P04 Participatory budgeting as a means for nurturing public value and community relationships in turbulent times
Panel chair & review group chair:
Prof. Dr. Peter C. Lorson, University of Rostock (Germany) peter.lorson@uni-rostock.de
Panel co-chairs:
Dr. Ellen Haustein, University of Rostock (Germany)
Hans-Henning Schult, University of Rostock (Germany)
Prof. Dr. Jaroslav Dvorak, Klaipėda University (Lithuania)
Dr. Lotta-Maria Sinervo, Tampere University (Finland)
Dr. Pauliina Lehtonen, Tampere University (Finland)
Description
One of the advantages of participatory budgeting (PB) is the increasing participation of residents and communities, city innovativeness, social justice as a fundamental value of participation (Bartocci et. al., 2022). But on the other hand, the implementation of PB around the world has contributed to the creation of greater public value, for example, projects for the improvement of public spaces, delivery of local services etc. In some municipalities, it was found that the participatory budget initiative contributed to better tax collection and the growth of additional budget revenues, which is undoubtedly beneficial for local development. Critics (Sintomer et. al., 2016) argue that the value of PB is low because they see the instruments of participatory democracy as diverting attention from solving real problems and creating value, and instead focus on secondary matters.
Fields of special interest for PB are, for example:
- Public value creation in PB;
- The value of different stakeholders in PB;
- Evaluation of PB impact;
- The contribution of PB to the Good Governance theory and practise;
- Embedding the SDGs in PB;
- Connecting PB to smart city development;
- PB from an organizational viewpoint;
- PB as an evolving process;
- Citizen’s PB journeys;
- Citizen motivation theories to engage in PB.
References:
Bartocci, L., Grossi, G., Mauro, S. G., & Ebdon, C. (2022). The journey of participatory budgeting: a systematic literature review and future research directions. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 00208523221078938.
Sintomer, Y., Röcke, A., & Herzberg, C. (2016). Participatory budgeting in Europe: Democracy and public governance. Routledge.