Forms Of Participatory Governance Research Articles

Between radical aspirations and pragmatic challenges: Institutionalizing participatory governance in Scotland

ABSTRACT Participatory forms of governance are increasingly institutionalised in democracies around the world. Yet, we know little about how public officials work to embed participatory governance. This article draws on a decade of mixed methods research with practitioners at the frontlines of democratic innovation. Scotland is undergoing democratic renewal through the interplay between state and civil society around three agendas: public service reform, social justice, and community empowerment. Legislation now mandates or supports participatory and deliberative processes. Scotland is thus a fruitful site to study the work of embedding participatory governance. This paper investigates tensions between radical aspirations and pragmatic challenges. Exploring participatory activism amongst officials shows the liminality of institutionalization processes, which troubles simplistic narratives about empowerment versus co-optation. The analysis shows significant but limited progress for participatory governance in Scotland. But this work is ongoing, as activist officials are developing ways of turning radical aspiration into critical pragmatism.

Between the state and citizens: Changing governance of intermediary organisations for inclusive and sustainable urban regeneration in Seoul

Cities across East Asia once experienced rapid economic growth and urban development under a strong interventionist state. The recent economic slowdown and political changes have pressured them to find alternatives to the previous state-led or market-driven urban development. New forms of participatory governance have been devised to mobilise citizen participation in decision-making. Citizen participation, however, is not simply about direct interactions between the state and citizens. It is also guided and facilitated by intermediary organisations that are state- or self-funded bodies working between the state and citizens. Seoul in South Korea is a case in point. Over the past decade, Seoul Metropolitan Government has institutionalised intermediary organisations to expand citizen participation in diverse areas of urban life. In urban development, a more inclusive approach has been put forward through new partnerships between government, intermediary organisations, and citizens. In this article, a case study of such partnership is critically examined. Urban regeneration in the Changsin-Sungin Area shows two meaningful changes in the governance of the intermediary organisation. The first change occurred when the intermediary organisation recruited residents as staff members and helped them to create a new local cooperative. The second change happened when the local cooperative took over the role of the intermediary organisation. Analysis of these changes revealed that intermediaries have a contradictory role in urban regeneration. On the one hand, the intermediary intervention has expanded citizen participation and improved consistently the engagement of the community of practice. On the other hand, intermediary intervention has served to instrumentalise citizen participation and constrain the growth of an autonomous community of practice while helping the state to retain control over urban regeneration. In this sense, the intermediary-led participation contains seeds of yet-to-be realised potential, albeit with the current flaws, for more inclusive and sustainable urban regeneration, which this study recognises as an integral part of emerging post-developmental urbanisation in South Korea.

Ethical Risks in Public-Private Partnerships: The Case of Lahore Waste Management Company

The world is coming up with new solutions to old problems in order to improve efficiency and effectiveness in public service delivery. Public-Private Partnership (PPP) is a relatively new form of participatory governance. Th is approach is linked with New Public Management (NPM) and, since its inception, the private sector has taken over the entire world despite in-congruence and incompatibility in indigenous values and cultures. PPP is also claimed to be the best solution in terms of service delivery; however, its effectiveness is yet to be achieved. Th e purpose of this study is to find the effectiveness of the PPP mode of governance. Th is study is qualitative in nature and has taken one entity based on PPP as a case, i.e. Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC), in order to study the impact of this solution to all, the ills of public service delivery. Fourteen officials were interviewed in this study of LWMC (a quasi-governmental institution) and its private partners. Findings suggest that this PPP mode has major ethical risks in the form of lack of transparency in awarding contracts, equity-efficiency trade-off , overall conflict of philosophy of public and private sector, low professionalism, value for money (compromise on cost and quality), and weak accountability mechanisms.

