Participatory Learning and Action 40:
PLA Notes 40: Deliberative Democracy and Citizen EmpowermentIIED, February 2001. 96 pp
Price: US$32.00
Guest Editors: Michel Pimbert and Tom Wakeford
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Summary
The special theme section in this issue, Deliberative Democracy and Citizen Empowerment, focuses on how to engage ‘the public’ in policy formulation. Currently, there is increasing interest from civil society in ideas regarding good governance, deepening democracy and citizen empowerment, particularly how to bring the public or ‘lay’ perspectives into areas where traditionally they have had little or no involvement. This issue draws together some key thinking around public participation, using a range of techniques known as ‘Deliberative and Inclusionary Processes’ (DIPs), including mechanisms like citizen juries, citizen conferences and the like. The majority of experiences with these processes has been in the North, although increasingly they are being adopted and adapted in the South. This issue also contains three general on PLA and a tribute to Jimmy Mascarenhas, a PLA practitioner who did much to develop and spread PLA approaches.
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1. Petals and thorns: the dilemmas of PLA and debt bondage
Joanna Busza, Hom Em Xakha, Ly Saranda Da and Un Saron
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Abstract
Successful participatory activities rely on community interest and enthusiasm. The very involvement of participants is assumed to demonstrate their consent, and the number of activities or rates of attendance often serve as process indicators for monitoring a project. However, what if community members do not control their daily movements? This article examines the dilemmas faced by a community development project working with debt-bonded sex workers in Cambodia. It outlines the ethical concerns that the project team has faced so far, and describes in detail what steps were taken to try to address the most important of these issues: that of consent.
2. Introducing PRA techniques in the learning of environmental education in Southern Peru
Sonia Gomez Garcia and Jose Pizarro Neyra
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Abstract
The authors describe the participatory techniques used in environmental education in order to raise environmental awareness amongst young people in the 'Victor Mayuri' public school of Calana, in the department of Tacna in Southern Peru. The project is called 'Asignatural Experimental de Educacion Ambiental' (Experimental Course in Environmental Education), and is part of the official curriculum of the school, having been accepted by the Ministry of Education. The course involves two hours of interactive teaching-learning per week. This article presents some of the participatory techniques used in the project.
3. Lessons from malaria control activities in urban West Africa using a research-action-capacity building approach
G. Felber, N. Othingué, N. Yemadji and K. Wyss
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Abstract
In the South, urban environmental and social management is often based on top-down approaches which use technologies and strategies not corresponding to the demands of the inhabitants and to their social, economic and ecological realities. This paper discusses how a community-based approach - Research Action Capacity-building (RAC) - can be valuable for malaria control and more specifically for the dissemination of insecticide treated bednets. Taking a bednet project in N'Djamena, capital of Chad, as an example, the article investigates the potential and the limitations of this approach for mobilising and strengthening sustainable activities and capacity-building at community level.
4. In memorandum of Jimmy Mascarenhas
Robert Chambers
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Abstract
Jimmy Mascarenhas passed away on 5th January 2001. He had been briefly in intensive care with a respiratory disorder. For the participation community, this is an immense and untimely loss. Jimmy will be remembered as a great innovator and disseminator. While working with MYRADA in South India and later with OUTREACH, the NGO he started, his part in the discovery, development and dissemination of the methods and approaches of PRA was seminal.
SPECIAL ISSUE:
Deliberative democracy and citizen empowerment
5. Overview – deliberative democracy and citizen empowerment
Michel Pimbert and Tom Wakeford
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Abstract
Democracy without citizen deliberation and participation is ultimately an empty and meaningless concept. This understanding of politics, and many people's desire to supplement the representation they receive via elected politicians, is often the starting point for a growing number of experiments and initiatives that create new spaces for citizens to directly influence decisions affecting their lives. In the 1990s such deliberative and inclusionary processes (DIPs) were increasingly applied to the formulation of a wide range of policies in countries of both the North and South. This article provides an overview of participatory methods and approaches that seek to enhance deliberative democracy and citizen empowerment, which are the focus of the articles that follow.
6. Some examples of methods used in DIPS ( deliberative and inclusionary processes)
Tom Wakeford
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Abstract
This article is intended to be a quick survey of some different deliberative and inclusionary processes (DIPs) that have been used to discuss issues involving a policy with a scientific or technical component. It is by no means exclusive, and its Northern bias is an inevitable consequence of these processes having been undertaken almost exclusively in the North to date.
