The Reception of Participation. Gaps in Existing Knowledge.

The phenomenon of social participation has been the focus of a global debate for the last 25 years. This has been enabled by the fact that public policies techniques, such as participatory budgeting, deliberative pool, now tend to move easily around the world. The existing analyses of participation often focus on the reception of participation from the point of view of initiators (local government), while only limited body of knowledge exists concerning the reception of participation from the citizens’ perspective.

The main aim of this paper is to present: 1) results of a literature review on current knowledge on reception of participation from citizens’ perspective which identified new existing gap, 2) research plan to provide insights on identified knowledge gaps.

Considering the literature review three hypothesis were formulated:

1. The use of participatory activities by local government does not improve the quality of decision making

2. The use of participatory activities decreases the level of trust to local governments

3. The use of participatory activities decreases the citizens sense of agency

Qualitative, comparative, multiple-case study approach will be applied in the research. The purposeful case study areas selection will be implemented. It will be based on typology of four historical regions of Poland and the administrative division of municipalities in Poland, three types of municipalities (12 municipalities in total).

The case study analysis will apply two techniques of data collection: 1) desk research of available data pertaining to a particular case in terms of participation and 2) in-depth interviews with practitioners dealing with social consultation in the area and with key stakeholders’ representatives.

The results of the research may offer guidelines for local government to improve participatory activities (social consultations).