PUPLIC
PARTICIPATION
Page 1
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND PARTICIPATORY PROCESSES
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WHAT
IS PUBLIC PARTICIPATION?
Page 6
DIFFERENT
WAYS
TO INVOLVE THE PUBLIC
Page 7
ROUND TABLES IN CANADA
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USING
ROUND TABLES IN THE TRANSPORTATION SECTOR IN POLAND
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URBAN
GREENING. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN
BANGKOK
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ENLISTING THE PUBLIC TO
CLEAN UP CITIES
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EMPOWERMENT AND PUPLIC PARTICIPATION
Page17
ICSC'S
ROLE AS A BROKER
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ICSC'S
CANADIAN TEAM-
PUPLIC PARTICIPATION AND MULTI-PARTY PROCESSES
Page 21
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The Self Empowerment Cycle
I have argued elsewhere
that one can track the process of empowerment that these groups
went through as involving four phases of group development.1
Those phases can be labeled as "powerlessness", "protesting",
"proposing" and "partnering". Each phase is
characterized by both objective and psychological elements, and
the movement of groups from one phase to the next can be predicted
and facilitated by conscious interventions on the part of leaders,
members or outside facilitators.
A brief summary of
the cycle may assist those involved in public participation processes
to understand why their efforts to inform, consult or involve,
may end in conflict or confrontation rather than discussion or
consensus.
Powerlessness
This phase of the cycle is characterized by a lack of access to
financial, political, legal, institutional or media resources.
Psychologically it is characterized by low energy and feelings
of apathy, dependency, hopelessness or helplessness. Those in
the dependent group often empathize with or want to be like the
power group. This difficulty was identified by writers such a
Andre Gunder Frank and the early feminists who saw the need to
overcome this "encogido syndrome" before groups could
be mobilized to act on their own interests.
Interventions that
move groups or individuals from this position include consciousness
raising techniques, educational interventions (literacy and legal
information are particularly potent) and experiential events such
as peer exchanges. Saul Alinsky believed that one had to "rub
the sores raw" in order to motivate people to change. The
common experience of the award winning communities in the We the
Peoples Awards Program for the 50th Anniversary of the United
Nations would also suggest that communities do not change unless
and until they experience or become aware of significant discomfort.2
Protesting
This phase of the empowerment cycle is characterized by active
critiques and confrontation or challenges of the status quo. Psychologically
it involves high emotional energy, anger, frustration and hostility.
Shortages of power are typically blamed on the powerful group,
and there is a notable lack of empathy for those who are perceived
as part of the established power group.
Because polarization is common, appropriate
facilitation during this phase involves use of techniques to encourage
dialogue and problem solving and discourage violence. Thus the
introduction of institutionalized structures to enable dialogue
among key stakeholder groups is appropriate. In the absence of
such structures, protests escalate and may move from local issues
to mass demonstrations or violent confrontations.
Just as groups and individuals may
be stuck in dependency, so too they may get stuck in the protesting
phase. Interventions may be needed to facilitate the movement
of groups from protesting what they do not want to examining what
they do want.
Proposing
It is a curious fact that after a degree of awareness and protest,
groups want to withdraw and look inward - rethinking their own
values and establishing their identity as different from the power
group. Thus this phase is characterized by separation. At a psychological
level it involves introspection and assertion of the group's independence.
It often involves an attitude of superiority of one's own values
or a (re)discovery and celebration of cultural or group identity.
Facilitating movement from protesting
to proposing involves asking the group for its vision of what
it wants and for concrete proposals to solve problems or implement
that vision. Thus visioning, strategic planning, values clarification,
cultural and identity related activities are most effective at
this stage. Structures that allow "separation" without
requiring "divorce" are needed.
Again, there is a possibility of
individuals or groups remaining stuck in separation and being
unable or unwilling to have anything to do with the previous power
group. Facilitating movement towards renewed interaction and shared
activities involves a process of reconciliation or forgiveness.
Where protesting has enabled the group or individual to gain "freedom
from", reconciliation processes are often needed to move
the groups to be "free to" work together again.
When individuals and groups have a strong sense of their own identity,
they are able to move to more equal power relationships.
Partnering
This phase is characterized by shared decision-making and shared
access to resources. Psychologically there is an awareness of
the value of working together with the previous power group, to
accomplish mutual goals. It is a recognition of interdependence
or perhaps more descriptively, inter-independence, in that the
relationship is one of equals. The relationship is one of mutual
respect and empathy for each other's positions, strengths and
limitations. Both parties are free "from" and free "to"
interact as appropriate in the situation.
Appropriate activities or interventions during this phase involves
structures that support shared decision-making among relatively
equal partners. Round Tables are an example, as are other consensus-based
processes.
Research and observations have shown that groups
and individuals do not move to partnering - or sharing power as
equals without going through the protesting and proposing stages.
Many of those in the business of development or social change
would prefer that this were not the case. They would rather not
face the negative emotions associated with protesting, nor experience
the rejection often associated with withdrawal and focusing inward
that occurs before proposals are made. Yet both phases are necessary
precursors of partnering. Furthermore, experience shows that this
process is not a direct linear progression, but is rather a cyclical
process wherein groups gain increased power on one set of issues,
and then work through a similar cycle on another set of issues.
Thus, the cycle becomes a spiral leading in the long-run to increased
political space.
1 N.K. Seymoar, J.Ponce de Leon, Creating
Common Unity: Models of Self Empowerment, 50 Award Winning Communities,
Weigl Educational Publishers 1997
2 ibid
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