La participación en la sociología: elementos para una praxis sociológica

The contemporary sociology has renewed the mainstream of sociology. Almost every book of referente in the field of sociology written the last twenty five years has interpreted and changed the core elements to talk about society and social relations. For this respect, it has been stressed the importance of reflexive agents and contingent conditions to explain sociological matters, so it has lowered the importance of structural features. The new scenario opened by sociological theory, even with its differences and contradictions, does not seem to have reached the empirical sociology, where we can still find the image of an agent far away of reflexive references. The propose of the paper is to bring the discussion to empirical field to evaluate the contributions made by participatory methodologies about this issue

Les origines des budgets participatifs

En Espagne, des budgets partieipatifs ont simultanément été mis en place pour la premiere fois dans trois unicipalités d'Andalousie en 2001 (Cordoue, Puente Genil et Cabezas-de-San-Juan). En 2007, bpres les élections locales du mois de mai, on comptait vinet-auatre expérier de Jaen ices dans ou Figara - A des villes petites (Torreperogil dans la Province 1 dans celle de Barcelone), moyennes (Getafe et Leganes dans les environs de Madrid, Petre dans ¡a proviice dyAlicante, Saint-Sébastien au pays Basque) ou grandes (Séville, Cordoue), dans des contextes ruraux ou urbains. Quelques-unes d'entre . elles ont échoué, comme celles de Cabezas-de-San-Juan ou Rubi (Province de Barcelone) apres les élections locales de 2003, mais le mouvement est a la hausse. Les budgets participatifs ont désormais cessé d'etre une expérience exclusivement impulsée par la gauche : - 15 % d'entre eux ont été lancés a l'initiative de mairies conservairices. L'objectif de cette contribution est d'ofñir une analvse des conditioi participans qui ont ~tifse n Es] , --- amené des municipalités a impulser des budgets Jagne, et des acteurs qui l'ont mis en aeuvre.Peer Reviewe

The deliberative turn in participation: the problem of inclusion and deliberative opportunities in participatory budgeting

Participation has undergone a communicative shift, which has favoured the organization of new participatory processes based on classic principles of deliberation theory. These experiments go beyond traditional protest: they include a communicative element with the aim of defining a public politics, which places them alongside models of deliberative governance. The present work sets out the characteristics of these new instruments (participatory budgeting, PB) in order to find out which problems deliberative governance initiatives are faced with. The conclusions tell us that the inequalities in participation are significant. Nevertheless, PB enables most participants to make effective use of their opportunities for deliberation. From this standpoint, the challenge for deliberative governance does not seem to be the deliberative capabilities of individuals, but rather the design of participatory procedures and the participation of individuals. We may question whether the administration can guarantee impartial political spaces that are as inclusive as possible.This paper was possible thanks to the grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (CSO2009-12020)

The Struggle for a Voice: Tensions between Associations and Citizens in Participatory Budgeting

The emergence of new participatory mechanisms, such as participatory budgeting, in towns and cities in recent years has given rise to a conflict between the old protagonists of local participation and the new citizens invited to participate. These mechanisms offer a logic of collective action different from what has been the usual fare in cities — one based on proposal rather than demand. As a result, urban social movements need to transform their own dynamics in order to make room for a new political subject (the citizenry and the non-organized participant) and to act upon a stage where deliberative dynamics now apply. This article aims to analyse this conflict in three different cities that set up participatory budgeting at different times: Porto Alegre, Cordova and Paris. The associations in the three cities took up a position against the new participatory mechanisms and demanded a bigger role in the political arena. Through a piece of ethnographic research, we shall see that the responses of the agents involved (politicians, associations and citizens) in the three cities share some arguments, although the conflict was resolved differently in each of them. The article concludes with reflections on the consequences this conflict could have for contemporary political theory, especially with respect to the role of associations in the processes of democratization and the setting forth of a new way of doing politics by means of deliberative proceduresPeer reviewe

La participación ciudadana en Europa: un análisis comparado desde los contextos sociopolíticos

