Green(er) Cities and Their Citizens: Insights from the Participatory Budget of Lisbon

Abstract

There is rising scholarly and political interest in participatory budgets and their potential to advance urban sustainability. This article aims to contribute to this field of study through the specific lens of the city of Lisbon’s experience as an internationally acknowledged leader in participatory budgeting. To this end, the article critically examines the lessons and potential contribution of the Lisbon Participatory Budget through a multimethod approach. Emerging trends and variations of citizen proposals, projects, votes, and public funding are analysed in tandem with emerging key topics that show links and trade-offs between locally embedded participation and the international discourse on urban sustainability. Our analysis reveals three interconnected findings: first, the achievements of the Lisbon Participatory Budget show the potential to counteract the dominant engineered approach to urban sustainability; second, trends and variations of the achievements depend on both citizens’ voice and the significant influence of the city council through policymaking; and, third, the shift towards a thematic Green Participatory Budget in 2020 was not driven by consolidated social and political awareness on the achievements, suggesting that more could be achieved through the 2021 urban sustainability oriented Participatory Budget. We conclude recommending that this kind of analysis should be systematically carried out and disseminated within city council departments, promoting much needed internal awareness of PBs’ potential as drivers of urban sustainability. We also identify further research needed into the sustainability potential of green PBs.

Innovation Trajectories for a Society 5.0

“…The results made it possible to identify 25 factors covering different fields (Table 2). The highest numbers of higher studies (Figure 9) were found in the areas of Big Data technology and data processing (23) and sustainability (21), Objective (16), connection technologies (13), manufacturing technologies (11), stakeholders (8), governance (7), and communication (2) (Table 2).…”

“…The goal is to create a society in which anyone can create value, anytime and anywhere [6], in compliance with future sustainable strategies developed with the 17 United Nations objectives [7]. Therefore, the objectives of Society 5.0 are also the objectives of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development [8,9], adopted by all the member states of the United Nations in 2015. Society 5.0 will help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.…”

Challenging the financial capture of urban greening

“…Incorporating grassroots engagement, subaltern forms of knowledge 37 , transparency, and accountability as core principals is urgent both globally and locally. Tools like participatory budgeting has challenged the predominant green growth paradigm in Lisbon, Portugal 38 . Lessons can also be learned from the use of explicit equity criteria in participatory budgeting institutional design in Cuenca, Ecuador, which has enabled more funds to be directed to residents most vulnerable to floods, landslides, drought and frost, all increasing in frequency due to climate change 39 .…”

Greening Cities, Shaping Cities: Pinpointing Nature-Based Solutions in Cities between Shared Governance and Citizen Participation

“…In this article, Falanga, Verheij and Bina [25] examine the role of the Participatory Budget (PB) as a potential driver of urban sustainability. The experience of Lisbon, in Portugal, a city recognized internationally as a leader in participatory budgeting the early 2000s, is analyzed and discussed.…”