<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Participation has recently received renewed attention in the context of governance. This is especially relevant in countries where democratization and decentralization have led to an increased promotion of citizen involvement into the decision-making process. This article suggests that the current debate on civic engagement would benefit from further reflection on how the concept of participation is implemented in contexts, particularly in the Nordic as well as Central and Eastern European countries, where ideas of local democracy, urban governance and involvement can be understood differently. By exploring citizen participation from the perspective of local officials in two European cities – Lublin, Poland and Tampere, Finland, the article seeks to add significant data to the on-going scholarly discussion. Based on qualitative research, it examines <italic>advantages and disadvantages</italic> of the provisions of the local citizen-participation frameworks, as perceived by the officials of the selected case cities. In the conclusion, the authors point out that although both cities have different democratic institutional systems as well as commonly accepted notions of citizen participation, their city halls frequently face similar problems related to the use of participatory tools.</p></abstract>

Participation has recently received renewed attention in the context of governance. This is especially relevant in countries where democratization and decentralization have led to an increased promotion of citizen involvement into the decision-making process. This article suggests that the current debate on civic engagement would benefit from further reflection on how the concept of participation is implemented in contexts, particularly in the Nordic as well as Central and Eastern European countries, where ideas of local democracy, urban governance and involvement can be understood differently. By exploring citizen participation from the perspective of local officials in two European cities – Lublin, Poland and Tampere, Finland, the article seeks to add significant data to the on-going scholarly discussion. Based on qualitative research, it examines advantages and disadvantages of the provisions of the local citizen-participation frameworks, as perceived by the officials of the selected case cities. In the conclusion, the authors point out that although both cities have different democratic institutional systems as well as commonly accepted notions of citizen participation, their city halls frequently face similar problems related to the use of participatory tools.

Citizen Participation and Engagement in Urban Governance: Perception of Finnish and Polish Local Officials<xref ref-type="fn" rid="fn1_w2aab2b8b5b1b7b1ab1aaAa"><sup>1</sup></xref>

Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Political Science, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Lublin, Poland, Plac Litewski 3, 20-080 Lublin, Poland and Postdoctoral fellow in Institute of Political Studies, Faculty of Social Science, Charles University in Prague, U kříže 8, 15800, Prague, Czech Republic.

University lecturer and researcher at the School of Management, Department of Regional Studies, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland; Kalevantie 4, 33014 Tampereenyliopisto, Finland.

NISPAcee Journal of Public Administration and Policy

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Citizen Participation and Engagement in Urban Governance: Perception of Finnish and Polish Local Officials

Participation has recently received renewed attention in the context of governance. This is especially relevant in countries where democratization and...

Citizen Participation and Engagement in Urban Governance: Perception of Finnish and Polish Local Officials¹

Published Online: Jul 27, 2015

Page range: 85 - 110

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/nispa-2015-0005

Keywords
local self-government, pros and cons of citizen participation, democracy, governance

© NISPAcee

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Citizen Participation and Engagement in Urban Governance: Perception of Finnish and Polish Local Officials1

Published Online: Jul 27, 2015

Page range: 85 - 110

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/nispa-2015-0005

Keywordslocal self-government, pros and cons of citizen participation, democracy, governance

© NISPAcee

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Citizen Participation and Engagement in Urban Governance: Perception of Finnish and Polish Local Officials¹

Keywords
local self-government, pros and cons of citizen participation, democracy, governance