EfSD Pillar: Participation

This is a poster from the 1968 spring rebellion
of students and workers. 

It reads "I participate, you participate, 

he participates, we participate, you participate,

they profit" - a personable appeal to all French
students and workers because it is a common 

grammar school exercise.

Arnsteign (1969) says that this
poster brilliantly capsulates the difference between
the empty ritual of participation and the real power
needed to affect the outcome of a process. 

This poster further reinforces the power of art

in seeking sustainability as it has empowered
students and workers to shows their position
as false stakeholders to their nation.
It portrays the frustration that students were

feeling as their participation proved powerless

as their input was ignored by their countries affairs.

A contribution to their movement was 

likely the power that this poster portrayed.
It shows that students and workers know they
make up the "legs" and future of the county,
and thus, depicts the absolute austerity of their
exclusion to national affairs.

Participation involves people in decision making, joint analysis, & planning, yet goes beyond mere consultation (ARIES 2009).


In short the purpose of participation: 

•  Puts decision-making and responsibility for          
   outcomes in the hands of the participants.

•  Creates a greater sense  of ownership and commitment 
    to action.

•  Builds capacity for self reliance and self-organisation.

•  Empowers individuals to  take action. (2009)


Types of Participation. 
Arnsteign (1969) portrays that there are different types of participation. Not all forms of participation hold true to participative responsibility and decision making, engagement, and capacity building.
Arnsteign (1969) portrays the levels of participation with the ladder diagram below.

Some entities do not partake in participation at all.
These are shown by steps:
   (1) Manipulation &
   (2) Therapy

Rather than enable people to participate,

entities with this mentality "reeducate" or "cure" their stakeholders (1968). For me this alludes to re-xenophobic education camps that are known for terrible treatment of their prisoners. Also, the Nazi's trying to cure the human race of non aryans and Jews. 

Some entities engage in what Arnstein (1968) calls "Tokenism". This is shown by steps: 
   (3) Informing &
   (4) Consultation
This is characterized by entities with more power, such as some shameless businesses or government organizations take advantage of the 'good' reputation and power that participation (AKA stakeholder engagement) will give to their agendas by taking part in the motions of stakeholder consultation, but not giving their voices any power. In these levels there is no follow-through after consultation.
   (5) Placation 
is considered higher form of tokenism because there are ground level advisors to the person who makes the decisions. However, there is no binding factor that assures that the sole power holders will even consider the reports from below.

Finally, what Arnstein (1968) "Citizen Power" actually reflects citizen efforts in important decision-making. This is represented by:
   (6) Partnership - Negotiates trade offs with traditional power holders.
   (7) Delegated Power &
   (8) Citizen Control - citizens which are not in power seats have the a majority of power in decision making.  This cannot be affective if the citizens are not properly educated or equipped to deal with certain decision.  For example, this is why practiced democracy does not use a one-person, one-vote system.  In order for this to work businesses and governments have to invest in their community for their community to invest in them, a proto-type of a sustainable society.  Doing this allows a symbiotic relationship between citizens and organizations with a healthy flux of ideas and proactive evolutional evolutionary change.

 Local Change in Aeroville.

A great example of participation, along with capacity building, and empowerment in local change is of a commune in India called Aeroville. This is a special commune because it advocates true sustainability and a mostly non-monetary system. 
Visitors or Inhabitants must pay a small fee per month in order to account for the food of included in their communal meals three times a day (that cannot yet be  maintained by their community garden), and for their 3 hour portion of electricity per day. All visitors are required to participate the community building houses out of sustainable materials, help the upkeep of their restoration and organization of a medicinal forest, the sustainable harvesting of medicinal herbs, such as spirulina, and help with the community garden.  Longer term visitors, or, ehr, inhabitats, are encouraged to contribute ideas and engage in projects to better the society and improve surrounding communities. From the examples that I have seen, projects usually take into account stakeholders in order to engage   in participation and instill a feeling of the project ownership for their local community change. Also stakeholder participation will further build the capacity of locals and empower them to maintain their communities and seek possibilities to better life quality around them. Moreover, rituals, such as meditation, yoga, and activities such as music jamming, plays, meaningful movie nights, and more stress participation and community while increasing individual and communal life quality.

Quick Summary on Auroville & Participation

All these things build an individual's capacity as they will discover new abilities they probably thought they'd never have. The experience of living and constantly participating in a collaborative way for community sustainability and quality of life also empowers people to change their ways and spread new philosophies once they leave.
Thus, Aroville is a force of spreading sustainable practices and quality of life that reinforce the importance of participation and creates a wave of capacity building and empowerment in its region, and maybe even in unexpected parts of the world as visitors continue traveling or return home.

Learn more about Auroville

The BMW Guggenheim Lab
(Yes, I posted this twice.)

Confronting Comfort is "the Lab's" theme for their  first
two-year cycle. They will explore notions of individual
and collective comfort and the urgent need
for environmental and social responsibility.

The BMW Guggenheim Lab is a mobile laboratory that aims to adress issues of contemporary urban life & inspire innovative ideas to improve it. This project is led by international, interdisciplinary teams of emerging talents in: urbanism, architecture, art, design, science, technology, education, and sustainability. This organization practices serious community engagement making stakeholders the main impetus for change through programs and global public discourse. The BMW Guggenheim Lab describes itself as "part urban think tank, part community center and public gathering space (The BMW Guggenheim Lab 2011)" The organization hosts free events in cities for networking and instigating ideas.  Their website is extremely interactive allowing visitors from online communities to submit their ideas and simulate experiments with their city.  Check it out --> here.

___Useful Resources___
Auroville  
The Sadhana Forest  

The BMW Guggenheim Lab
Design your future city and compare it to other's around the world

___Cite___

Arnstein, S.R. 1969, 'A Ladder of Citizen Participation', JAIP, Vol. 35, No. 4, pp. 216-224

Auroville 2011, 'Greetings from Auroville', acessed on September 5, 2011, <http://www.auroville.com/>

Tilbury, D. and Wortman, D. 2004, Engaging People in Sustainability, IUCN Commission on Education and Communication, Gland and Cambridge.