwise providing a critical perspective on impacts of water insecurity. The findings indicate possibilities for place-based and interest-based partnerships between government and civil society, and for supporting vertical relationships among civil society actors operating at different levels of governance. The study contributes to debates around power relations, knowledge sharing, and decision making across multilevel environmental governance.

Collaborative Conservation for Inclusive, Equitable, and Effective Systems of Protected and Conserved Areas—Insights from Brazil

Protected and conserved areas (PCAs) are increasingly recognized as essential tools for their effectiveness in conservation and the benefits they provide. However, their challenges are still significant. The concepts, legislation, and governance surrounding PCAs are the results of social contexts. Due to the evolution of scientific knowledge, human rights, and diversified demands, new approaches are necessary to fulfill their functions. To better understand the context and possibilities, a study group was established to evaluate the current research, exchange experiences, guide dialogues, and identify lessons from experiences. The core of the experiences and cases considered and the reflections developed focused on the Brazilian context. This article analyzes the collected information and reflections related to several themes associated with challenges. The results reinforce the importance of PCAs but warn about the limitations of current conservation strategies to respond to social actors’ expectations, the needs of the vulnerable social groups, and evolving demands. The complexity of PCA systems is evident in view of the multiplicity of interests, potential contributions, and possibilities for participatory arrangements. There is a need to improve management and governance conceptions to promote the reconnection between society and nature. Therefore, the concept of collaborative conservation is proposed as an instrumental approach to advance towards inclusive and effective conservation strategies.

Assessing the performance of a participatory governance transformation in small-scale fisheries: A case study from Uruguay

The crisis in small-scale fisheries (SSFs) is worsened by weak governance structures, requiring urgent transformation. Participatory arrangements like co-management offer potential to enhance resilience in these social-ecological systems. However, the performance of collaborative governance modes must be evaluated to support institutional learning, refine governance structures, and ensure the legitimacy of transformative changes. In Uruguay, Local Fishery Councils (LFCs) were institutionalized a decade ago to involve fishers in managing and governing SSFs. This study assesses the LFC for the yellow clam SSF using three approaches: analysis of LFC meeting minutes, compilation of stakeholder perceptions, and analysis of social networks. The study found a decline in session frequency due to limited resources caused by the termination of an externally funded project. Performance indicators from the minutes identified recurring concerns on assessment, governance, and management, and issues related to monitoring, control, and surveillance. The influence of markets and the impact of red tides on fisheries performance were also brought up. Stakeholders perceived successful management solutions achieved through collaborative efforts, supporting co-management and resource recovery progress. However, social network analysis revealed communication patterns marked by core-periphery structure, showing partial disconnection and reluctance of the coastal marine authority to engage in inter-institutional collaboration. Despite challenges from climate change and markets, the LFC played a crucial role in co-creating solutions, empowering fishers with new skills and knowledge. Findings stress the importance of collaborative governance in promoting sustainable management and supporting institutional learning for transformative change in SSFs.

Area-based initiatives and urban democracy

Area-based initiatives (ABIs) set out to improve livability and living conditions in disadvantaged urban neighborhoods by making use of extensive citizen participation. ABIs are often criticized for constituting a form of undemocratic tokenism; this creates the illusion that residents have a say over urban development because citizens are only given consultative power. This paper takes a different perspective. We follow the ‘systemic turn’ in democratic theory, which addresses how direct citizen participation can reduce problems of inclusion, communication, and collective action created by defects in representative democracy. We find evidence that our case, the Grønland-Tøyen ABI in Oslo, Norway, at its best, is able to include new, previously marginalized groups in formulating a collective will that eventually impact city government policy. We argue that these cases show the potential of ABIs to enhance government effectiveness, as the participatory process creates preferable solutions to those produced by city experts. We also argue that it is the narrow scope of the participation schemes, rather than the lack of power devolved to citizens, that limits the ABIs contribution to urban democracy. This hinders the ABI's ability to address social justice and puts the legitimacy of the participatory arrangements at risk.

Planning for ecosystem services compensation in the central highlands of Ethiopia.

The rapid deterioration of the upper Akaki catchment natural environment has led to an increasing impact not only on the watershed ecosystem but also the livelihood and the general well-being of the local community. As a result, the water supply is becoming a problem for Addis Ababa and its surrounding residents. This may lead to a greater willingness to pay and cooperate in initiatives to protect the watersheds. Therefore, a market-based instrument and participatory arrangements are critical for resolving socioecological problems. This research aimed to demonstrate a need for an incentive-based watershed conservation approach that can be used to support nature conservation through long-term financial investments in the central watersheds and elsewhere. To support the market-based intervention, sealable ecosystem services and cost-benefit analysis, as well as relevant stakeholders, institutions, and legal frameworks, were assessed. The prime factors for designing market-based approaches to halt biodiversity loss and reversing ecological processes are discussed. A domestic water tariff increase of ETB 1 per m3 (US$ 0.08) could raise approximately US$ 3.24 million annually for watershed management, which could compensate smallholder farmers' annual opportunity costs for crop and livestock forage loss. Furthermore, the practice could help to abate biodiversity loss, improve the local economy, and accelerate the implementation of global biodiversity targets. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2024;20:965-974. © 2023 SETAC.

