Verf, Frederik (2021) Inclusive Citizen Participation. Master thesis.
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Master Thesis Frederik Verf S2913739.pdf Download (1MB) | Preview |
Abstract
Citizen participation is increasingly used in society as a more deliberate and democratic form of making policies together with citizens. Citizen participation however mostly have led to disappointing results in terms of policy impact and on inclusivity. Although there is a debate on the importance of inclusivity, a growing number of scientist claim that inclusivity is needed for some general goals of citizen participation in for example political legitimacy and social cohesion. Governments are also more and more reacting on these disappointing results by shifting their focus from a government central focus to wider needs of citizens and instead of traditional methods, are experimenting with alternative participation forms. These forms are more informal, incidental and less intensive, hopefully more suitable for a broader range of citizens. However, there is still an academic gap on wether underrepresented groups actually have more positive perceptions and intentions for these alternative participation forms. This research tried to fill this gap by a survey among 110 respondents, accompanied by five interviews with participation professionals for additional context. The results showed that underrepresented groups prefer alternative methods over traditional methods. However, intention of respondents did not increase after alternative methods were explained in the survey. While perception increased slightly, it seems that perceptions of informality and relevance of topics discussed were easier changed due to providing this alternative forms, than perceptions of time, responsibility and impact. The results provided some potential avenues to influence these aspects in a positive way. Participation forms at higher places on the participation ladder and more consequent communication of participation results for policies could help with a sense of impact. More active and personal targeted invitations to specific citizens could help for a higher sense of responsibility. This also helps with informing more citizens about the existence of citizen participation as a large part of respondents was still unfamiliar with citizen participation. This research could mostly speculatively assess possible inclusivity outcomes as respondents noted their stated preferences. More qualitative experimental participative research should be done to better assess the relation of perception and intention with actual behaviour of underrepresented groups.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master) |
|---|---|
| Degree programme: | Society, Sustainability and Planning (MSc Socio-spatial Planning) |
| Supervisor: | Dijk, T. van and Vaart, G. van der |
| Date Deposited: | 21 Sep 2021 07:30 |
| Last Modified: | 21 Sep 2021 07:30 |
| URI: | https://frw.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/3733 |
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