Two new publications on citizen participation

The Institute of Development Studies launched two new publications on democratising citizen engagement at an event held jointly with Demos in London on April 29th 2008.

The event to promote Democratising Engagement: What the UK can learn from international experience by Professor Andrea Cornwall and the Champions of Participation resource pack by the Citizenship DRC (co-ordinated at IDS), brought together a diverse panel of discussants to consider how international experience on participatory democracy can be of value to the UK context.

The panel included Andrea Cornwall and John Gaventa at the Institute of Development Studies, Marian Barnes, Professor of Social Policy at the University of Brighton, Hilary Wainwright, Editor of Red Pepper Hilary Wainwright and Ed Cox, Policy A dviser to Hazel Blears, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government .

The publication Democratising Engagement produced jointly by Demos and IDS draws on international examples from a five-year research programme at the Citizenship DRC and the book Spaces for Change: the politics of citizen participation in new democratic arenas (Zed Books 2007). Democratising Engagement explores issues of meaningful citizen engagement in local governance, looking at how to foster genuine and inclusive participation. Cornwall considers this from a range of lived experiences in other countries and relates lessons to the current UK situation.

This international perspective in relation to the UK is strongly linked to the Champions of Participation events that took place in June 2007 and January 2008. Local government officers, elected officials and citizen representatives from 14 different countries came together to share their experiences of citizen participation in local governance. A new resource pack drawn from this international learning experience is now available. The pack includes a report, policy brief and case studies. In particular it addresses experiences, challenges and lessons from different participation practitioners from both within the UK and internationally.

Drawing Inspiration from Unexpected Places

Jamie Bartlett from Demos opened the discussion by referring to the international learning which informed both publications saying that “Inspiration can be found in some unexpected places”. Both John Gaventa and Ed Cox said that this was a very exciting policy moment in the UK for participation. Cox said, “ These reports are perfectly timed. I have just spent today talking about the details of the White Paper due out in the summer. Policy makers do read reports like these.”

While everyone pointed to clear progress made in the UK, panel members pointed to additional challenges still to be faced. Gaventa cautioned that one of the challenges will be to establish a strong and clearly motivated constituency to give these legislative opportunities real bite. Hilary Wainwright pointed to the increased privatisation of state resources as limiting the power that these new participatory measures will have through creating fewer areas for citizen decision-making to be exercised. Cornwall stressed that successful participation depends on both building the capacity of people to participate in parallel with increasing the capacity of those working in local government to listen. Barnes and Cornwall emphasised the importance of design in this process, where the rules of representation including who is representing who, and how meetings are set up are all considered as factors that influence participation.

The panellist’s presentations produced a lively discussion from the audience including questions on whether the new agenda for public participation was a substitute for more substantial measures to address the growing divide between rich and poor in the UK. Other issues included how children could be more involved in public decision-making and the place of social movements in the participation agenda.

The Champions of Participation Resource Pack is available online or by emailing ppsc@ids.ac.uk

Megan Donnelly