Events

CHAIRPERSON

Prof Mike Douglass, Asia Research Institute and Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

Participatory Budgeting (PB) has emerged as one of the major innovations in participatory governance for local management and local democracy worldwide. With more than 1400 experiences recorded in over forty countries in 2013, PB is gradually changing the living conditions of increasing numbers of citizens across the world. Highly heterogeneous in processes and underlying ambitions, PB in its diversity provides a challenging alternative to conventional routes to manage cities. In most cases, PB has positively contributed to administrative modernization and other ‘good governance’ imperatives, including bringing substance to decentralization policies. In its most radical incarnations, PB has moreover contributed to inversing established spatial, social and political priorities in cities, in favour of the more deprived.

The communication will briefly introduce the worldwide expansion of PB and the heterogeneity of current experiences (1) and proposes an analytical grid to differentiate among them (2). The heterogeneity of cases reflects substantially differing underpinning logics which can be described as political (for radical democratic change), managerial and technocratic (to improve municipal finance transparency and optimize the use of public resources for citizens’ benefit) or good governance driven (to improve links between the public and citizens spheres). We shall explore five prominent experiences from diverse political systems to illustrate these logics: Dondo, Mozambique (good governance); Soligen, Germany (managerial); Seville and Chengdu, China (deepening democracy/political). Finally, we give a brief assessment of PB’s major contributions and on-going challenges (4).

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Yves Cabannes a planner and urban specialist, currently Professor and Chair of Development Planning at Bartlett Development Planning Unit (DPU), University College London (www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/dpu). From 2004 to 2006 he was lecturer in Urban Planning at Harvard University Graduate School of Design. From 1997 until December 2003, he was the regional Coordinator of the UN Habitat/UNDP Urban Management Program for Latin America and the Caribbean. He has particular experience and interest in urban agriculture & Food sovereignty, collective and communal forms of land tenure, local currencies, participatory planning, municipal public policies, low cost housing, participatory budgeting, community-based micro credit systems and appropriate technologies for local development. He is an advocate on development and rights issues and was the convener for the UN Advisory Group on Forced Evictions (2004-2010) and the senior advisor to the Municipality of Porto Alegre, Brazil, for the international network on participatory budgeting. He is committed to civil society initiatives in different regions and a member of the board of the International RUAF Foundation – Resource Centres for Urban Agriculture and Food Security -, The World Fund for City Development (Metropolis), HuiZhi (Participation Centre, Chengdu China) and the Participatory Budgeting Project (USA).

REGISTRATION

Admission is free. We would greatly appreciate if you RSVP to Ms Tay Minghua via email: minghua.tay@nus.edu.sg.