Citizen participation as an organisational challenge in local government

• Date: 26 September 2023
• Pages: 124-140
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPSM-08-2022-0179
• Published date: 26 September 2023
• Subject Matter: Public policy & environmental management,Politics,Public adminstration & management
• Author: Kaisa Kurkela,Anna–Aurora Kork,Anni Jäntti,Henna Paananen

Citizen participation as an

organisational challenge

in local government

Kaisa Kurkela

Faculty of Management and Business, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland

Anna–Aurora Kork

Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland

Anni J€

antti

Faculty of Management and Business, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland, and

Henna Paananen

Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland

Abstract

Purpose –This study observes the organisationalenvironment of fostering citizen participation in the context

of local government. Creating systems of influential citizen participation requires the consideration of

organisational prerequisites. This study asks which organisational elements contribute to successful citizen

participation in local government.

Design/methodology/approach–The data consist of interviews with 14 key actors who work for the city of

Helsinki. The interview content was subjected to abductive content analysis and reflected in the analytical

framework based on previous literature on citizen participation. The analysis complements and adds insights

to the existing literature.

Findings –This study illuminates three crucial elements of influential citizen participation: organisational

structures, organisational culture and adequate resources. Additionally, the results revealed management to be

a crucial enabling element. The findings highlight the importance of seeing citizen participation as an issue of

governance and as a systemic part of the administration requiring intentional management efforts.

Originality/value –The study illustrates the key elements (structures, culture and resources) that should be

considered when creating an influential citizen participation system. Additionally, the empirical analysis

highlights the importance of management, which has been understudied in previous studies concerning citizen

participation.

Keywords Citizen participation, Local government, Public organisations, Interactive governance

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

Local governments are increasingly developing new methods and organisational models of

citizen participation (e.g. Falanga, 2020;Bennett et al., 2022), including a range of

participation activities and allocation of resources for organising citizen participation.

Generally, the purpose is to enhance participatory administrative activities. The success of

these models is linked to the organisational environment.

IJPSM

37,1

124

© Kaisa Kurkela, Anna–Aurora Kork, Anni J€

antti and Henna Paananen. Published by Emerald

Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0)

licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both

commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and

authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/

legalcode

Since acceptance of this article, the following author have updated their affiliations: Kaisa Kurkela

and Anna-Aurora Korka are at the School of Management, University of Vaasa, Vaasa, Finland.

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/0951-3558.htm

Received 15 August 2022

Revised 20 April 2023

29 June 2023

22 August 2023

Accepted 24 August 2023

International Journal of Public

Sector Management

Vol. 37 No. 1, 2024

pp. 124-140

Emerald Publishing Limited

0951-3558

DOI 10.1108/IJPSM-08-2022-0179

In public administration research, citizens are considered the focal actors of governance –

for example, in discussions on new public governance (NPG) and public value (e.g. Osborne,

2010;Osborne et al., 2022). However, the issues of democracy and participation are

understudied by administrative theorists, despite these issues being at the heart of the public

nature of public administration (Nabatchi, 2010). Therefore, crossover research linking

citizen participation to organisational conditions is needed.

This article approaches citizen participation as an organisational challenge in the local

government context. We understand citizen participation from the viewpoint of participatory

democracy: citizens taking part in public planning and decision-making themselves instead of

delegating sole power to representatives in elections (Nabatchi and Amsler, 2014;Arnstein,

1969). To be more precise, participation is observed here from an institutional perspective. Local

governments are seen as institutions in which new emerging forms of democracy appear in

tangible form because they represent the closest institutional level to the daily lives of citizens

(Kurkela, 2022;Smith, 2009). Furthermore, local governments are venues in which the connection

of representative and participatory forms of democracy is essential to observe (Pratchett, 2004).

In practice, citizen participation can be understood as face-to-face participation (e.g. citizen

forums, citizen juries and citizen councils) or online participation (e.g. surveys) (Nabatchi and

Amsler, 2014). Participation can be directed at wider governanceissues, such as local government

strategies, or to more specific questions, such as small-scale questions about the city planning of

playgrounds or parks. Participation may relate to long-term processes or single activities.

The City of Helsinki, the capital of Finland, has created a participation and interaction

model that aims to make decision-making more citizen-centric and introduce opportunities

to utilise its residents’expertise and knowledge. The intention is to invite residents and

stakeholders to develop the city, its neighbourhoods andits services. City has incorporated

the principles of participation into the administrative rules of the city, so they guide the

activities of the entire city organisation. Helsinki’s participation a nd interaction mod el

offers an interesting case for studying how to organise citizen participation, as, in the

Finnish local government context, this model is relatively extensive, ambitious and well-

resourced. Moreover, the model is designed as part of the city’s management reform,

indicating the efforts made to cement citizen participation in organisational activities (see

J€

antti et al., 2023).

The case of Helsinki is an institutional attempt to enhance democracy and openness in

relation to society and local communities. However, participative methods and channels may

contradict certain rationales that have traditionally guided public organisations (Kurkela,

2022). Citizen participation attempts –such as models of citizen participation –may also leave

organisational structures and culture untouched. An organisation aiming to develop genuine

opportunities for citizens to participate must pay attention to shaping organisational

conditions (Kurkela, 2022). The literature indicate s that the development of citizen

participation requires changes to institutional culture and attitudes (e.g. Edelenbos and

van Meerkerk, 2011;Torfing et al., 2019), renewal of the organisational structures of

participation (e.g. Fung, 2006) and distribution of a range of organisational resources (e.g.

Bingham et al., 2005;Yang and Pandey, 2011;Smith and McDonough, 2001;Bryson

et al., 2012).

This study applies interactive governance forms as a lens to reflect on citizen

participation in the institutional context of local government. From an administrative

perspective, the development of participatory local government organisations is connected

to the shift from traditional governing and representative democracy to interactive modes

of governance. Interactive governance can beseenasaresponsetothedeclineofformal

representative and structured forms of participation (Boedeltje and Cornips, 2004;

Røiseland and Vabo, 2016). These responses attempt to reconvene the public audience

and opposing political views and parties in a shared discussion (Edelenbos, 2005). Paying

Citizen

participation

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