TITLE:
Deliberation in Workshops in the Participatory Budgeting Process
AUTHORS:
Virpi Lund, Soile Juujärvi
KEYWORDS:
Community and Urban Development, Deliberation, Participatory Budgeting, Residents, Workshops
JOURNAL NAME:
Current Urban Studies,
Vol.10 No.4,
December
2,
2022
ABSTRACT: Participatory
budgeting (PB) is an increasingly popular method for enhancing citizen
participation in allocating public resources and engaging citizens in urban
development. This paper aims to examine deliberation as a part of a PB
experiment called “My Idea”, which took place in the
city of Espoo, southern Finland. The PB process is comprised of several phases,
including informing citizens, submitting proposals, deliberating in workshops,
and voting on a digital platform. The residents participated in workshops to
upgrade their proposals to be more feasible and attractive with the help of
experts and municipal authorities. Deliberation consisted of elements of
citizens coming together, discussing and reflecting on real topics, forming
opinions and exchanging views before making informed decisions. The results
entail deliberation in the workshops. The findings suggest that the
deliberation of residents’ proposals with experts and municipal authorities has
the potential to engage citizens in urban development. The empirical data were
collected from the workshop discussions and
participants’ interviews. The current findings contribute to an
understanding of the importance of deliberation and public discussion in the PB
process and community development.