Questioning the social spiral deriving from participation has flared up the debate regarding the place it occupies in contemporary democracies. It does not seem possible to deny the evidence that many studies have pointed to regarding the political attitudes associated with institutionalised participation (associations). But we question in this study the fact that the whole participation phenomenon is equated with that type of participation. Our paper compares different ways of participation in a sample of European countries to, first, analyse the activities that can be linked to each form of participation and whether it can be held that they are different from the point of view of the individual. Second, we analyse the attitudes that lead individuals to choose one option over the other. We conclude that for individuals the different forms of participation are different forms of political engagement. Our study shows an evolution in non-institutional forms of participation over time that is difficult to ignore, from being expressions bordering illegality to taking them as normalised tools for citizens. We could now start to consider them from the point of view of the implications they have for democracy as a different way to exercise political influence.El cuestionamiento de la espiral social derivada de la participación ha intensificado el debate sobre el lugar que ocupa este fenómeno en las democracias contemporáneas. No es posible negar la evidencia que muchos estudios han señalado acerca de la importancia de las actitudes políticas asociadas a la participación institucionalizada. Pero en este estudio nos preguntamos si todo el fenómeno de la participación se equipara con ese tipo de participación. En nuestro trabajo se comparan diferentes formas de participación con una lógica comparativa en una muestra de países europeos con un doble objetivo. En primer lugar, analizar las actividades que se pueden vincular a cada forma de participación y si se puede considerar que son diferentes desde el punto de vista de los sujetos. En segundo lugar, analizar las actitudes que llevan a las personas a elegir una opción sobre la otra. Las conclusiones muestran que para las personas las diferentes formas de participación suponen diferentes formas de compromiso político. En los resultados se observa una tendencia hacia formas no institucionalizadas de participación que es difícil de ignorar, hasta el punto que han terminado por convertirse en herramientas normalizadas para los ciudadanos, por lo que conviene considerarlas desde el punto de vista de las consecuencias que tienen para la democracia como una forma diferente de ejercer influencia política.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under Grant number CSO2012-38942

The participatory turn in administration: challenges in the participatory budgeting globalization

El presupuesto participativo es una experiencia nacida en Porto Alegre en 1989. Hoy, sin embargo, podemos encontrar experiencias en los cinco continentes. Han trascurrido apenas veinte años y ya podemos hablar de más de 1.500 experiencias repartidas por todos los rincones del mundo. Si hablamos del éxito de un proyecto, sin lugar a dudas, este es uno. El trabajo que presentamos tiene como objetivo contextualizar este proceso, qué ha significado y cómo ha tenido lugar. La primera pregunta que surge es por qué una experiencia local, nacida en una ciudad del sur de Brasil, consigue expandirse por el mundo y asentarse en contextos políticos, culturales y económicos tan dispares. En segundo lugar, nos planteamos qué entendemos por el presupuesto participativo en el mundo. Esto ha levantado innumerables cuestiones sobre la validez y eficacia del presupuesto participativo. El objetivo seria, entonces, poder acercarnos al presupuesto participativo desde una conceptualización que nos permita configurar una guía para comparar y criticar normativamente el desarrollo de estas experiencias, además de plantear la especificidad del presupuesto participativo respecto a otros instrumentos de participación.Participatory budgeting is an experience born in Porto Alegre in 1989. Today, however, we find experiences in all continents. After 20 years, we can talk about over 1400 experiences spread all over the world. If we talk about the success of a project, this is one. The present work aims at contextualize this process, what it has meant and how it has taken place. The first question that arises is why a southern brazilian experience has been able to spread around the world, in context so different politically and economically. Second, we try then to understand what is participatory budgeting in the world. The aim would be to approach the participatory budgeting in such a way that it allow us to set a basis for comparing and criticizing normatively the development of these experiences and to be able to point out the singularity of participatory budgeting regarding others participatory devices

Democracia y nuevos horizontes: emergencia y límites de los Presupuestos Participativos en España

Democracia y nuevos horizontes: emergencia y límites de los Presupuestos Participativos en Españ

El problema de las preferencias en la democracia : un acercamiento desde la óptica de la racionalidad acotada