ЭТИЧЕСКИЕ РИСКИ В ГОСУДАРСТВЕННО-ЧАСТНОМ ПАРТНЕРСТВЕ: ПРИМЕР ЛАХОРСКОЙ КОМПАНИИ ПО УПРАВЛЕНИЮ ОТХОДАМИ

The world is coming up with new solutions to old problemsin orderto improve efficiency and effectiveness in public service delivery. Public-Private Partnership (PPP) isarelatively new form of participatory governance. This approach is linked with New Public Management (NPM) and, since its inception, the private sector has taken over the entire world despite incongruence and incompatibility in indigenous values and cultures. PPPis also claimed to be the best solution in terms of service delivery; however, its effectiveness is yet to be achieved. The purpose of this study is to find the effectiveness ofthePPP mode of governance. This study is qualitative in nature and has taken one entity based on PPP as a case,i.e. Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC),in orderto study the impact of this solution to all,theills of public service delivery. Fourteen officialswere interviewed in this studyof LWMC (a quasi-governmental institution) and its private partners. Findings suggest that this PPP mode has major ethical risks in the form of lack of transparency in awarding contracts, equity-efficiency trade-off, overall conflict of philosophy of public and private sector, low professionalism, value for money (compromise on cost and quality), and weak accountability mechanisms.

Between governance‐driven democratisation and democracy‐driven governance: Explaining changes in participatory governance in the case of Barcelona

AbstractScholars of participatory democracy have long noted dynamic interactions and transformations within and between political spaces that can foster (de)democratisation. At the heart of this dynamism lie (a) the processes through which top‐down “closed” spaces can create opportunities for rupture and democratic challenges and (b) vice‐versa, the mechanisms through which bottom‐up, open spaces can be co‐opted through institutionalisation. This paper seeks to unpick dynamic interactions between different spaces of participation by looking specifically at two forms of participatory governance, or participatory forms of political decision making used to improve the quality of democracy. First, Mark Warren's concept of ‘governance‐driven democratization’ describes top‐down and technocratic participatory governance aiming to produce better policies in response to bureaucratic rationales. Second, we introduce a new concept, democracy‐driven governance, to refer to efforts by social movements to invent new, and reclaim and transform existing, spaces of participatory governance and shape them to respond to citizens’ demands. The paper defines these concepts and argues that they co‐exist and interact in dynamic fashion; it draws on an analysis of case study literature on participatory governance in Barcelona to illuminate this relationship. Finally, the paper relates the theoretical framework to the case study by making propositions as to the structural and agential drivers of shifts in participatory governance.

Using Learning and Action Alliances to build capacity for local flood risk management

Learning and Action Alliances (LAAs) are becoming an increasingly popular method for overcoming the challenges associated with participatory forms of governance, where decision making requires collaboration between stakeholders. In flood risk management, LAAs provide a mechanism through which institutional participants can come together, share knowledge, innovate, and devise solutions to ‘wicked’ problems. While the social learning generated at LAAs is now well understood, the mechanism by which this learning is translated into action is less so. In this paper, we argue that in order to maximise the potential for action, LAAs must attend to different elements of capacity building, in order that action can diffuse outwards, from the individual members of the LAA, to their organisations and society beyond. By investigating two UK case study examples, we illustrate how different elements might be utilised in combination, to maximise the potential for longer-term, longer-lasting change. We conclude that the architects of participatory processes, including LAAs, should attend to different elements of capacity building, and consider those best suited to their individual contexts and objectives.

Towards a Populist Local Democracy? The Consequences of Populist Radical Right Local Government Leadership in Western Europe

ABSTRACT A crisis of representation has precipitated a surge in support for populist radical right (PRR) parties that challenge the existing model of representative democracy. Simultaneously, institutional reforms across Western Europe have sought to improve the input-legitimacy of local democracy with a proliferation of direct and participatory democratic methods. This paper investigates the extent to which PRR parties advance a populist democratic agenda when in leadership of the executive at the local level of government. Previous work on the subject of PRR parties in power has neglected the sub-national perspective, despite the increasing congruence between populist demands for a more direct linkage of politics to the people and this institutional environment. An exploration of three cases of PRR party-led local government in Italy, Austria and Switzerland enables a comparison of their governing behaviour, its ideological content and democratic consequences, through qualitative content analysis of referendums, policies and council resolutions. This paper finds they do little to promote popular sovereignty through participatory forms of governance at the expense of representative democracy in local government. However, when in local government environments with higher executive autonomy, PRR parties emphasise a more direct (plebiscitarian) linkage between the executive and the ‘people’, who are increasingly represented in nativist terms.

