Inclusion as ownership in participatory budgeting: facilitators’ interpretations of public engagement of children and youth

ABSTRACT

This article draws from two cases of participatory budgeting (PB) in Poland and Finland to explore PB as an inclusive practice of involving children and youth in local governance. Scrutinizing interpretations of facilitators involved in the creation of PB, we analyze the motivation for incorporating children and youth into governance and how their engagement was conducted from the view of ownership. We identify ownership as a central element of inclusion when children and young people are invited to participate in public matters. Our conceptualization distinguishes four analytical dimensions of ownership: ownership of (1) process, (2) issue, (3) action produced, and (4) decision-making. Additionally, we argue that from the view of PB facilitators, encouraging the ownership of children and young people to PB involves four functions: carrying out a legally mandated task, identifying topical issues, developing tools of support, and constructing a motivational link between school and society. We highlight that ownership can potentially contribute to the challenges of engagement experienced in PB initiatives. However, promoting ownership possesses a risk of disempowering the participants and raises concern about the relation between ownership and the level of genuine inclusion.

KEYWORDS:

• Participatory budgeting
• inclusion
• participation
• ownership
• children and youth
• local governance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Polish local government is divided into 16 regions, 380 counties (66 cities with county rights and 316 rural counties), and 2478 municipalities. PB has been introduced in all cities with county rights.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Academy of Finland under Grant 295028 (PI Pauliina Lehtonen) and by the National Science Centre Poland under Project no 2021/41/B/HS5/02899 (PI Katarzyna Radzik-Maruszak).

Notes on contributors

Pauliina Lehtonen

Pauliina Lehtonen is a Senior Research Fellow in Tampere University, Finland. Her work concentrates on public engagement, urban governance and participatory democracy. She is especially interested in the questions of co-production of knowledge, developing participatory practices, and enhancing social inclusion in sustainable urban development. Currently, she studies urban segregation from the view how well-being and inclusion of people living in suburban areas could be recognized as part of sustainable urban transition.

Katarzyna Radzik-Maruszak

Katarzyna Radzik-Maruszak is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Political Science and Journalism, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Poland. Her research interests involve the comparative local governance, citizens’ participation, and sustainable urban development. She leads the project Silent witnesses or active participants? Patterns of children and youth involvement in local governance in Poland and Finland funded by the National Science Centre, Poland.