Political transparency matters: Citizens challenging officials via ‘have you planned X’-type questions

Abstract

This article examines how citizens, invited to ask questions in public plenary consultation meetings within a participatory democracy procedure in urban planning in France, point at something that has not been mentioned in the public debate, thereby challenging the recipient. More specifically, this article is interested in studying, deploying the analytical framework offered by Conversation Analysis and Interactional Linguistics, a particular French linguistic turn design adopted by the citizens: variations of ‘have you planned X?’. These interrogatives are concerned with an aspect of the procedure the citizens present as relevant, but which has not been mentioned by the professionals. By adopting a turn format that requests confirmation, citizens display caution to not attribute blame overtly to the recipient for this perceived lack. At the same time, these questions make visible how citizens orient to public and political transparency as a social and political standard the recipients are obliged to uphold.