Repensando las prácticas académicas: el diseño colaborativo de un proyecto de investigación a partir de la metodología IAP

ParticiPat es un proyecto de investigación del Plan Nacional que tiene como objetivo analizar la participación y sus instrumentalizaciones en nueve estudios de caso sobre procesos de patrimonialización. A la hora de abordar el proyecto, quisimos cuestionar las jerarquías y lógicas raramente colaborativas que rodean la producción de conocimiento en la antropología. Para ello decidimos seguir los principios de la investigación acción participativa (IAP) para elaborar conjuntamente una guía de campo de mínimos que facilitara la comparabilidad de los casos de estudio. A través de la descripción de este proceso participativo reflexionamos sobre la estructuración de los proyectos de investigación, entendiendo que su arquitectura inicial condiciona la reproducción de lógicas de poder y autoridad entre las personas investigadoras. Asumimos así el reto de investigar sobre participación desde un meta diseño de investigación participativo que nos permite visibilizar algunos presupuestos ideológicos dentro de la práctica académica.

How can information and communication effects on small farmers’ engagement in groundwater management: Case of SAISS Aquifers, Morocco

Water scarcity, unequal water distribution and overexploitation make of groundwater a strategic resource to protect and preserve for future generations, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. Groundwater governance faces many issues and challenges and many governance gaps exist almost everywhere around the world. It has experienced many models and approaches worldwide over the past century. In literature, there are several research papers and reports talking about the importance of data and information in implementing effective governance. Nevertheless, few are showing their impact on stakeholders’ engagement, such as in the implementation of the groundwater engagements or contracts as a form of participatory governance. This paper aims to show the impact of information, trust in relationships and communication on the small farmers’ commitment in participatory governance. This had been experimented in six rural communes in Saiss Plain in two steps. The first step consisted on collecting and analyzing small farmers’ requirements on information and communication in five communes quite similar in characteristics, through a survey, in order to assess their ability to commit and cooperate under a participatory governance framework in developing Mediterranean countries. The second one consists on showing a concrete case of information need on groundwater found in another commune in Saiss and the impact of the trust in relationships, the good communication, the will to develop the socio-economic situation and the leadership through the case of a small group of young farmers associated in cooperative in the enhancement of the information dissemination and the farmers’ awareness regarding rural development and environment protection. The study shows that there is a weakness in information transmission and communication around groundwater. The paper recommends a new communication channel to give relevant information to farmers and to assist them to collaborate in order to preserve groundwater through NGOs and farmers organizations.

Using the politicized institutional analysis and development framework to analyze (adaptive) comanagement: farming and water resources in England

The challenge of managing water resources in England is becoming increasingly complex and uncertain, a situation reflected in many countries around the world. Cooperative and participatory forms of governance are now seen as one way of addressing this challenge. We investigated this assertion by focusing on five farmer irrigator groups in the low-lying east of England. The groups’ relationship with water resources management was interpreted through the lens of comanagement, which over the past decade has increasingly merged with the field of adaptive management and related concepts that derive from resilience thinking and complex adaptive systems theory. Working within a critical realist paradigm, our analysis was guided by the politicized institutional analysis and development (IAD) framework. Two previous studies concerned with the broader context surrounding farming and water governance in lowland England revealed low levels of trust between farmers, and between farmers and water managers, as well as a power dynamic that stands in the way of farmer cooperation and participation. Within this context, our findings pointed to a number of mechanisms and structural conditions that appear to generate or facilitate comanagement. Of these, institution building through the specific group strategy of adopting a company structure and the “stationarity” of the resource group members extract from were seen to be the most crucial. These and other key findings were used to inform a discussion of farming and water resources management in England going forward. In doing so, we also reflected on the relationship between comanagement and market-based approaches to managing water resources. Beyond this, the research serves as a practical demonstration of how the politicized IAD framework can be used to analyze potential (adaptive) comanagement situations and the related benefits. The analysis complements a previous submission to this journal, in which we discussed the relationship between the framework and (adaptive) comanagement from a theoretical and methodological perspective.