Uno de los principales temas de discusión de la teoría política contemporánea es la cuestión de la naturaleza de las preferencias de los ciudadanos y la capacidad atribuida a estos para participar de forma directa en los asuntos públicos. Sin embargo, reformas legislativas en Europa abogan por implementar nuevos instrumentos destinados a implicar a la ciudadanía en el proceso de deliberación y toma de decisiones en la gestión pública. Desde la teoría económica de la democracia, a menudo se cuestionan los modelos participativos, entre otras cosas, por la imposibilidad que se imputa a tales modelos para permitir una decisión racional. Se supone que el ciudadano se ve afectado por un amplio conjunto de restricciones, como escasez de información, invariabilidad de sus opiniones y creencias o su perfil no técnico, que han servido como argumento para deslegitimar la viabilidad de la participación directa de la ciudadanía. En este trabajo, pretendemos abordar esta problemática desde una óptica distinta. Desde los años sesenta, han florecido distintos modelos de racionalidad (por ejemplo, la racionalidad acotada, de H. Simon), lo cual ha contribuido a dibujar un perfil de ciudadano más flexible y realista que el ofrecido por la racionalidad clásica. Según estos modelos, los sujetos racionales amoldan su decisión a tenor de las características del entorno y de la información disponible, para, de este modo, tomar una decisión eficiente que responda lo mejor posible a las demandas de dicho entorno. Analizando la participación desde esta óptica, postularemos la pertinencia de formas de participación en un espacio público regulado.One of the challenges face contemporary democracies is linked to the individuals preferences. It has been subject of politics theory and reciently differents legislative reforms in Europe have tried to solve the problem through new mechanism involving citizenship directly in public managment. The aim pursued is to create the conditions to citizens participate into policy-making (getting involved in deliberation and decision making proccess). From democracy economics theory is often questioned the participative models, because, it is said, through these models people can not get involved in a rational decision making procces. The citizens are affected by a huge constrains as information scarce, invariabilty of opinions and believes or because of their non proffesional feature. These elements are taken to denied the viability of citizenship direct participation. In this article, we approch this controversy from a differnt point of view. New models of rationality (bouded rationality, H. Simon) has appeared during the last decades which challence somo basic Rational choice hypothesis. H. Simon states the rational agents adapt their decisions taking into account enviromental task and the information available in it. We will analyce political participation from the conception of bonded rationality in order to test participation relevance on public regulated scenary

El imaginario cívico y el 15M: ¿qué pasó antes del 15 de mayo del 2011??

The 15M movement is one of the most salient phenomena of the Spanish recent history of social movements. As reflected in surveys, the number of people involved was extraordinary and a broad majority of the population felt sympathy towards it. How to explain the outbreak of the political protest generated by the 15M movement in Spain? Which ingredients fed the protests and formed the climate for people to engage? The aim of this paper is to present the findings of a qualitative research on citizens' perceptions about the performance and quality of democracy, and the role that citizens should play in it; several focus groups were administered two months before May 15th. The research has been also complemented by interviews with participants and with information gathered from the participant observation during four months in the movement itself. This research allows us to better understand the process of framing (Snow & Benford, 2000) in which the protest emerged and developed. Which political ideas were mobilized? How and why did the movement connect with the population? Which kinds of framing processes were displayed? This is a relevant discussion since the 15M movement has been an emergent form of protest with “replicas” in other occidental countries such as Indignati or #Occupy, etc.Peer reviewe

Models of public action in an asymmetric society

En este trabajo partimos de la noción de Coleman de sociedad asimétrica con el objetivo de analizar diversos tipos de acción pública recurrentes en las sociedades actuales. En términos generales, la literatura política y sociológica ha primado una acción pública dominada por las asociaciones, las cuales son observadas como los sujetos protagonistas de la defensa de la ciudadanía en una sociedad asimétrica. En este sentido, se legitima el diseño de políticas públicas orientadas a fortalecer y expandir el asociacionismo. La principal razón para este tipo de políticas es que el declive del asociacionismo se ha vinculado frecuentemente con un declive del calado democrático de una determinada comunidad. En la segunda parte de este trabajo ponemos de relieve que, lejos de producirse dicho declive, podemos constatar la emergencia de otras formas de participación que, no partiendo del supuesto del asociacionismo, comparten el escenario político con las asociaciones. Igualmente, mostramos que tanto las Administraciones públicas como las asociaciones civiles están dando cuenta de este tipo de participación, haciendo posible y facilitando su emergencia.Following Coleman’s statement about contemporary society being asymmetric, the purpose of this paper is to assess the differents kinds of public action that recur in present-day societies. Generally speaking, political and sociological literature has given priority to public action dominated by associations, which are observed as the protagonists of the defence of citizenry in an asymmetric society. In this respect, the design of public policies aimed at strengthening and expanding associative activity is legitimated. The main reason for this type of policy is that the decline of associative activity has often been linked with a decline in the democratic fabric of a particular community. In the second part of this paper, we suggest that far from producing this decline, we can confirm the emergence of other forms of participation which, while not starting out from the hypothesis of an associative movement, do share the political scenario with associations. We also demonstrate that both public administrations and civil associations are reporting on this type of participation, which makes its emergence both possible and easy.Depto. de Sociología AplicadaFac. de Ciencias Políticas y SociologíaTRUEpu