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Sustainability
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Citizen Participation in Sustainable Local Decision-Making
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Citizen Participation in Sustainable Local Decision-Making

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2019) | Viewed by 21678

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Sonia Royo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Accounting and Finance, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain
Interests: e-government, transparency and accountability of public administrations, citizen participation at local level, corporate governance in the public sector
Prof. Dr. Ana Yetano

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Accounting and Finance, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain
Interests: Citizen participation at local level, performance measurement in the public sector, performance audit in public administrations, transparency and accountability of public administrations, corporate governance in the public sector

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to provide knowledge about how citizen participation can promote sustainable decision-making at the local level, i.e., how citizen participation can promote positive effects on the environmental, social, and economic dimensions at the local level, and what the drivers of and barriers to achieving these positive effects are. As a growing proportion of the global population lives in urban areas, cities are emerging as key battlegrounds for global sustainability. Many papers have analyzed different examples of citizen participation at the local level in recent decades, but its effects on sustainable local decision-making are still unclear, as many papers are based on the analysis of single case studies or are only theoretical. Although these types of paper are also welcome for this Special Issue, preference will be given to empirical and comparative analyses. The following themes would be of particular interest (NB: this list is not exhaustive):

  • What is the effect of citizen participation on environmental protection?
  • Is citizen participation at local level promoting inclusiveness and the engagement of different user groups?
  • How can the effectiveness and efficiency of citizen participation be measured at the local level?
  • What are the drivers of and barriers to citizen participation in the promotion of sustainable decision-making at the local level?
  • Is the Smart Cities movement promoting sustainable decision-making?
  • How can e-participation promote sustainable decision-making at the local level?
  • What are the differences between traditional (offline) forms of participation and e-participation as regards sustainable decision-making?
  • To what extent and how are cities including sustainable development goals (SDG) in their citizen participation strategies?
  • Are public sector managers adequately considering the three dimensions of sustainable decision-making (i.e., the environmental, social, and economic dimensions) when adopting citizen participation at the local level?
  • Are these three dimensions equally important in developed and developing countries?
  • Case studies of best practices in citizen participation in sustainable local decision-making.

Prof. Dr. Sonia Royo
Prof. Dr. Ana Yetano
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Citizen participation
  • E-participation
  • Environmental protection
  • Inclusiveness
  • Sustainable local decision-making
  • Sustainable development goals (SDG)

