Participatory budgeting (PB) allows communities to be directly involved in decisions on the priorities and spending of public budgets. In Edinburgh, PB has been implemented since 2010. As an approach it can offer significant benefits in increasing community participation, improving the effectiveness of public spending and promoting greater community cohesion.
Videos
Short videos about PB in the UK and worldwide
Participatory Budgeting in West Pokot: Hearing the voices of women
A film about participatory budgeting in Kenya was first shown to an international audience at the ‘lived experiences’ session of the Engage, Think, Do! PB fringe conference held in Edinburgh in October 2016. The film showed how PB worked in West Pokot in 2016. It looked at the history of this innovative process in that… Read More
Davy Jones reports on growth of Participatory Budgeting in the UK
In a special edition of the Davy Jones politics show on RadioFreeBrighton, these are recordings of interviews he undertook while attending the International Participatory Budgeting Conference in Edinburgh last week. In four interviews he talks to Jez Hall from the UK Participatory Budgeting (PB) Network, Alastair Kennedy from Elgin, Kathleen Glazik, a civil servant in… Read More
2nd Generation Participatory Budgeting… reflections on mainstreaming public participation
Second Generation PB: Reflections on key messages from the PB Conference, Scotland: by Susan Ritchie I love this term – it’s like the phrase wave two of feminism! Marking out differences along the journey and how people change and adapt practice as they implement their thinking. I hope second generation PB will be more positive… Read More
RSA sets up the Citizens Economic Council
Though not quite participatory budgeting, the RSA’s new Citizens Economic Council project is certainly inspired by it. In the prospectus for the Citizens Economic Council research was undertaken on PB in Porto Alegre, seen as the founding example of a worldwide phenomena. The RSA prospectus makes the case for why we need a better and… Read More
Buckinghamshire’s Area Forums using PB
In Buckinghamshire, some Local Area Forums have held ‘community budgeting’ schemes over the past few years. These schemes have taken place in Aylesbury, Amersham and Wendover. To see the details of the projects that have benefited from this community budget money, view the previous years’ reports. Its unclear if the project is continuing in 2016…. Read More
Can Children Take Part in PB?
This article is an extract from the full story on the website of the Center for Urban Pegagogy in the USA and was published in 2012. How can someone who is too young to vote have a say in the future of their neighbourhood? What does civics really look like in action? In the spring… Read More
Third Force News reports political commitment to £100m for Participatory Budgeting
In a recent article, Third Force News, the ‘voice of the Scotland’s third sector’ reports a commitment from the SNP to extend the role of participatory budgeting(PB) to 1% of Glasgow City Council’s Budget if it takes control of the city in upcoming elections. In a city with a population of around 600,000, that is… Read More
Aberdeen youth spend £100,000 to improve their lives
As recently reported in the Aberdeen evening express: "Thousands of pounds have been handed out to Aberdeen community groups after a Dragons’ Den-style event. Aberdeen City Council had allocated £100,000 as part of its participatory budgeting process to fund new youth projects and initiatives across the regeneration areas of the city." The PB Scotland website gives… Read More
Boston Youth Leads the Change: Come for Pizza, stay for the power.
The PB Network has been reporting on innovations in Participatory Budgeting, and so we are pleased to read this update on Boston Youth Leads the Change on the Guardian Newspaper’s Cities webpages. As reported by Sandra Larson on the 31st March 2016: "When the city of Boston gave teenagers the power to allocate a million… Read More
