What is Citizen Participation? Guest post by Oliver Escobar
What is Citizen Participation?
Much of the public cynicism about politics has to do with the way ‘party politics’ works. However, opportunities for citizens to participate in public life have increased massively in the last decades, and it is happening on a global scale.
Citizen participation takes many forms. For instance, there are the traditional ways: volunteering, joining a campaign, signing petitions, doing community work, etc. However, in the last couple of decades we have also seen a boost in opportunities to participate in new ways: ‘citizen juries’, ‘conversation cafes’, ‘participatory budgeting’, ‘local area forums’, ‘patient involvement groups’, etc. These democratic innovations allow citizens to participate directly in shaping policy issues of public concern. They have the potential to transform the political landscape, and the way public institutions work (e.g. local government; NHS; universities).
The Citizen Participation Group at the Public Policy Network (University of Edinburgh)
The Citizen Participation Group was created to provide a safe, informal space for critical conversations about the potential and challenges of citizen participation. The Public Policy Network at the University of Edinburgh supports it, but it is not just another safe heaven for academics to debate theoretical questions. On the contrary, its remit is to bring together citizens, policy makers, academics and practitioners to engage in open dialogue about current practices of citizen participation. Accordingly, our events use participatory formats. We often start by listening to short ‘stories of practice’ told by mixed panels. This serves to kick-start the conversation, and then everyone is invited to engage with the topic.
The first meeting of the group was at the University of Edinburgh in December 2010. We were 6 people around the table. Now we are a growing network of 120, including citizens, academics, policy makers and practitioners. The group runs in a participatory fashion: the participants decide what topics should be discussed. Our first public event was last January. It was a conversation-café, a format that allows everyone to participate (see photo below; also see the announcement in the Edinburgh Guardian)
The purpose of that first event was to set up the agenda for the group. Subsequently, we have organised a series of public conversations to cover the 3 topics that were top of the list as decided by participants in the conversation-café:
- What is the point of citizen participation? Is it effective?
- How legitimate is it? Who is accountable?
- International experience: what’s going on elsewhere?
All in all, the group is an example of the role that our universities can play in fostering spaces for public dialogue and collective thinking.
Our next public event
‘Citizen Participation: How legitimate is it? Who is accountable?’
Thursday 19th May 2011, 5-6.30 pm, with drinks and nibbles after
6th Floor, Chrystal Macmillan Building, 15A George Square, School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh (Map)
The series on citizen participation continues. In this session we discuss issues around legitimacy and accountability in participatory processes. How legitimate is to involve citizens directly in shaping the policies of institutions and organisations? Who is accountable for such processes?
To get the conversation started we have a mixed panel including a local policy maker, a practitioner, and an academic:
- Councillor Barry Turner (East Lothian Council)
- Nicola Cotter (Voices Scotland Lead for Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland)
- Stephen Elstub (University of the West of Scotland)
REGISTRATION: Attendance is free but please sign up by email to Nicola Bryce at ppn@ed.ac.uk. The venue is accessible. All welcome.
Read more at www.publicpolicynetwork.ed.ac.uk
