Grundtvig, People and politics

Fundació
Desenvolupament
Comunitari,
Catalunya.

Local Group

Kunbabony, the 27th of September

PREAMBULE: We wanted to know
everything about participation without
avoiding self-criticism

How have you

done it?
 BACKGROUND: We have studied 5
projects*, introduced by the local group:
5
• Nou Barris (BCN): civil
management of public
equipment
2 4 • V.: Neighbourhood
3 conflict
• S.C.: Youth issue
1 • Girona: territory
sustainable development
• Catalunya: water supply
management
consultation

*The study cases are introduced and explained in the pepol web page (link))
OBJECTIVE of the group: to put the focus
on the methods and techniques…

which (might) have

enabled 1. a real
participation (of
everybody) 2. and a
good articulation
between people and
politics, 3. and led
through them to a real
TRANSFORMATION
of the reality, in and
around the community.
In this framework, we have come to the
conclusion that:

-The method is a process to bring the expected

result. It implies the use of a strategy (How will we
get to the result?)
-The technique is about the “trick” which will
enable the change. It implies the use of a tactic.
- The right use of the technique must help to
implement the strategy, in order to produce the
changes expected.
We have then followed these
Guidelines:
-To identify a grid of criteria to analyse the Methods
and Techniques.
-To draw from the projects the methods and
techniques used.
-To find the tactic/strategy behind them, in order not
to loose the essence of the exercise.
-To order the methods and techniques by “families”.

-Then we have analyzed more in details two of them

-We have pointed out a few results
-And a few problems

-And we have come to some recommendations,

trying to take into account what the result expected
from these methods and techniques was.
Methods to induce the transformation:
Mediation Territory School

Strategy: redistributing roles,

according to potentialities Strategy: Training to empower

Mixt grup of negociation Citizen Council

Strategy: redistributing roles, Strategy:Getting to the corners

according to established profiles

The example of the “Citizen Council”

Appropriate techniques to make the method
successful, that is:
- to enable true participation of people, through self expression
and creativity: interviews; bordergame, “hidden agenda”
- To enable a real collective participation (sharing): dialog
café; DAFO/SWOT; cineforum..)
- to try to get to the whole territory (Consultation)
- to try to get to the right actors to operate the right changes
(sociogramme)
- To enable the sustainable implementation of the change through
the participation of the “politicians”: Agreement meetings;
Negociation group...
- To enable the participation in the
implementation/execution of the decision and the follow-
up: Plan of Action, Follw Up Commission; “Promotor” Group...)
- To create complicity, a reliance atmosphere, i.e.to connect:
meals, appropriate infrastructure, “potatoes”, “stones”
List of techniques (and tactics)
• Interviews (to enable self-expression and creativity)
• Sociogrammes (to identify and display roles)
• Café dialog (to enable equal participation)
• Agreement meetings (solid basis to re-build relations)
• Hidden Agenda (to express the hidden thoughts)
• Bordergame (to help expressivity and creativity to feel comfortable)
• ITT+Video (to canalise the emotions and creativity)
• Training Tenders (to answer the needs of people)
• Participatory Management (to shift to civil management of
public space)
• Horizontal Management Organ (to change the management
mentality)
• F-Up mechanisms (Plan of Actions, F.Up Comm.,
Promotor Group) (common vision and control of the next steps, to
avoid to forget about them)

The example of the “bordergame”

Problems (1):
• It is difficult that the
“normal people”
participate
• Where is the initiative
coming from and who run
it ?
2. The “scientific” knowledge is important to get forward:
how to combine this knowledge and the divulgation of
this knowledge in the short time of the process.
3. Lobby and Pressure groups dominate (Projects of
individuals vs. Projects of representatives; Participation vs.
Co-management).
4. Difficult to facilitate all the conditions for a good
participation ( translation (language and discourses)),
infrastructure (kidgarden), resources (money, equipment)
Problems (2):
• To match different
calendars and timing
of the different actors
(government, parliament,
NGOs, people) is not
always possible (time not
always available)
• The politicians often
“participate” only by
electoral interest
• To be too exigent with
participation process can
lead to frustration: we do as
much as we can (the ideal
participation is utopian).
What is a good tactic towards the politicians ?
Recommendations
-Be careful with who initiates the project and facilitate the
proces ( it is good to use a third party to “mediate” in the
process).

-Be aware of the limits (small is beautiful! The smaller, the

easier, the bigger, the more complex!) and make it as
participatory as possible (Sometimes the actors involved are
not the whole population, but the right ones)

-Choose the right tactic and strategy towards a clear objective

(Importance of creativity, self-expression and innovation) and
decide how the methods and techniques are to be used).

-Work towards a culture of the participation and not only for

participatory projects
As a conclusion…

Utopia is on the horizon. I move two steps closer, it moves two

steps further away. I walk another ten steps and the horizon
runs ten steps further away. As much as I may walk, I'll never
reach it. So what's the point of utopia? The point is this: to keep
walking (Eduardo Galeano)
P9210007.mov
The end