Social control – the unwanted sibling of participation?
Moderators: Anna Cioch, The Stanczyk Foundation
Przemysław Dziewitek, Civic Lab Association
Time: 2. Day (Friday, June 3.), hrs 10:45-12:15
Format: discussion session
Description:
We invite you to reflect on a difficult issue of a more effective, more familiar and cost-effective action philosophy. Could we achieve the same results using social control and participation? Are watchdogs those who just bite while participation practitioners are just lobbyists specializing in formal arrangements?
Assuming that the reality is rarely black and white, the question is: how could social control be utilized in participation? Does not social control lead to shutting down the opportunity for a dialogue? On the other hand: how critical towards local governments can a participator be without losing a chance to collaborate with local authorities? How closely can a participator collaborate with them in order to stay independent? To what extent does a current political situation impact our choice of methods?
We know that amongst ourselves there are controllers who have proved that successful collaboration with local authorities could be undermined, or even prevented, simply because they are dubbed “controllers”. There are participators who monitor the local authorities from a distance because the authorities freaked out. The red tape and misuse of participation for façade ideas is covering up the fact that the local authorities are deaf to citizens.
We are not looking for one, ideal model of action. Please come and share your experience and evaluate which one of possible ways is suitable for you.