Co-producing early years policy in England under the Coalition Government

During the first half of the current Coalition Government, co-production – a form of participatory governance – was implemented widely in the conceptualization, design and implementation of early years policies. Seen as a revolutionary approach to public service reform, resulting in more effective and more cost-effective public services, the joint approach to co-production by the Department for Education and the Department of Health built on the Labour Government’s strategy to involve ‘active citizens’ as stakeholders in public policy development. Local authority early years managers, directors of children’s services and education trade union officers were among education sector stakeholders involved in this process. Co-production is defined here as sharing features of two models of participatory governance identified by Skelcher and Torfing (2010) in their institutional taxonomy of this concept. The actual experience of co-producing early childhood policy suggests that politics may trump policy-making, despite a high-level commitment to co-production.

Social innovation and the governance of sustainable places

This article explores social innovation as a tool for the promotion of place-based sustainable development. The literature highlights the satisfaction of basic needs and situations of crises as two major drivers of socially innovative actions. We use these insights to explore the conditions under which social innovation can lead to social transformation and sustainable place making. We also recognise that social processes occur through, and are shaped by, the material forms that constitute and are constituted in place-specific settings. This highlights the deep interconnections that exist between place making and the resources, attributes and characterises – the materiality (such as rivers, soil, trees) – that exist within that locality. It is here that a close tie can be discerned between understanding the adaptive process in complex socio-ecological systems and the role of social innovation in such adaptation. Socially innovative initiatives at the community level can also be scaled upwards through the co-ordinating role of the state, while at the same time act as a pressure for more participatory forms of governance. Governance processes that enhance the role of both economic and social actors in the steering of social change help to infuse more open, democratic practices into social steering. With social, economic and state actors co-mingling as agents of social change, social innovation can come to play a key role in enhancing sustainable human–environment interactions.

Participatory Governance and Development: In Search of a Causal Nexus

This paper discusses the causal nexuses between participatory governance and development through theoretical debate and research that empirically investigates this relationship. It starts by discussing literature on participation and then goes on to deal with the most relevant contributions to international debates about development. Next, departing from two of the principal explanations presented in studies about participatory democracy – institutional design and social mobilization – it analyzes empirical evidence that supports the relationship between participation and development. Finally, in light of this discussion, some conclusions are presented concerning the causal nexus capable of supporting the belief in the potentially virtuous relationship between participation and development. Early literature on participation was broadly optimistic about what participatory governance could achieve in terms of public policies and democracy, often assuming that participation could contribute to more viable and just policies, and have a positive impact on poverty, inequality and development processes. More recently, studies have become more focused on the real conditions under which forms of participatory governance have evolved. These studies have focused on: the dilemmas of emphasizing either efficiency or the inclusion of the poorest in institutional design (Abramovay et al. 2010; Bebbington et al. 2008); the difficulties of checking the distributive impacts of participatory experiences (Avritzer 2007); the disjunction between the motives and resources mobilized by the agents responsible for organizing participatory spaces; the technical and economic dimensions involved in processing the problems dealt with in these spaces (Coelho 2006; Coelho and Favareto 2007; Dagnino and Tatagiba 2007); and the fragility of the connections between deliberative experiences and governance (Favareto and Demarco 2004; Melo and Baiochi 2007). There is a lack of evidence about the causal nexuses capable of supporting the link between participation and development. The belief in participatory governance associates the inclusion of a broad spectrum of citizens in public life with an increased circulation of information, greater transparency in political processes, and participation in public debate. The democratization of debate and decision-making, together with decentralization, are key elements in an intricate process of improving systems of governance which should contribute toward giving impetus to development. This belief is based upon the combination of two analytical perspectives. The first suggests that changes in the design of the institutions can contribute to promoting changes in policy. The second draws attention to the role of social actors and their capacity to push for change in processes of development. In both approaches, participation can promote access to public policies, and their quality and responsiveness.

