Conflicts and paradoxes in the rhetoric of participation

Abstract

The expansion of participation processes and techniques around the world in recent years takes place under the rhetoric of citizen empowerment. This rhetoric has been questioned by many scholars, who often point out the weak impact of such practices and the new games of domination to which participation is submitted. This article examines this dilemma from the expansion of participatory budgeting in the global North. We propose a study of assembly processes involving the local public administration in the cities of Chicago and Córdoba. This process reveals conflicts and paradoxes that often remain hidden in the research, but nevertheless show struggles to appropriate and define the meaning of participation.

Turning experience into expertise: technologies of the self in Finnish participatory social policy​

“…Charles 2016; Newman and Tonkens 2011) and on the diverse objectives set for the projects, as well as the rationales underpinning them (Ganuza, Baiocchi, and Summers 2016;Dagnino 2007; Barnes, Newman, and Sullivan 2007;Gourgues, Rui, and Topçu 2013). Thus far, less attention has been paid to how the initiatives work on their participants' subjectivities -techniques that Kim McKee (2009, 478) calls 'the micropractices of local initiatives'.…”

Struggles over Expertise

“…As markers of this power-sharing, scholars have investigated whether the initiatives' selection of participants is inclusive and open, whether dialogue between them is equal, and whether they have the authority to make decisions with actual effect (Baiocchi et al 2011;Curato and Böker 2016;Fung 2006;Smith 2009). However, one key aspect in the initiatives' contribution to democracy is often sidelined in empirical evaluations: participants' ability to affect the conditions under which they participate (see Fung 2015;and Ganuza et al 2016). I argue that we need better analytical tools to inquire into how the participants' possibilities to act in the initiatives are limited and, in turn, broadened.…”

Latino immigrants in civil society: Addressing the double-bind of participation for expansive learning in participatory budgeting

“…In the spring of 2009, the 49th Ward alderman decided to implement PB in his jurisdiction. Although often described as having virtuous motives (Ganuza et al, 2016), the alderman's implementation of PB49 typified a "top-down" approach to cultivating the public for political support. He first appointed a Leadership Committee (LC) to develop a five-step PB process and timetable that would culminate in a wardwide vote on projects totaling one million dollars in infrastructure funds.…”