Si fa presto a dire partecipazione. Una riflessione su attori, finalità, tecniche e strumenti

It’s too easy to say participation. Reflection on actors, goals, technics and instruments. In the last years there is a growing call for greater public participation in public decisional process, aligned with democratic ideals but also with the lack of legitimization of institutions and political class. In this paper, after an introduction on the undefined concept of participation, we propose some reflections on the relations among institutions, citizens and participation, considering also some of the underlying decisional theories and exploring the idea that participation is a kind of or opportune "luxury" activity in the right situation. We suggest to consider the purpose, the actors, the contexts where participation will be implemented and only after these analysis to choose the more appropriate techniques or tools. To this end, we list more of two hundred mechanism of public involvement and compare one hundred of these as regards two aspects: the main purposes of participation and the kind of involvement of stakeholders or citizens. The general purpose is to underline the need for the public administrators and overall for the methodologist, to know and to be able to choose among the large variety of public involvement procedures, so that the participation process could be more effective and efficient and adds its value to decision making.

Keywords: Participation, involvement procedures techniques, decision making

• Approccio partecipativo e valutazione di outcome: l'uso del brainstorming nella definizione dei criteri per valutare l'efficacia dei percorsi adottivi Caterina Balenzano, in RIV Rassegna Italiana di Valutazione 65/2017 pp.7
  DOI: 10.3280/RIV2016-065002

Valeria Pastore, Si fa presto a dire partecipazione. Una riflessione su attori, finalità, tecniche e strumenti in "RIVISTA TRIMESTRALE DI SCIENZA DELL’AMMINISTRAZIONE" 4/2010, pp 73-112, DOI: 10.3280/SA2010-004005