Participation is trendy: a social psychological approach to the participatory budget

This study aims to analyze structural factors underlying participation, often neglected by social psychology. An exploratory study was carried out on participatory budgeting sessions in three municipalities in Portugal. From an ethnographic perspective, we have compared contextual factors related to different participatory budgeting models; differences in citizens ’ participation which may be attributed to the social, cultural and political contexts of each municipality; and how the spatial organization, the resources applied and the type of communication used in the different budgeting sessions may possibly shape the ways different agents interact. Results suggest that there is a complex relation between the deliberative/consultative natures of the participatory budgeting and the level of the citizens ’ participation, showing that the participatory institutional rhetoric used by policymakers does not always correspond to citizens ’ participatory practices.
Source: Psicologia e Sociedade - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research