Suchergebnisse

This is a case study, carried out with a strategy of action research. This study concerns the organizational model of citizen participation in the city of Vantaa. The research questions are: What are the incentives for developing citizen participation in municipalities, and how is the multifarious participation carried out in municipality. The data consists of interviews of key actors (8), documents, diaries, and a workshop diary.
An important incentive for development seems to be regulation concerning participation, the general and local discussion concerning democracy and the experiences from already existing variety of participation activities. When it comes to the process of development good pilots and adequate support and activity are important factors. Structural solutions are needed but at the same time there is an attempt to keep participation as resilience as possible. The results conclude, that development of participation can be observed as an institutional change.

In this study, we scrutinise how municipalities can enhance citizen participation as arenas for local democracy. We combine the aspects of institutional structures with citizens' expectations and viewpoints by analysing citizens' views on the barriers to and catalysts for participation. We outline the possibilities and map the role of municipalities in enhancing citizen participation. This qualitative study utilises empirical data consisting of 160 essays written by university students. In their essays, students reflect on their roles as participants and think about possible obstacles to participation. The data is analysed using inductive qualitative content analysis. In the analysis, three categories were identified to illustrate and interpret the societal, personal and instrumental-processual factors that affect citizens' willingness and abilities to participate at the local level. Municipalities can easily address the instrumental-processual factors, whereas affecting societal and personal factors is more difficult. The role of municipalities in enhancing citizen participation is thus restricted, yet important.

In this study, we scrutinise how municipalities can enhance citizen participation as arenas for local democracy. We combine the aspects of institutional structures with citizens' expectations and viewpoints by analysing citizens' views on the barriers to and catalysts for participation. We outline the possibilities and map the role of municipalities in enhancing citizen participation. This qualitative study utilises empirical data consisting of 160 essays written by university students. In their essays, students reflect on their roles as participants and think about possible obstacles to participation. The data is analysed using inductive qualitative content analysis. In the analysis, three categories were identified to illustrate and interpret the societal, personal and instrumental-processual factors that affect citizens' willingness and abilities to participate at the local level. Municipalities can easily address the instrumental-processual factors, whereas affecting societal and personal factors is more difficult. The role of municipalities in enhancing citizen participation is thus restricted, yet important. ; publishedVersion ; Peer reviewed

In this study, we scrutinise how municipalities can enhance citizen participation as arenas for local democracy. We combine the aspects of institutional structures with citizens' expectations and viewpoints by analysing citizens' views on the barriers to and catalysts for participation. We outline the possibilities and map the role of municipalities in enhancing citizen participation. This qualitative study utilises empirical data consisting of 160 essays written by university students. In their essays, students reflect on their roles as participants and think about possible obstacles to participation. The data is analysed using inductive qualitative content analysis. In the analysis, three categories were identified to illustrate and interpret the societal, personal and instrumental-processual factors that affect citizens' willingness and abilities to participate at the local level. Municipalities can easily address the instrumental-processual factors, whereas affecting societal and personal factors is more difficult. The role of municipalities in enhancing citizen participation is thus restricted, yet important.

This study observes the roles of the different actors involved in the processes of innovation. The theoretical framework on which this study is based deals mainly with the idea of collaborative innovation. This is a case study of eight Finnish municipalities (Hattula, Hollola, Hämeenlinna, Kuusamo, Pudasjärvi, Raahe, Rovaniemi and Salo) and their innovation processes. The research question is: how did collaboration occur between the diverse actors during the observed development processes? The main data of this article emanates from the workshops held in these eight municipalities. Four groups of actors emerge in the empirical analysis: key actors, actors within the municipal organization, actors within the municipality and actors outside the municipality. The roles of promoters, coordinators and leaders of innovation processes and municipal management were highlighted. These key actors have the opportunities to promote and organize collaboration in the innovation processes. Collaborative practices in innovation processes are seen, as an important aim and the importance of including different stakeholders is quite widely understood. However, it seems that a systematic approach towards collaboration in these processes is lacking and in some cases the instruments for collaboration might be lacking.

PurposeThis study observes the organisational environment of fostering citizen participation in the context of local government. Creating systems of influential citizen participation requires the consideration of organisational prerequisites. This study asks which organisational elements contribute to successful citizen participation in local government.Design/methodology/approachThe data consist of interviews with 14 key actors who work for the city of Helsinki. The interview content was subjected to abductive content analysis and reflected in the analytical framework based on previous literature on citizen participation. The analysis complements and adds insights to the existing literature.FindingsThis study illuminates three crucial elements of influential citizen participation: organisational structures, organisational culture and adequate resources. Additionally, the results revealed management to be a crucial enabling element. The findings highlight the importance of seeing citizen participation as an issue of governance and as a systemic part of the administration requiring intentional management efforts.Originality/valueThe study illustrates the key elements (structures, culture and resources) that should be considered when creating an influential citizen participation system. Additionally, the empirical analysis highlights the importance of management, which has been understudied in previous studies concerning citizen participation.

In this article, we explore the embedding of citizen participation in local government. Our study combines and synthesizes the focal aspects of two theoretical streams—citizen participation and interactive governance—in a novel way to identify, illustrate, and analyze the layers of governance required for citizen participation. The analysis shows how the institutional pervasiveness and holistic nature of citizen participation affects the strategic, executive, and citizen interface layers of governance and their interconnections. The research contributes to the literature on embedding citizen participation in government by emphasizing the need to address citizen participation as a profound question of governance and management.

Successful Participatory Budgeting – What, How and for Whom?This article discusses participatory budgeting (PB), and especially the ways it can be deemed successful. Despite PB's noteworthy global diffusion, the ways to assess its successes have not evolved at the same pace. Specific basic requirements have been set out for PB, as well as ways of measuring different aspects of PB, but no deeper knowledge on the evaluation for successful PB has been developed. In this paper we approach this matter via a case-study that we use to identify the different success-factors of PB. This mixed-methods study affirms previous studies results on the meaningfulness of early goal setting in PB, and also the diverse ways in which PB can be viewed as a success or failure.

Purpose
This paper approaches collaborative governance reform as an empirical phenomenon. The purpose of this paper is to gain insights about the systemic and grassroots level conditions for collaboration, observed from the viewpoint of organisational culture. In this paper, the authors ask what constitutes collaborative development culture in local government organisations?


Design/methodology/approach
The research design is founded on secondary use of quantitative data; a survey targeted to Finnish local government organisations (n=172). The authors analyse what factors the different groups, managers, professionals and politicians consider important for collaborative development culture and how they assess their local government organisations in this regard.


Findings
According to the results, enabling and supporting management, local government personnel's input and ability to seek external partners are essential for creating a collaborative development culture. Interestingly, despite the recognition of deterring factors by the respondents the results highlight that the supporting and driving factors are more important for creation of collaborative culture, giving an optimistic message to actors trying to enhance collaborative development culture in local government organisations.


Originality/value
The authors examine the collaborative governance reform in a critical way, from the viewpoint of organisational culture. Through the study, it is possible to better understand the reality and readiness for collaboration of local governments in this respect. This is a valuable aspect for increasing both theoretical and practical understanding of the so-called collaborative governance.