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 1624 KiB  
Article
Comparing Environmental Advisory Councils: How They Work and Why it Matters
by Pau Alarcón, José Luis Fernández-Martínez and Joan Font
Sustainability 2020, 12(10), 4286; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12104286 - 23 May 2020
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2549
Abstract
In many countries, advisory councils are the most common participatory institution in which public administration interacts with civil society around environmental issues. Nevertheless, our knowledge about them is quite limited. The main goal of this article is to show the differences they present [...] Read more.
In many countries, advisory councils are the most common participatory institution in which public administration interacts with civil society around environmental issues. Nevertheless, our knowledge about them is quite limited. The main goal of this article is to show the differences they present with advisory councils in other policy areas in three main aspects: who participates, how they work, and which are their outputs. These differences are especially important because they emerge again regarding their participants’ opinions and satisfaction. We adopt a quantitative perspective in order to analyze this reality in Spain, a country where advisory councils are widespread and highly institutionalized at national, regional and local levels. After developing a mapping of 2013 existing advisory councils, we selected a sample of 55 in three policy areas. The data collected included their formal rules, composition, website characteristics and a survey to 501 participants. This set of evidence shows that environmental councils are more poorly designed, and that this is consequential since it is related with more negative opinions among their members and to a larger degree of polarization in their perceptions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Citizen Participation in Sustainable Local Decision-Making)
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19 pages, 509 KiB  
Article
Decide Madrid: A Critical Analysis of an Award-Winning e-Participation Initiative
by Sonia Royo, Vicente Pina and Jaime Garcia-Rayado
Sustainability 2020, 12(4), 1674; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12041674 - 24 Feb 2020
Cited by 46 | Viewed by 7233
Abstract
This paper analyzes the award-winning e-participation initiative of the city council of Madrid, Decide Madrid, to identify the critical success factors and the main barriers that are conditioning its performance. An exploratory case study is used as a research technique, including desk [...] Read more.
This paper analyzes the award-winning e-participation initiative of the city council of Madrid, Decide Madrid, to identify the critical success factors and the main barriers that are conditioning its performance. An exploratory case study is used as a research technique, including desk research and semi-structured interviews. The analysis distinguishes contextual, organizational and individual level factors; it considers whether the factors or barriers are more related to the information and communication technology (ICT) component, public sector context or democratic participation; it also differentiates among the different stages of the development of the initiative. Results show that individual and organizational factors related to the public sector context and democratic participation are the most relevant success factors. The high expectations of citizens explain the high levels of participation in the initial stages of Decide Madrid. However, the lack of transparency and poor functioning of some of its participatory activities (organizational factors related to the ICT and democratic dimensions) are negatively affecting its performance. The software created for this platform, Consul, has been adopted or it is in the process of being implemented in more than 100 institutions in 33 countries. Therefore, the findings of this research can potentially be useful to improve the performance and sustainability of e-participation platforms worldwide. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Citizen Participation in Sustainable Local Decision-Making)
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24 pages, 293 KiB  
Article
Decision-Maker-Oriented VS. Collaboration: China’s Public Participation in Environmental Decision-Making
by Lu Feng, Qimei Wu, Weijun Wu and Wenjie Liao
Sustainability 2020, 12(4), 1334; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12041334 - 12 Feb 2020
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 2798
Abstract
Public participation in environmental decision-making (EDM) has been broadly discussed. However, few recent studies in English have focused on the participation subject, scope, ways, and procedure in the EDM of developing countries such as China in the worldwide governance transformation. This study aims [...] Read more.
Public participation in environmental decision-making (EDM) has been broadly discussed. However, few recent studies in English have focused on the participation subject, scope, ways, and procedure in the EDM of developing countries such as China in the worldwide governance transformation. This study aims to provide an overview of public participation in EDM in China, thus elucidating both the legislation and practice of public participation in EDM in China to a broader audience, as such an overview has not yet been provided. At the beginning of this article, we clarify the key definitions of EDM, public participation and the public, and establish an analytical framework for analyzing public participation in EDM in China. We analyze the scope of the public, the participation scope, ways of participating, and participation procedure in EDM in legislation and practice, through document analysis and empirical survey. We then comment on challenges for public participation in EDM in China—including low public participation in EDM, narrow scope of participation, unbalanced ways of participation, and unreasonable participation procedure. In conclusion, we draw wider implications for public participation in EDM in China, arguing for a transformation from a decision-maker-oriented mode to a collaboration mode. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Citizen Participation in Sustainable Local Decision-Making)
16 pages, 522 KiB  
Article
The Role of Public Innovation Labs in Collaborative Governance—The Case of the Gipuzkoa Lab in the Basque Country, Spain
by Alfonso Unceta, Xabier Barandiaran and Natalia Restrepo
Sustainability 2019, 11(21), 6103; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11216103 - 02 Nov 2019
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3955
Abstract
Public sector innovation labs have gained increasing importance as one of the material expressions of public sector innovation and collaborative governance to address complex societal problems. In the current international context, there are various experiences, interpretations, and applications of this concept with similarities [...] Read more.
Public sector innovation labs have gained increasing importance as one of the material expressions of public sector innovation and collaborative governance to address complex societal problems. In the current international context, there are various experiences, interpretations, and applications of this concept with similarities and differences but all of them are based fundamentally on the establishment of new forms of participation and collaboration between governments and civil society. This paper aims to examine, through a case study, how policy innovation labs could play a prominent role in promoting decision-making at the local level in order to create a more sustainable public sector. To do this, this article focuses on an analysis of the “Gipuzkoa Lab”, a public innovation lab developed in the Gipuzkoa region located in the Basque Country, Spain, in order to confront future socio-economic challenges via an open participatory approach. An analysis of a pilot project to address worker participation, developed within this participatory process, indicates that these collaborative spaces have important implications for the formulation of public policies and can change public actions, yielding benefits and engaging citizens, workers, private companies and academics. This paper provides a contemporary approach to understanding good practice in collaborative governance and a novel process for facilitating the balance between the state and civil society, and between public functions and the private sphere, for decision-making. In particular, this case study may be of interest to international practitioners and researchers to introduce the increasingly popular concept of public sector innovation labs into debates of citizen participation and decision-making. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Citizen Participation in Sustainable Local Decision-Making)
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16 pages, 360 KiB  
Article
A Strategy for a Sustainable Local Government: Are Participatory Governments More Efficient, Effective, and Equitable in the Budget Process?
by Youngmin Oh, Seong-ho Jeong and Heontae Shin
Sustainability 2019, 11(19), 5312; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11195312 - 26 Sep 2019
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4068
Abstract
Citizen participation in budget processes is an attractive governance strategy for creating sustainable local finance. In participatory governance, citizens are engaged in the governmental policy decision-making process for sustainable communities. Despite the importance of a participatory government, its instrumental benefits are uncertain and [...] Read more.
Citizen participation in budget processes is an attractive governance strategy for creating sustainable local finance. In participatory governance, citizens are engaged in the governmental policy decision-making process for sustainable communities. Despite the importance of a participatory government, its instrumental benefits are uncertain and remain unexamined at the local level. No one has offered any extensive evidence based on large-N data to ascertain such benefits. This article fills this gap in the literature by testing the impacts of participatory budgeting on local financial outcomes. The results show that participatory governments are financially more effective and equitable without sacrificing efficiency. Advancing a more institutional perspective, this article explains the identified effects of participation mechanisms in the budget process on different local financial outcomes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Citizen Participation in Sustainable Local Decision-Making)
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