scholarly journals The G1000 Firework Dialogue as a Social Learning System: A Community of Practice Approach

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (8) ◽  
pp. 129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franziska Eckardt ◽  
Paul Benneworth
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Learning ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Learning System ◽  
Theoretical Development ◽  
Local Decision ◽  
Local Decision Making ◽  
Social Learning System

New public governance studies have increasingly sought to highlight the importance of citizen engagement in local decision-making processes as a way to identify suitable approaches to matters of public concern. There is a particular absence of good theoretical development building upon empirical work exploring citizen participatory processes as potential sites for social learning. In this paper, we asked the overall research question of the extent to which a new citizen participation process can be designed as a social learning system to facilitate the integration of citizen types of interests and knowledge in local decision-making. To answer this question, the study’s results provided deeper insights into the internal social learning dynamics within one particular deliberately designed collective local decision-making process, the G1000 firework dialogue in Enschede, The Netherlands. Using Wenger’s concept of “communities of practice” (CoP) as a baseline for analysis, the results of this study indicated that the G1000 firework dialogue process encouraged the creation of activities that may be considered to correspond to the different structural dimensions of CoP and that new design-based models of citizen participation would benefit from adopting a more explicit incorporation of and orientation towards social learning practices and theories. Consequently, we argue that local governance should invest more in citizen participation processes that encourage and enable learning among different societal stakeholders with different interests through constructive dialogues over political matters.

scholarly journals Increasing Public Participation and Influence in Local Decision-making to Address Social Determinants of Health During Times of Resource Constraint: A Systematic Review Examining Initiatives and Theories

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Baxter ◽  
Amy Barnes ◽  
Caroline Lee ◽  
Rebecca Mead ◽  
Mark Clowes
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Public Participation ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Resource Constraint ◽  
Determinants Of Health ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Governance Systems ◽  
Local Decision ◽  
Local Decision Making

Abstract Background: Creating conditions for people to exert influence and control within their lives is an important determinant of health, and crucial in addressing health inequity. Globally, governments, communities, and other partners are experimenting with initiatives to support public participation at a local level. Little is known about how different approaches work, and how changing economic circumstances including the worldwide financial crisis and COVID-19 pandemic create challenging circumstances for implementation. This review examined evidence on initiatives to increase peoples’ involvement in local decision-making, with a focus on how this may be affected by resource constraints. Methods: We carried out a mixed-method systematic review of European empirical literature published since 2008, on initiatives aiming to increase public participation in local decision-making/action which could affect public health outcomes. We supplemented this with worldwide literature outlining theories and frameworks to explore potential change pathways. We used narrative synthesis to analyse the literature identified, and a summary diagram to provide a reporting structure.Results: We included 42 documents. Much literature was from the United Kingdom, and of qualitative or case study design. There was limited reporting of the forms and intended/actual functions of initiatives to enhance public participation and influence. Diverse factors (organisational and community-related factors, features of the participatory process) were noted to shape pathways to potential outcomes. Positive and adverse outcomes were reported for communities, individuals, relationships, and the decision-making process. The review highlights how initiatives may be at risk during times of limited resourcing; undermining individual and community capacities to participate, and requiring organisational leaders to think/act differently. Conclusions: Areas to prioritise for action within local governance systems include: supporting community capabilities; relationships between organisations and communities; creating spaces for safe/equitable interaction and knowledge-sharing; and changing institutional culture. If investment is to be made by local governments or communities themselves in times of resource-constraint, there is an urgent need to clarify the functions of different activities and pathways to improvements in determinants of health and inequity. Support to enable change is needed, particularly in response to deep-seated issues within local governance systems, and more explicit engagement with concepts of politics and power.

An Experimental Study Using SDS Tools for a Participatory Approach to Local Land Use Planning

2011 ◽  
pp. 150-166
Author(s):  
Piotr Jankowski ◽  
Milosz Stasik
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Decision Support ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Shared Understanding ◽  
Spatial Understanding ◽  
Analytical Thinking ◽  
Local Decision ◽  
Local Decision Making

Participatory geographic information systems (PGIS) have been touted as a technology to democratize local decision making. The promise of PGIS has been largely pinned on the assumption that maps as tools of communication are rich in informational content, and capable of fostering shared understanding and analytical thinking. Whether maps alone can indeed be the medium for supporting shared understanding and analytical thinking in participatory decision making is still an open question. Much of our knowledge in this area is still anecdotal, and there is a need for empirical work to supply the evidence. In an attempt to test the applicability of maps, decision models, and Internet-based communication tools for PGIS, software called spatial understanding and decision support system (SUDSS) was built using asynchronous spatiotemporal environment, and tested in a realistic setting representing public land-use planning debate. This chapter provides a description of the software and the experiment, followed by the discussion of its results and their significance for the future development of similar public participation spatial-decision support tools.