7. Bridging the gap: citizenship, partnership and accountability
Andrea Cornwall and John Gaventa
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Abstract
Around the world, a growing crisis of legitimacy characterises the relationship between citizens and the institutions that affect their lives. In both North and South, citizens speak of mounting disillusionment with government, based on concerns about corruption, lack of responsiveness to the needs of the poor and the absence of a sense of connection with elected representatives and bureaucrats. As traditional forms of political representation are being re-examined, direct democratic mechanisms are increasingly being drawn upon to enable citizens to play a more active part in decisions which affect their lives. Repositioning participation to embrace concerns with inclusive citizenship and rights, the authors examine a range of contemporary participatory mechanisms and strategies that seek to bridge the gap between citizens and the state.
8. Focus groups and public involvement in the new genetics
Sarah Cunningham-Burley, Anne Kerr and Steve Pavis
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Abstract
The way in which the public is viewed in much discussion around lay involvement in the new genetics also contributes to an undermining of their potential contribution. The 'deficit' model which regards the public's understanding of technical knowledge means they are unable to comment on relevant issue, still prevails, despite the serious challenge from social scientists. There is scope to work within the existing frameworks and the current consultative process to challenge this view. For example, the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust and the Nuffield Council on Bioethics have all conducted public consultation exercises. Social scientists and others have also been involved in developing ways of involving the public through citizens' juries, consensus conferences, surveys, internet conferences and voting, public debates, and focus group research.
9. Citizen juries: reflections on the UK experience
Clare Delap
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Abstract
Citizens' juries have become established in the UK in a remarkably short space of time. They are an approach to public participation which appears acceptable both to policy makers and to people in communities. The enthusiasm with which those in both central and local governing bodies have supported citizens' juries will be viewed with some cynicism. This article gives an overview of the approach as it has been adopted in the UK. Using two examples from two citizens' jury processes in Scotland, it examines how citizens' juries can enable local people to make a difference to policy, but only if they are run in an open and public manner, and if they address locally relevant issues.
10. Rights or rituals: why juries can do more harm than good
Peter Glasner
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Abstract
Citizens' juries have been developed in both Europe and the USA as a means to improving public involvement in policy decision-making, particularly in the area of local government. While citizens' juries are only one of many inputs into the policy-making process, they may, through confidence building, encourage more active citizenship. For some, the great strength of citizens' juries is the opportunity they provide for informed deliberation. However, a closer look at a citizen jury in action in Wales (UK) suggests that this may be overstating the case.
11. Farmer foresight: an experiment in South India
D. Satya Murty and Tom Wakeford
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Abstract
The Farmer Foresight project was an attempt to apply methods of participative technology assessment in the South, building on the Citizen Foresight methodology already developed in the UK. The climax of the project was a citizens' jury, which took place on a farm in B G Kere in the state of Karnataka, India, between the 6th and 10th March 2000. B G Kere is a small village in a dryland area of the Chitradurga District. It is 230km north of Bangalore, the state capital, and contains a high proportion of marginal farmers and landless people.
12. Telecommunications and the future of democracy: preliminary report on the first US citizens' panel
Dick Sclove
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Abstract
US science and technology institutions and decision-making processes stand out among industrialised nations for systematically excluding lay citizen voices. The ordinary argument for ceding judgement and influence to elite representatives of the producers of science and technology, while excluding everyone else who will be affected, is that lay citizens have neither the competence nor passion to be involved. On April 4th 1997, a 15-member citizens' panel, representing a cross-section of the Boston area issued a call for protecting personal privacy on the Internet, mandating community involvement in telecommunications policy making and returning a percentage of high-tech corporate earnings to communities and non-profit organisations.
13. Scenario workshops and urban planning
Isa-Elisabeth Andersen and Birgit Jæger
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Abstract
Denmark has a strong tradition of integrating both representative and participatory (or 'direct') democracy. By law, local authorities have to make a plan for any change in a local area, and this is sent out for a local hearing among the citizens before the final decision. The focus of Scenario Workshops (SWs) differs from that of most consensus conferences and citizens' juries that focus on society's use and regulation of technology. Like the Citizen Foresight approach, SWs start with a commonly recognised problem and then look for solutions.
14. The Danish consensus conference model in Switzerland and France: on the importance of framing the issue
Jacques Mirenowicz
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Abstract
In Spring 1998, a Swiss and a French official institution each organised a national deliberative technology assessment (TA) procedure based on the model of the Danish consensus conference. In May 1998, the Swiss Center for TA organised a 'Publiforum' on 'Electricity and Society'. A month later, the French Office Parelementaire d'Evaluation des Choix Scientifiques et Technologiques (OPECST) organised a 'Conference de Citoyens' on 'Genetic modification in agriculture and food'. Despite differences in these two countries' democratic institutions and traditions, both OPECST and the Swiss Center for TA felt the model of the consensus conference could improve public debate on science and technology. However, in comparing the two initiatives, this article shows that the democratic content of consensus conferences is highly dependent on the initial framing of the issue.