Participatory Governance: Hope or Danger for Democracy? A Case Study of Local Agenda 21

Participatory governance is a concept that is receiving increasing prominence. However, more empirical research is needed to clarify whether participatory governance is beneficial or detrimental to democracy. The local level is a dynamic field for participatory experiments and, therefore, particularly rewarding for researchers interested in scrutinizing the impacts of participatory governance empirically. In this article, Local Agenda 21 serves as an example to discuss both hypotheses. The study, conducted predominantly in Germany, shows that neither the supporters nor the sceptics of participatory governance are completely right. The findings about Local Agenda 21 demonstrate that this form of participatory governance can improve civic skills and social capital, but has little impact on input-legitimacy and is barely effective, i.e. reaches the goal of enforcing sustainable development only to a limited degree.

Towards a Humanistic Conception of Cyberspace. A Twofold Challenge for Netizens Mobilizing for a Democratic Internet Governance

Our paper critically addresses the involvement and the role of civil society entities in new participatory forms of governance, using the Internet governance (IG) debate as a case study. The Internet is first and foremost a global public space potentially available to everyone for the pursuit of the most heterogeneous interests. As this global space becomes crucial in everyday life and consequences of interests pursuit within it capillary innerve the offline dimension, new forms of governance are required to ensure that all stakeholders are represented and actively involved in the management and development of what can be conceptualized as a common pool resource (CPR). The commons of the Internet space and its service as a CPR necessitate the involvement of various competencies that are dispersed in intelligence networks to which private sector and civil society necessary belong. In particular, we examine the meaning and the potential for the inclusion of civil society entities in this debate in relation to the achievement of a universal (and not only global) Internet and the consolidation of a humanized conception of IG. To this end, we propose an analytical division of IG space in four sub-sectors (social commons; information and service commons; price commons; infrastructure commons) and we argue that civil society groups participation should be contextualized and actions modulated following this dissection of competence and eligibility spheres. Furthermore, the effort to achieve a democratic internet governance translates into a double challenge for civil society groups: on the one hand, occasions of direct influence must be fully exploited modulating actions in a way that overcomes the inherent heterogeneity characterizing public interests entities; on the other, a humanized vision has to be built up and consolidated in the IG field in order to provide a set of benchmarks dynamically interacting with market and traditional policy making logics. Finally, we will also explore the effect that the construction and the consolidation of a humanized perspective on IG will have in the translation of this domain from a mostly technical matter into a seed in an emerging field of contention built around information and communication issues.

Governing Technology through Public Participation

AbstractAgainst the background of a still controversial debate over participatory governance, the intention of this issue is to scrutinise critically central aspects of this controversy. In particular, the papers here explore regular, routine forms of participatory governance in the heart of political power, namely in administrative procedure. By contrast, political sciences and sociology often focus on new, alternative procedures, including citizen juries, consensus conferences, scenario workshops, and public consultation exercises. Normal forms of participatory governance in constitutional democracy are inevitably governed by rule of law such that a legal framework lies behind participants' concrete actions or communications.

