PB Youth Accelerator is the working title of a new initiative looking to collate evidence of participatory budgeting involving young people in the community and in schools. This two year research partnership consists of 5 partners from 3 countries. It is lead by Polish foundation Soclab, with collaborators from Field of Dialogue in Poland and… Read More
International
What's happening in Participatory Budgeting internationally
No, People Aren’t Too Dumb for Democracy: Blog by Roslyn Fuller
In the latest in our series of guest blogs Dr Roslyn Fuller, of the Solonian Democracy Institute considers whether we have misread the public’s ability to make decisions. She argues in defence of democracy and trusting ‘ordinary’ people. I have been researching democracy for over a dozen years. During that time one of the… Read More
Lisbon agrees 5m euro fund for Green PB
Lisbon City Council’s first-ever ‘green’ participatory budget, an initiative supported and managed by South Pole and EIT Climate-KIC’s City Finance Lab, has been allocated a €5 million budget to support climate change mitigation and adaptation projects selected by local citizens. The Mayor of Lisbon made the announcement in May 2019 during the ceremony for this… Read More
What is Democracy Anyway: Why voting systems matter in Participatory Budgeting
In a world seemingly dominated by elections and talk of confirmatory referenda, and when we are so used to ‘first past the post’, probably quite a lot of people were confused as to how the EU election voting process worked. Was it fair? Did my vote count? Did the right outcome result? It feels timely… Read More
Participatory Governance & Tax Compliance: Two New World Bank Studies
The willingness of citizens to pay taxes must surely be a strong indicator of their trust in government. In two new reports recently released by the World Bank strong evidence emerges on the effect of citizen engagement on tax morale and tax compliance. The first examined the Brazilian case, using data from all 5,570 municipalities… Read More
Mapping and Ideas Generation. Visualising Participatory Budgeting
In a short blog by Jez Hall, of Shared Future/PB Partners, he looks at the role of mapping and data visualisation as an innovative way to extend the reach of participatory budgeting and put communities ‘on the map’. Much debate exists in the ‘civic tech’ world about which platform or technology best supports participatory budgeting…. Read More
Pushing at the limits: Participatory Budgeting and prisoner rehabilitation in Canada
Jez Hall writes about how PB can push the limits of empowerment to the most unusual of suspects. One of the amazing things about Participatory Budgeting(PB) is how it can push boundaries and break down walls. Even the walls around the criminal justice system? A step too far? Whether its in empowering young people by… Read More
The growth of PB in Russia and Asia: Major report on learning to date
The PB Network are pleased to host a new report, co-authored by international participatory budgeting expert Yves Cabannes on the development of PB in Russia and Asia. This report follows up the Networking Session on Participatory Budgeting in Asian and Russian cities and regions that took place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia during the World Urban… Read More
Sweden hosts major international conference on participatory budgeting, May 2018
There will be a PB focussed conference in Stockholm on the 17th and 18th May 2018, organised by the Swedish Association of Local Authorities (SALAR), which will see experts in participatory budgeting coming from across the world. This is a great opportunity if you want to learn more about participatory budgeting and participation in complex… Read More
Participatory Budgeting: What are Parisians dreaming about?
The City of Paris has been running the largest scale Participatory Budgeting process in Europe. As part of an international study visit to Paris in December 2016 by representatives of Glasgow and Fife Community Planning Partnerships, enabled by What Works Scotland, a report by "Atelier Parisien d’Urbanisme"(APUR) into the types of projects proposed in 2015… Read More