Spaces for change?

Governance reforms in some countries have encouraged government officials to meet with citizens in formal meeting places to help make decisions at local and national levels. Citizens are increasingly able to participate in meetings, exchange information and negotiate agendas with state officials on issues concerning them.

What actually happens when people participate? Does the creation of 'spaces' for citizen participation mean that setting priorities on health, education or natural resource management for example, becomes more democratic? Are citizens more able to hold their government to account by attending and participating in these meetings?

Researchers from the Citizenship DRC see great potential for revitalising democracy and creating new forms of citizenship, but argue that simply creating and designing participatory spaces is not enough. Social inequalities, discrimination and power relationships in wider society are often reproduced on a smaller scale. For example, the culture and design of health facilities boards in South Africa maintain the dominance and power of white South Africans, as they did in the Apartheid era.

Creating participatory spaces does not mean that all people can participate equally. In Bangladesh, community groups were created as part of health sector reforms, but the poorest people were silent in meetings which meant that existing social differences were reproduced.

Researchers also find that participation can be guided by stereotyped expectations. In rural India, there are 'empty spaces' in local governance and watershed management where women rarely participate, yet women-only health groups are very active. There are few opportunities for women to learn the skills they need to participate effectively.

Who participates and with what legitimacy? In Sao Paolo, Brazil, citizen participation usually refers to the hundreds of registered civil society organisations, who advocate on behalf of others, rather than individuals finding their own political voice. In Bangladesh, community groups managing village-level health services tend to be elite groups of professionals, teachers and wealthy farmers appointed by local government chairmen.

Clearly, there are considerable challenges to effective citizen participation and deeper forms of democracy. Yet, there are slow but real shifts in people's political awareness as citizens and a growing sense of entitlement to participate.

There are complex interactions between getting the design of participatory spaces in governance right and stimulating participation 'from below'.

• People need to see themselves as citizens with rights and responsibilities rather than as beneficiaries or clients.
• There are tensions around those who represent themselves as individuals and others who are nominated or elected representatives of neighbourhood and community organisations, or members of trade unions. They all have different sources of legitimacy to speak and act.
• It is important to understand who attends these meetings, with what authority, and what 'participation' means to them.
• Different cultural, social and historical experiences affect how people perceive participatory governance.
• Government officials and the state have a responsibility to make sure that discrimination is not reproduced in participatory spaces, and that all sections of society are able to participate.

Vera Schattan Coelho and Andrea Cornwall

Vera Schattan P. Coelho
Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Planejamento — CEBRAP, R. Morgado de Mateus, 615, 04015-902 S‹o Paulo, Brazil
veraspc@uol.com.br

Andrea Cornwall
Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9RE, UK
T +44 (0)1273 877146
F +44 (0)1273 621202
A.Cornwall@ids.ac.uk

See also

Spaces for Change? The Politics of Citizen Participation in New Democratic Arenas, Zed Books: London, edited by Andrea Cornwall and Vera Schattan Coelho, 2007 (PDF) Link

Making Space for Citizens: Broadening the 'New Democratic Spaces' for Citizen Participation, IDS Policy Briefing, Issue 27, by Alex Shankland, 2006 (PDF) Link

Case Study >>

Views expressed on these pages are not necessarily those of DFID, IDS, id21 or other contributing institutions. Copyright remains with the original authors but (unless stated otherwise) any article may be copied or quoted without restriction, provided both source (id21, insights) and authors are properly acknowledged and informed. Copyright © 2006 id21. All rights reserved.