Voting on Belonging

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-282
Author(s):  
Dia Dabby
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Legal Consciousness ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Quebec City ◽  
Local Identity ◽  
Local Decision ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Local Decision Making

AbstractIn 2017, a Muslim cemetery project was proposed in the municipality of St-Apollinaire, just outside Quebec City. This proposal required a change in local zoning, which necessitated approval from citizens living around the targeted plot of land, through the use of diverse deliberative tools. Drawing on a small-scale empirical study conducted in 2017–2018 with key informants in the cemetery project, this article investigates how these actors lived through, engaged with, and operated within the bounds of law. To do this, I suggest employing a legal consciousness framework to examine how local life is also where everyday lived law occurs. The local governance of diversity in death thus requires a re-evaluation of the “local,” identity politics, relationships, and legal consciousness. Ultimately, this article proposes that local decision-making processes play an important yet underexamined role in the broader conversations on belonging.

The Veil of Bureaucracy: How Officials Evade Partisan Politics in Participatory Settings

2021 ◽  
pp. 232949652110288
Author(s):  
Meaghan Stiman
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Partisan Politics ◽  
Community Voice ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
Local Decision ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
The Veil ◽  
Local Decision Making ◽  
Do So

In theory, participatory democracies are thought to empower citizens in local decision-making processes. However, in practice, community voice is rarely representative, and even in cases of equal representation, citizens are often disempowered through bureaucratic processes. Drawing on the case of a firearm discharge debate from a rural county’s municipal meetings in Virginia, I extend research about how power operates in participatory settings. Partisan political ideology fueled the debate amongst constituents in expected ways, wherein citizens engaged collectivist and individualist frames to sway the county municipal board ( Celinska 2007 ). However, it was a third frame that ultimately explains the ordinance’s repeal: the bureaucratic frame, an ideological orientation to participatory processes that defers decision-making to disembodied abstract rules and procedures. This frame derives its power from its depoliticization potential, allowing bureaucrats to evade contentious political debates. Whoever is best able to wield this frame not only depoliticizes the debate to gain rationalized legitimacy but can do so in such a way to favor a partisan agenda. This study advances gun research and participatory democracy research by analyzing how the bureaucratic frame, which veils partisanship, offers an alternative political possibility for elected officials, community leaders, and citizens to adjudicate partisan debates.

Allocating HIV prevention resources: A tool for state and local decision making

Health Policy ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 87 (3) ◽  
pp. 342-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anke Richter ◽  
Katherine A. Hicks ◽  
Stephanie R. Earnshaw ◽  
Amanda A. Honeycutt
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Hiv Prevention ◽  
Local Decision ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Local Decision Making

scholarly journals Social work in municipalities

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-94
Author(s):  
Rolv Lyngstad
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Wide Sense ◽  
Professional Discretion ◽  
Local Decision ◽  
Local Discretion ◽  
Specific Meaning ◽  
Local Decision Making ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
The Relationship

The point of departure of this article is contemporary changes in the relationship between national and local decision making in the Norwegian political system. The last decades’ centralization tendencies seem to be challenged by a “new” emphasis on local discretion, and the article discusses how this will affect social work in municipalities. The changes are contested and controversial and allude to questions such as how much discretion should be given to local decision makers in the name of local democracy, and how much difference should be accepted in the name of diversity? The article argues that professional social work must be context-specific, meaning that in a wide sense local knowledge is a prerequisite for good social work. Devolution and local political and professional discretion are necessary in many cases, but not sufficient in themselves as conditions for success. Professional social workers will encounter a lot of difficult dilemmas arousing from issues related to the equality/liberty debate and the diversity/difference/equality debate in social work discourses. In order to approach these dilemmas, more of a focus on local deliberation and place shaping, in combination with a social work focus on democratic professionalism, is necessary. If this is done successfully, devolution and a recapturing of local discretion and decision-making power will empower clients as well as professionals. Thus, current changes in the relationship between different levels of decision making will enlarge the possibilities for professional social work in the municipalities.

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