The multiple and contested worlds of urban food governance: The case of the city of Valencia

Cities are positioned as critical actors in agri-food sustainability transitions through the implementation of food policy councils and food strategies for urban policymaking. Promoting participatory arrangements in food policymaking allows multiple actors to engage in a contested process of mutual learning that helps construct a common goal. The development of these multi-actor instruments has meant that social movements have had the possibility of reclaiming power in the governance spaces of cities, contributing to urban agri-food transitions. Nevertheless, while signalling that transition governance instruments can bring more inclusive and collective change, critical studies call for the need to pay attention to power dynamics in these processes. Drawing from this notion, this paper explores how diverse governance actors mobilise and execute power within and between two urban food governance instruments – an agri-food transition platform and a food policy council – in Valencia, Spain. The study contributes to urban food governance and sustainability transitions governance literature through raising three critical points regarding the potential of urban food governance processes for sustainability transitions: the longitudinal and cross-scale evaluation of power dynamics and subsequent tensions, the acknowledgement of different kinds of power, and the possible coexistence of different but symbiotic spaces for transition governance.

SUSTAINABLE SOCIOPOLITICAL DEVELOPMENT

This research presents an analysis of the importance and necessity of democracy for proposing a sustainable sociopolitical development project, where the Law assumes the role of ensuring the implementation and legality of participatory procedures. The text has three sections, in which it addresses the contemporary scenario, globalization and the meaning of sustainable development, as well as describing the proposal of democracy’s intensity to achieve a viable project of sustainable development, one which manages to balance economic growth, environmental preservation and human dignity promotion. In conclusion, it defends the general thesis that there is a need for a participatory arrangement, through which it is possible to think of solutions to social problems, in a collective and solidary way, since there is no development without social justice.

Lessons Learned in Meaningful Collaboration With Justice Involved Young Adults

Justice-involved young adults represent the most excluded, stigmatized, and traumatized group amongst their peers and are considered an especially hard-to-reach and hidden population (Case & Haines, 2015; Skinner-Osei et al., 2019). Beresford (2013) highlights how those who face barriers to their involvement in wider society are also more likely to be excluded from participatory arrangements in society. This brief report shares key lessons from a collaborative project between justice-involved young adults and undergraduate social work students, culminating in them collectively producing a learning resource (DVD) articulating the justice-involved young adults’ experiences and needs from professional services.

Competing perspectives on participatory arrangements: Explaining the attitudes of elected representatives

In this article, we investigate elected representatives’ attitudes to citizen participation and the design of participatory arrangements. We distinguish between citizenship-oriented and governance-oriented attitudes. Whereas citizenship-oriented attitudes imply designing participatory arrangements to safeguard the democratic values of equality, transparency and inclusion, governance-oriented attitudes imply designing participatory arrangements to support elected representatives in their roles. Based on unique data from a web-based survey sent to all local councillors in Norway, we found that although Norwegian local councillors tend towards citizenship-oriented rather than governance-oriented attitudes to citizen participation, there is great variation between councillors in this respect. Analysing strategic and ideological explanations, we found that right-wing politicians tend to hold more governance-oriented attitudes than left-wing politicians do. Strategic considerations seem to have no effect on councillors in power in this regard.

Women’s experiences in influencing and shaping small‐scale fisheries governance

AbstractThis paper synthesizes current empirical evidence on how women experience, shape and influence small‐scale fisheries (SSF) governance. Our synthesis addresses an important gap in the literature, and helps highlight the opportunities to improve women's participation in governance and advance gender equality. We identified, characterized and synthesized 54 empirical cases at the intersection of gender and SSF governance, which comprise the relevant body of literature. Our review confirms the need to embed gender in the empirical examination of SSF governance towards expanding the current evidence base on this topic. We found that the institutional contexts within which women participate reflect a broad spectrum of arrangements, including the interactions with rules and regulations; participatory arrangements such as co‐management; and informal norms, customary practices and relational spaces. We also synthesized a typology of governance tasks performed by women in SSF. The typology includes leadership roles and active participation in decision‐making; relational networking and collective action; exercising agency and legitimacy; resource monitoring; knowledge sharing; meeting attendance (with no/less participation in decision‐making); and activism and mass mobilization. Furthermore, we drew broader insights based on the patterns that emerged across the literature and highlighted implications for improving women's meaningful participation in SSF governance. For example, exploring the breadth of governance arrangements to include all governance spaces where women are active, adjusting governance arrangements to respond to current and emerging barriers, and recognizing how women's efforts link with societal values may help legitimize their representation in SSF governance. Findings of this review should be of interest to the scholarly community, practitioners and policymakers alike and inform future research agendas, policy dialogues and practice intervention.

