Participatory Budgeting as a Tool of Environmental Improvements in Polish Cities

Abstract

The phenomenon of participatory budgeting in Polish cities shows growing awareness of citizens' role in local development. Participatory budgeting is a tool of partial empowerment of residents through local budgetary policy. A social energy released by initiatives and proposed projects allows for implementation of relevant activities that from the residents' perspective improve quality and comfort of urban life. Research problem around which the article is focused is a question to what extent an interest of inhabitants is related to projects and tasks of environmental character in their cities. The empirical part of the paper presents an analysis of participatory budgeting in Katowice, Łódź and Poznań and applies to projects reported in 2015 and realized in 2016. The aim of this article is to identify the activities of residents of the selected cities related to improvement of the quality of environment through participatory budgeting. The studies clearly show that despite the apparent differences between the cities, the participatory budgeting is an important area of creativity and innovation of the residents towards quality of urban environment.

Wpływ budżetu obywatelskiego na przestrzeń polskich miast

“…Temat wpływu budżetu obywatelskiego na przestrzeń polskich miast był już częściowo podejmowany zarówno w odniesieniu do kształtowania przestrzeni publicznych, jak i działań na rzecz środowiska i jego ochrony (Bernaciak, Rzeńca, Sobol 2017, 2018. Artykuły te uwzględniały jednak dane dotyczące jedynie niewielkiej grupy miast.…”

”New” public urban space: citizens’ initiatives in participatory budgeting in Katowice, Łódź and Poznań

“…In response, urban decision makers introduce tools that ensure citizen involvement in developing urban policy and space. Participatory budgeting is one of the tools which has been used the most frequently and has resulted in a number of urban space transformations in Polish cities (Bernaciak, Rzeńca & Sobol 2017).…”

Ecology Projects and Participatory Budgeting: Enhancing Citizens’ Support

“…Earlier research provides evidence about participatory budgeting as an appropriate tool for the promotion and implementation of ecology projects [3,6]. Other studies show that ecology projects submitted to participatory budgeting are, in general, appealing to citizens compared to projects on other topics but that the competition is stiff [7,8]. This means that while many projects on ecological topics are submitted, few are voted on by citizens and implemented.…”