A Participatory Governance Model Towards the Inclusion of Ethnic Minorities. An Action Research Experience in Italy

Abstract

A Participatory Governance Model Towards the Inclusion of Ethnic Minorities. ... Revue Interventions économiques, 53 | 2015 1 role in promoting the social inclusion of minorities by fostering a participatory governance model inspired by the principles of subsidiarity, autonomy, responsibility and active involvement of community leaders expressed by minority groups themselves. These are new relevant elements to be taken into account in the planning of social interventions. This model, as mentioned above, is also based on a close cooperation among national and regional authorities, civil society's bodies (charities, NGOs, third sector entities, social partners) and the Roma (individuals and their families and their associations). 3The objectives of the present paper are twofold: first to identify a participatory governance model capable of meeting the goal of the inclusion of marginalized and excluded groups with a specific focus on Roma people. Second, to explain how and to what extent the participation of Roma people, one of the most excluded groups in Europe, can effectively improve the design of policies regarding crucial issues for them and for the society as a whole. In order to reach these objectives, the present paper falls into three parts: in the first one, a specific focus is dedicated to the concepts of governance and participatory governance, including a discussion of criticisms that these terms collect. The second part regards Roma and aims at answering the following questions: why are they a vulnerable group? What are their specificities and potentialities? Then article focuses, in the third part, on features of the Valore Lavoro project and its participatory governance model as a way to innovate traditional top-down approaches, focusing on its strengths and weaknesses. The specificity of this model of governance is the capacity to allow the effective active involvement into the decision-making process of a specific vulnerable group: Roma people.

Collaborative governance towards cities sustainability transition

“…The literature on collaborative governance has shown that the management of a more sustainable city is built on the articulation and exchange of different actors in collaboration processes. It is important to note that in a collaborative process one must consider the participation of representatives of civil society, as well as the political and technical-administrative stakeholders (Kissler & Heidemann, 2006;Ronconi, 2011;Marcaletti & Riniolo, 2015).…”