> Assessing the impact of public participation >
> Introduction
>
> Expanding citizens’ roles in the policy process has become a key
> issue for many public authorities over the past years. But what
> effects are these efforts having on the political and civic
> engagement of the participants? Do policy makers and practitioners
> use the available research evidence to design and improve public
> participation initiatives? These are the key questions addressed in
> the research report ‘Assessing the impacts of public
> participation’. The authors show that public participation
> evaluation, despite its importance, is still in its infancy. Public
> participation scholars, practitioners and policy makers need to
> engage in a structural dialogue to develop workable evaluation
> frameworks and criteria.
>
>
>
> Description
>
> Public participation is undertaken for different purposes and with
> different underlying goals. Some authorities view participation as
> an essential element of successful democracy. Others see
> participation as a means for achieving something else, such as a
> more informed, accountable or legitimate decision-making. The
> report explores to what extent public participation initiatives can
> meet or have met these goals.
>
> The authors review the current state of knowledge about the impact
> of public participation and identify different theoretical and
> conceptual approaches to evaluation. They also review empirical
> literature on public participation evaluation and discuss the
> results of interviews with policy makers and practitioners on this
> issue. The report concludes with a discussion of the limits to
> public participation evaluation and its uptake, and recommends
> strategies for promoting further evaluation practice and methods.
>
>
>
> More information and a downloadable version of the report:
>
> http://www.eukn.org/eukn/themes/Urban_Policy/ > Social_inclusion_and_integration/Community_development/
> Citizens__participation/impact-public-participation_1292.html
>
>