Understanding Data Collection Methods in Qualitative Research: The Perspective Of Interpretive Accounting Research

In general, in qualitative research there are several methods of data collection, namely documentation, interviews, surveys, focus group discussions, observation, participatory arrangements and qualitative audio-visual material. The aim of this paper discusses about the method of data collection in qualitative research, especially in accounting research interpretive. After going through the literature review process, it can be seen that the quality of data in interpretive accounting research is strongly influenced by the ability of the researcher to carry out its role as a research instrument. Researchers should be able to ' merge' with the object of research so as to choose or combine the data collection method that is appropriate to be able to understand and interpret the research object corresponding subject's perspective or the communities studied in depth according interpretive characteristics.

TEMSİLİ SİSTEMDE KATILIMCI PLANLAMA NASIL ALGILANMAKTADIR?: İSVEÇ'İN ULLERÅKER BÖLGESİ ÖRNEĞİ

The participatory planning approach that emerged in urban planning in recent years is based on collaborative, communicative, and deliberative planning processes that cover the differences. The main purpose of participatory planning is to include the perspective of actors (political representatives, planners, citizens) in planning processes by developing horizontal planning tools and processes among actors. However, the decision-making system in Sweden is built on representative democracy based on top-down policy-making processes and vertical relations. Therefore, the simultaneous coexistence of representative top-down policy-making processes and multi-faceted participatory arrangements make Sweden an interesting example and suggests that some dilemmas and tensions may arise in practice. At this point, in a political system with strong representative democracy like Sweden, it provides important data on how actors perceive participatory planning and how participatory planning is implemented. In this context, this research discussed how participatory planning is perceived in urban planning in the logic of representative democracy in Sweden. Ulleråker region of Uppsala, in particular, was chosen to carry out the field research, and thus, interviews on the subject were conducted in this region with the main actors of decision-making processes in urban planning such as political representatives, public officials/planners, and citizens.

Knowledge production and communication in on-farm demonstrations: putting farmer participatory research and extension into practice

ABSTRACT Purpose The paper investigates the multi-actor processes of knowledge co-production in the implementation of research-based on-farm demonstration with a focus on collaboration arrangements and areas of contention. Design/Methodology/Approach Building on science studies and literature on farmer participatory research and extension, the paper uses a case study of a demonstration project in Latvia to analyse the processes of agenda-setting, knowledge co-production and communication in an arrangement that brings together farmers, advisors, and scientists. Findings Multiple tensions exist between the perspectives and practices of stakeholders along the different stages of the on-farm trial and the demonstration process, leading to a series of trade-offs between initial conceptions and practical implementation. The challenges relate to balancing expert- and user-driven processes, negotiating claims for scientific knowledge, and integrating knowledge transfer and peer-to-peer learning. Practical implications The analysis allows using evidence-based knowledge for designing on-farm trials and demonstrations that take account of the possible pitfalls in multi-stakeholder collaborative arrangements. Theoretical implications The paper demonstrates the applicability of the concepts of co-production of knowledge, scientific knowledge claims, and expertise for the investigation of agricultural knowledge production and its governance. Originality/Value The study contributes to the body of literature on evaluations of farmer participatory research and extension and the broader debate on the strengths and shortcomings of participatory arrangements by adding qualitative insights into their process dimension.

Centralization under decentralization: The development of fishery clubs in Lesvos under the administrative reforms of Greece

Decentralization and local participatory arrangement are essential for successful fisheries governance. In EU member states, the persistent gap between macro-scale management systems and diverse conditions of local small-scale fisheries obscures the actual attributes and contexts of local fishing communities. This study empirically showcases a parallel process in Lesvos, Greece, whereby administrative decentralization at a higher level in the 2010′s accompanied the centralization and further restructuring of fisheries governance at a lower level. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in 18 villages supplemented by spatial analysis of the demographic trends and an audit of the official records. In contrast to the socially rooted population concentration, local fishers and their villages in Lesvos are dispersed across the island, isolated from one another. Under such disparity, local fishers had formed fishery clubs (FCs) as mutual aid organizations since 1980s. Survey results revealed that FCs had multitrack development routes depending on their local situation. The geographical proximity of the villages and the spontaneity of fishers’ decisions had fostered representativeness and a sense of community among local FC members. However, national-scale administrative decentralization conjunctly has led to an island-wide FC consolidation that replaced all local FCs with a singular large-scale one. Both advantages and disadvantages of fisheries governance under a large-scale FC were perceived by local fishers. To avoid precariousness in such a changing situation, a lesson from Lesvos is to deliberate on the local contexts of fishers’ communities to secure their presence in a renewed governance system that may become more complicated rather than simply decentralized.

