Facilitating citizen participation
8 participatory techniques for territories
In the context of Smart City dynamics, where collaboration between stakeholders is strongly recommended, citizen participation is a central element. However, in the context of sustainable and smart transition of our territories, what are the levers that municipalities can activate to encourage and develop it? This article proposes to take a look at 8 participatory practices - taking advantage of the assets of digital technology - that can be used to contribute to making the citizen an actor in his territory. All the practices presented in this article are detailed in our second Smart City Practical Handbook.
What degree of citizen involvement ?
- Inform: Provide the public with all necessary and objective information to help them understand the problem, the options and the solutions being considered.
- Consult: Obtain feedback from the public on studies, options and decisions.
- Involve: Work with the public to ensure that their concerns and expectations are understood and incorporated into the decision-making process.
- Collaborate: Seek partnership with the public at all stages of the decision-making process, including the development of options and the identification of the preferred alternative.
- Delegate: Entrust the public with the final decision making.
Note that these levels are to be considered as categories rather than evolutionary stages.
Open Data
- Define a specific, well thought-out and detailed strategy;
- Ensure that the approach is transversal within the organisation (involvement of all or at least several teams);
- Have a dedicated team, ideally managed by a project manager;
- Follow and respect the regulations which are in force at local and international level (in particular at European level);
- Etc.
In addition to being covered globally in Practical Handbook 2, Open Data is the subject of an entire chapter in our third Practical Handbook dedicated to Data Governance.
Hackathons
- Hacker, which means "computer scientist who creates, analyses and modifies computer programs to improve or bring new features to the user".
- Marathon, since, like the sporting event, a Hackathon requires intense work in a very short time.
"In a Civic Hackathon, participants use technology, open public data and their entrepreneurial spirit to tackle societal challenges [...]."
- Propose an open but clear challenge to the participants. To do this, it is advisable, ideally, to collaborate with practitioners and specialists before the event.
- Involve members of the administration at the event so that they can inform participants about the data to be exploited.
- Pay particular attention to the communication strategy for the event in order to make it as inclusive as possible.
Follow up on the projects after the event.
Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing is therefore at the crossroads of Top-Down and Bottom-Up initiatives, since it ensures, to different extents, the participation of the citizen but also requires the participation of local authorities.
The challenge of the Crowdsourcing approach lies in the need to be able to count on a community that wishes to invest and participate. Some points of attention must therefore be considered:
- Clearly define the problem and the desired impact of the citizens' intervention;
- Determine the incentives that will be put in place to motivate citizens;
- Select attractive and well thought-out tools;
- Plan an appropriate communication plan;
- Etc.
The citizen participation platform
- The information platform
- The citizen consultation platform
- The citizen project platform
The citizen information platform
It can take the form of a website and/or an application on which the available data will be centralised. The most common example is the dashboard.
Of course, for such a platform to be created, it is necessary that sufficient data exist. Moreover, such an initiative requires significant resources (time and money). This is why these platforms are more often found in large cities.
The citizen consultation platform
When an area wishes to give a more active role to citizens, it is possible to use citizen consultation platforms.
The first step for the municipality is often to organise a brainstorming session, either online or in person, during which citizens are invited to communicate their ideas, thoughts and opinions.
Following this initial work, all citizens who wish to do so have the opportunity to react to the contributions of other citizens on the platform. All this work allows for a rather precise overview of the ideas and problems encountered by the users of the territory.
Finally, the municipality will have to communicate on the results of this process as well as on the use that will be made of it. This last step is crucial as such a mechanism is most effective when it is open and transparent.
The citizens' project platform
The Living Lab
These include Living Labs, which are third places, i.e. physical spaces where communities of citizens come together to "do things together".
Moreover, they are an opportunity for cities to initiate a dialogue between government and citizens while strengthening the competitiveness of the territory.
Gamification and Serious Game
As games have always been part of our lives, they are easily appropriated by the user. It is therefore the ideal way to raise user awareness, stimulate innovation, promote commitment and change societal behaviour.
The Serious Game, on the other hand, is a type of game that has defined learning objectives. It immerses the learner in a game-like training experience and teaches real-world skills in a risk-free setting.
However, to ensure the success of such initiatives, the involvement of professionals with pedagogical and gaming expertise is essential. The selection of partners will therefore be crucial. Furthermore, as these projects can be more expensive than traditional learning methods, it is possible to start with simple solutions such as connected buttons that allow citizens to give their opinion on different issues.
Finally, feedback to the citizens who have taken part in the initiative is recommended.
The participatory budget
Such a system can improve relations between citizens and public authorities, but also guarantee greater transparency of public finances and cohesion between citizens' expectations and the solutions undertaken.
Although the participatory budget is an essential tool to be considered in the framework of a participatory approach, some points of attention must be taken into account:
- Raising awareness so that the population is properly represented;
- As the timeframes of the municipality and those of the citizens are not always similar, it is advisable not to want to rush through the stages and to wait until the projects and the citizens are really ready.
- Ensure that those in charge are involved so that a real political will emerges.
- Give value to approved projects and respect the promises made to citizens.
- Keep budget available to communicate to citizens about projects and their progress.
- Monitoring and controlling the budget and the project with the involvement of citizens is essential to ensure transparency.
- Ensure that budgets are understandable to citizens.
Crowdfunding
Finally, Crowdfunding refers to "fundraising practices based on the collection of monetary contributions from a large number of individuals and stakeholders, mainly via an online platform". It is most often referred to as "Crowdfunding platforms".
When Crowdfunding is envisaged in the context of initiatives linked to a particular territory and when it pursues an objective of general interest, the term Civic Crowdfunding is used.
Most often, the funds raised through Civic Crowdfunding will take the form of donations with or without counterparty. Other forms such as investments, loans and royalties are not very common, since the projects financed in this particular context do not generally generate financial income.
Civic Crowdfunding projects can be initiated by different actors at the territorial level. Often, authorities themselves launch a crowdfunding campaign on an existing platform or create their own Civic Crowdfunding platform. A third possibility is to support citizens in their own Crowdfunding initiatives by facilitating their steps.
There are three key steps to consider when such an initiative is envisaged by the territory:
- Choose the most suitable platform in terms of possibilities and funding.
- Develop the project by defining achievable objectives and coherent deadlines.
- Set up a communication campaign and follow-up of the community (during and after the campaign).
Conclusion
The content of this article is inspired by our second volume of the Smart City Practical Handbooks, entitled "How to make the citizen an actor in his territory" and available for free here.
- Discover our didactic video capsules dedicated to citizen participation
- G8. Plan d’action pour la France Charte du G8 pour l’ouverture des données publiques. (2013).
- ATX Hack for Change. (2018). http://atxhackforchange.org/.
- Cardullo, P. & Kitchin, R. Being a ‘citizen’ in the smart city: up and down the scaffold of smart citizen participation in Dublin, Ireland. GeoJournal 1–13 (2018). doi:10.1007/s10708-018-9845-8
- Michels, A. & De Graaf, L. Examining citizen participation: local participatory policymaking and democracy revisited. Local Government Studies 43, 875–881 (2017).
- SkillBuilder LMS. La Gamification est-elle Différente des Serious Game? (2009).
- Wallex - le droit en Wallonie. Code de la démocratie locale et de la décentralisation. (2004).
- UN Habitat. 72 Questions courantes sur les budgets participatifs. (2005).
- OECD Regional Development Working Papers. Civic Crowdfunding: A collective option for local public goods? 40 (2017). doi:10.1787/b3f7a1c5-en
