Does participation mean reciprocal learning? The relationships between diverse stakeholders during participatory budgeting in Paris

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the process by which lay citizens acquire new knowledge through participation and, reciprocally, how elected officials, civil servants, and associative leaders may learn from lay citizens. The aim is to develop a better understanding of the relationships and dynamics between these different stakeholders since the turn towards participatory democracy. Participatory devices generate new dynamics among social movements’ actors and the creation of knowledge stemming from interactions between participants, who all learn from each other. Nevertheless, these mutual forms of learning do not necessarily imply the disappearance of power relations and knowledge imposition attempts by dominant stakeholders during the debates.

KEYWORDS:

• Participatory democracy
• citizen knowledge
• learning process
• participatory budgeting
• Paris

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Field notes, Symposium on local democracy in the 20th district, 5 July 2008.

2. Participatory budgeting represents an interesting participatory process to analyse as it implies regular interaction among elected representatives, civil servants, associative leaders, and citizens, opening up the key element of local public policies (the budget) to lay citizens.

3. This work is part of a broader research comparing participatory practices in Paris and Córdoba (Spain).

4. Interview with the President of La Bellevilleuse, 20 November 2007.

5. Informal discussion after a meeting of the citizen group in Belleville, 11 December 2007.

6. Field notes, meeting of 4 December 2007.

7. Interview with a neighbourhood councillor in Belleville, 16 September 2008. Under the influence of Michel and La Bellevilleuse, the neighbourhood council of Belleville developed a pattern of development of the streets in the neighbourhood, which had been experienced for the first time with Tourtille Street.

8. Interview with a neighbourhood councillor in Belleville, 8 November 2008.

9. Interview with a neighbourhood councillor in Belleville, 16 September 2008.

10. Field notes, meeting of the roads committee of the Belleville neighbourhood council, 15 January 2008.

11. Field notes, meeting of the citizen group in Belleville, 15 January 2008.

12. Field notes, meeting of the working group on the neighbourhood councils Charter, 20 May 2008.

13. Interview with a neighbourhood councillor (political college), 14 November 2008.

14. Interview with the president of Saint-Blaise neighbourhood council, 12 February 2008.

15. Field notes, public meeting of 5 March 2007 and working meeting of 11 July 2007.

16. Interview of 16 September 2008.

17. Interview of 8 November 2008.

18. Interview of 14 April 2008.

19. Interview of 10 September 2008.

20. Interview of 10 September 2008.

21. Interview of 16 September 2008.

22. Interview of 31 March 2010.

23. Field notes, meeting of the working group on the neighbourhood councils Charter, 2 June 2008.

24. Field notes, meeting of the working group on the neighbourhood councils Charter, 26 May 2008.

25. Interview of 8 November 2008.

26. Interview with a responsible of major roads projects department in Paris, 11 February 2008.

27. Interview with the former main roads engineer of the 20th district, 14 April 2008.

28. Interview with the new main roads engineer of the 20th district, 8 November 2007.

29. Interview with the elected representative for planning in the 13th district, 3 March 2009.

30. Interview of 23 September 2008.

31. Interview with the former main roads engineer of the 20th district, 14 April 2008.