Lost in Transition? The Politics of Conservation, Indigenous Land Rights and Community-Based Resource Management in Southern Africa

Celebrated as an international model for conservation, the establishment of the Peace Park Foundation in South Africa in 1997 promised a new vision for the protection of wildlife, biodiversity, and a political healing of those scars of colonial history, the national borders dissecting Africa according to European design. With its core idea and overall aim to promote and implement the concept of Transfrontier Conservation Areas within the Southern African Development Community region the Peace Parks model grabbed the imagination of the political elites, the development agencies, the tourism industry, the conservationists, and the wildlife managers as no other initiative had done before. Opened in 2000 the first officially declared Kglagadi Transfrontier Park brought down the fence between the South African and the Botswana protection area of the Eastern Kalahari. The joint conservation management and planning agreements saw winners on all sides. But did these negotiated arrangements include the people originally inhabiting the area? Not adequately, if their voices are to be believed. For the late legendary master tracker and long serving South African Park Ranger Vetpiet Kleinmann the Peace Park establishment did not mean peace for himself and the community of Khomani-San whose ancestors are buried inside the park. Their graves cannot be visited except on payment of the regular entrance fee. Above all the ethical and legal issues involved, for Vetpiet Kleinmann there has also been a tragic neglect of the conservationist capacities and environmental knowledge of the First People in and of the Kalahari.These problems show that in the establishment of this and other parks little attention has been given to the nature and extent of the rights of indigenous groups in the lands where they had their homes. Participation, consultation, empowerment and accountability have been absent in relation to these peoples, and as a result their notions of land and social relationships in regard to land have been disregarded. However, the communicative competence developed by representatives of indigenous peoples has resulted in new discourses on indigenous rights, and these are reflected in recent developments in human rights and international law. Proposals are now emerging for new understandings of the nature of indigeneity and new forms of participatory governance of natural resources.

Im Schatten von Normen und Fakten – Die Kolonisierung der Politik durch technowissenschaftliche Normativität

Zusammenfassung Als eine Reaktion auf Krisenerscheinungen des Staates beobachtet man insbesondere auf dem Gebiet der Technikregulierung eine stärker partizipative Ausgestaltung rechtlich-administrativer Entscheidungsverfahren. Diese Entwicklung kann einerseits als Politisierung der Verfahren, andererseits aber auch als Verrechtlichung der Partizipation gedeutet werden, durch welche die Politik sich selbst in der Technikregulierung entscheidend schwächt. Politische Kommunikation gerät in den verrechtlichten Formen der governance leicht in den Schatten einer Koalition zwischen Recht und Wissenschaft/Technik. Daten aus einer Reihe von Forschungsprojekten deuten darauf hin, dass diese Koalition ihre eigene Form technowissenschaftlicher Normativität produziert, welche die Rationalität politischer Willensbildung jedenfalls im Kontext der betreffenden Entscheidungsverfahren an verdrängt.

Poverty alleviation and participatory development in the Philippines

One facet of contemporary debates surrounding international development and humane governance is the growing attention being focused on participatory governance as a method of reducing poverty and increasing social rights. The article evaluates the evolutionary forms of participatory governance in the Philippines since the mid-1990s. Various administrations have attempted to introduce participatory programs concerned with poverty reduction and agrarian reform in the Philippines. Various institutional obstacles and the failure of many non-government organisations to engage with these processes at an adequately strategic level, however, have hampered these attempts. The rhetoric of participation has often been contradicted by a commitment to forms of neo-liberal governance that facilitate the exclusion of public scrutiny and debate over issues of development strategy and security. The article concludes by arguing that real progress on establishing participatory forms of governance requires taking measures that challenge embedded power relations. Non-government organisations are better served by maintaining more oppositional political stance.

From consultation to participatory governance? A critical review of citizen engagement strategies in Queensland

This article explores what appears to be a major shift in the policies and practices of national and international governments–the increased attention to, and use of, citizen engagement strategies as a basis for developing more participatory forms of governance. The article examines recent citizen engagement initiatives of the Queensland state government which have grappled with these complex political, policy and service concerns. The potential innovation and effectiveness of citizen engagement techniques and approaches are examined. The limitations of technical methodologies based on a traditional consultative framework are highlighted. The article analyses the relationship between these citizen engagement practices and more strategic democratic reforms based on notions of participatory governance.