The Value of Public Engagement: Do Citizens’ Preferences Really Matter?

In recent years, local governments in Finland have been actively adopting participatory arrangements that provide citizens with the means to participate directly in planning and decision-making procedures. The participatory initiatives challenge the traditional representative and bureaucratic model of public governance and have reportedly created tensions, ambivalence, and inconsistency within local governments.
 This paper’s central research question is: what do local administrators perceive to be the main goals and challenges of public engagement? Local administrators are important gatekeepers within local government, and they have substantial authority in planning and implementing participatory arrangements. The attitudes of administrators consequently have a significant impact on participatory initiatives.
 The data consists of 15 interviews with senior-level public administrators working in a Finnish municipality. The data is analysed through content analysis focusing on the main goals and challenges of public engagement. In addition, a comparison is conducted between the service sector and the planning sector.
 The findings show that public administrators acknowledge the democratic value of the participatory arrangements. However, they still draw on the strong tradition of bureaucratic modes of governance in which participatory arrangements are assessed for their instrumental value. The findings also indicate that there are two participatory rationales in place in Finland, the first taking place in the service sector and the other in planning. Finally, there is a discussion on the possibility of reconciling the different motives that are driving participatory initiatives.

European environmental governance and the post-ecology perspective: a critical analysis of the Water Framework Directive

In the framework of critical geographies of the environment, this paper discusses European environmental governance and reflects on its policies, practices and discourses. In this context, we analyze the Water Framework Directive (WFD) as a key, ground-breaking policy aimed at reconfiguring European water governance by foregrounding principles of sustainability and participation. By adopting a political ecology approach and the post-ecology analytical perspective, this research analyzes the nature of the WFD with its aims of reconfiguring national water politics in terms of policies, mechanisms and discourses by reflecting on the contradictions and controversies surrounding the directive. Methodologically, the research uses a critical analysis and review of both theoretical and empirical academic literature and policy reports. The paper shows that political ecology, and the post-ecology perspective in particular, can be used to critically reflect on the WFD as a policy oriented towards technocratic governance and participatory arrangements that blur democratic political debate, marginalize conflicts and foster the politics of unsustainability.

Improving water governance in Brazil: an organisational memory approach

Abstract Brazilian river basin committees are a democratic innovation increasingly studied throughout the world as a positive example of water governance, with some limitations. In our two-year research project (2018-2020), we aimed at activating, preserving and circulating narratives and stories from the participation of the various social, economic and political actors in the Upper Tietê River Basin Committee (São Paulo), in order to gather organisational memories. Our interview data bring lessons applicable to contexts with similar governance systems and others beyond, by suggesting how democratic, participatory arrangements can be improved as strategies that a society can explore in the process of learning how to cope with the effects of climate change, including the threat of water scarcity that grew in the metropolitan region of São Paulo after 2014. Interviews point to the need to clarify the roles of the committee and its members before society, to strengthen authority and legitimacy.

Performing a linear model: The professor group on energy policy

The linear model of science-policy interaction presents scientific knowledge as a necessary and straightforward requirement for rational decision-making. While the practices related to the linear model have been criticized by science policy actors and research funders, who promote more participatory arrangements, the linear model persists in both research policy and practice. This study investigates why and in which form the linear model continues to exist. I focus on the “professor group on energy policy”, a voluntary and bottom-up science-policy initiative active in Finnish energy policy debates during 2013−2017. The analysis is based on interviews, reports, news articles and observations. I assess both the engagement practices of the group and how they are justified and evaluated. The study demonstrates the prevalence of the linear model as a repertoire that different actors employ to order science and policy. The results point to the need to critically assess the context, politics and expectations related to science-policy interaction.

Developing the Public Participation Field: The Role of Independent Bodies for Public Participation

This article examines how independent bodies for public participation (IBPPs) can initiate a convergence around practices among actors in the public participation field, especially sponsors of participatory arrangements and the associated participation firms. As IBPPs have the public resources and legal authority to independently organize participatory arrangements, they can play a coordinating role in the public participation field. A comparison of two IBPPs, one in Canada (Quebec) and one in France, shows that IBPPs enhance the development of the participation industry and strengthen recognition of several informal norms concerning public participation design and implementation.