15. The issue of framing and consensus conferences
Helen Wallace
Abstract
The consensus conference, at least in the form currently practised in countries such as Denmark, the Netherlands, and, to a lesser extent, in the UK, is an enquiry involving 10-16 citizens who are charged with addressing a socially controversial topic after meeting an expert panel in the subject. In 1999, a UK National Consensus Conference on Radioactive Waste Management was organised by a consultancy (UK-CEED).
16. Participation and governance in the UK Department of Health
Jo Lenaghan
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Abstract
In many countries, including France and Germany, the state authorities responsible for health usually undergo some form of election by local citizens. When deciding what to spend money on, or where to locate hospitals, there is therefore usually some form of democratic accountability. In the UK's National Health Service, by contrast, health authorities are appointed by ministers in the central government. Having spent a year as a civil servant in the UK Government's Department of Health, the author gives an overview of the different approaches adopted by the Department to encourage transparency and legitimacy.
17. Inclusive deliberation and scientific expertise: precaution, diversity and transparency in the governance of risk
Andy Stirling
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Abstract
There is growing interest in many industrialised nations in more 'deliberative and inclusionary processes' (DIPs) for the governance of technological risks. This increasing interest is motivated by diminishing public confidence in traditional expert-based and quantitative approaches. The mainstream response in academic and policy circles is to explain this diminishing public confidence in social and cultural terms, rather than through examining existing limitations in expert risk science. By focusing on problems of risk governance that lie 'out there' in society, movements towards more inclusive deliberation may reduce friction with powerful institutional and disciplinary vested interests.
18. Citizen engagement in science and technology policy: a commentary on recent UK experience
Alan Irwin
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Abstract
The publication in October 2000 of the Phillips Report on BSE marked a low ebb in UK science-public relations, but also a possible turning point. Among the various criticisms made by this official inquiry, one major identified problem concerns the relationship between governmental reassurances of safety and the declining public trust in such statements. In 2000 a new code of practice for scientific advisory committees was proposed which stressed the need for an 'inclusive' approach, for effective communication with the media and the wider public, for transparency and for high standards in working practices. While such moves are overdue, they also raise larger questions about the best role for public groups within scientific and technological decision-making.
19. Participatory environmental policy processes: experiences from North and South
Tim Holmes and Ian Scoones
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Abstract
Given the growing range of actors concerned with environmental issues, the increasingly contested nature of environmental problems and the importance of building trust around decision-making, a more participatory approach to environmental policy processes is often required. However, there have been few attempts to assess actual experiences. In a recent paper, summarised in the article, the authors review the range of approaches for encouraging more inclusive forms of deliberation around environmental policy processes, drawing on experiences from both the North and the South.
20. Evaluating DIPs
Tom Wakeford
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Abstract
It has been noted how few independent evaluations there have been of past attempts at DIPs. To an even greater extent, there have been few attempts to critically compare different DIPs. In this paper, the author carries out a comparative evaluation of the case studies presented in this edition of PLA Notes, using as evaluation criteria: diverse control; framing and scope; interactivity and interrogation; reference timeframe; transparency; and empowerment and/or advocacy.
21. Reclaiming our right to power: some conditions for deliberative democracy
Michel Pimbert
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Abstract
Deliberative and inclusive processes (DIPs) are increasingly being used in the North and the South to give the historically excluded a voice in decisions. Whilst DIPs have at times been misused or abused in the rush to scale up and spread the new innovations, these approaches nevertheless offer much potential to expand the active involvement of citizens in shaping the decisions that affect their lives. But how and under what conditions can the democratic potential of these approaches and methods be enlarged to include more people and places? This paper critically reflects on these questions, offering both reformist and more radical proposals for the mainstreaming of deliberative democracy and citizen empowerment.
PRA/PLA training
Neela Mukherjee
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Abstract
Most trainers have their own style of training and their unique selling propositions. Depending on the trainer, there are considerable variations in the way PRA/PLA training workshops are conducted with regard to objectives, coverage, fieldwork, topical emphasis, style and ways of learning. With regard to PRA/PLA training, some training tips based on formal and informal feedback from different quarters are described in this paper.