Community participation - Joseph Rowntree Foundation

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Community participation the ‘rules of engagement’ are imported from less inclusive settings and the substance of participation is dominated by bureaucratic rules and procedures, may squander ‘the sense that these are locations in which social change can be achieved’. 59 A focus on first getting the structures right disaffects potential community participants eager to get things done. 60 The outcome Finally, the perception that participation causes some change in service provision, policy or the attitudes of decision makers is a – perhaps the – crucial factor in affecting levels of participation. As Barnes and colleagues put it: Whilst some remain engaged in spite of reporting little direct evidence of service or policy change, others become disillusioned and give up. 61 Citizens have clear views of the criteria against which effective participation should be judged: (a) ‘Has anything happened?’(b) ‘Has it been worth the money?’ and (c) ‘Have they carried on talking to the public? 62 According to Lowndes and Wilson: Even where institutional arrangements exist to involve citizens and associations in policy formulation, social capital can only ‘make a difference’ where decision makers actually listen to, and take into account, citizens’ preferences … [T]he biggest deterrent to participation among citizens is their perception – or experience – of a lack of council response. 63 Summing up This chapter has sought to marshal some evidence from the vast (and still growing) literature on participation, governance and social capital. But already it has helped to generate some important insights into our research question. The essential points are as follows. 18
Understanding the links between participation in governance … 1 Governance can influence social capital. 2 Involving people in governance can build ‘linking’ social capital. 3 It’s the combination of different types of social capital that really matters. 4 There is no reason to suppose that linking social capital will be ‘distributed evenly or brokered fairly’. 5 Access to linking social capital is shaped by a range of background factors that affect levels of participation. 6 The design of governance arrangements can mitigate or amplify these factors. As we have seen, one of the background factors identified in the literature, though not, it would be fair to say, strongly emphasised, is the existing distribution of social capital. Like the other factors, the design of governance arrangements – the way potential participants are identified and recruited, for example – has the potential to mitigate or amplify this factor. As we embarked on our own fieldwork, this was to emerge as a defining theme. 19
Page 1 and 2: Community participation Who benefit
Page 3 and 4: Community participation Who benefit
Page 5 and 6: Contents Acknowledgements Executive
Page 7 and 8: Executive summary Key concepts This
Page 9 and 10: Executive summary What the literatu
Page 11 and 12: Executive summary The bottom line T
Page 13 and 14: Executive summary 2 Rather than try
Page 15 and 16: Executive summary representatives a
Page 17 and 18: Conceptual note Many of the terms a
Page 19 and 20: 1 Putting the public back into publ
Page 21 and 22: Putting the public back into public
Page 27 and 28: Understanding the links between par
Page 35: Understanding the links between par
Page 39 and 40: Community participation in two depr
Page 53 and 54: 4 Network dynamics: explaining the
Page 55 and 56: Network dynamics: explaining the pa
Page 65 and 66: 5 Making the most of community part
Page 67 and 68: Making the most of community partic
Page 81 and 82: Notes Executive summary 1 S. Alinsk
Page 83 and 84: Notes Chapter 2 1 Other studies hav
Page 85 and 86: Notes 12 M. Woolcock, ‘The place
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Notes 28 C. Barnes and G. Mercer, D
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Notes 47 C. Pattie, P. Seyd and P.
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Notes Chapter 4 1 J. Guare, Six Deg
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Notes 20 M. Woolcock, ‘The place
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Notes give community organisations
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Community participation - Joseph Rowntree Foundation

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