Post-Political Development and Emancipation

Abstract

Post-Political Development and Emancipation Knierbein and Viderman (ed.) Public Space Unbounded The literature on governance and collaborative planning promotes citizen participation in policymaking and planning while its critics emphasize the post-political character of these processes. This study addresses these themes by analyzing two participatory projects in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. Our claim is that the post-political framework downplays neighbourhood activism and overlooks differences in local participatory projects not based on protest. These projects include partnerships, expert NGOs and participatory models, often labelled as postpolitical. However, they can also challenge the dichotomy between top-down and bottom-up development, provide new opportunities for grassroots-level actors and combine horizontal and vertical forms of engagement. 7 Post-Political Development and Emancipation Knierbein and Viderman (ed.

Towards Interactive Governance: Embedding Citizen Participation in Local Government

“…In this study, we use the City of Helsinki and its citizen participation efforts as an empirical case of embedding citizen participation in government. Helsinki has a long history of citizen participation that draws not only from the institutional efforts to enhance citizen participation overseen by the city organization but also from a legacy of citizens’ self-organizing activities (such as NGOs and neighborhood associations) (Kuokkanen & Palonen, 2018). In the last decade, the city organization has enhanced its efforts to promote and improve citizen participation by, for example, renewing its citizen participation model and recruiting more staff to increase participation (Jäntti et al, 2021).…”

“…In the last decade, the city organization has enhanced its efforts to promote and improve citizen participation by, for example, renewing its citizen participation model and recruiting more staff to increase participation (Jäntti et al, 2021). Citizen participation in Helsinki has been promoted and studied in, among other areas, the urban development context (e.g., Kuokkanen & Palonen, 2018; Niitamo, 2021), management system reform (Jäntti et al, 2021), and participatory processes, such as participatory budgeting (Ertiö et al, 2019).…”