Participatory instruments and practices in urban governance

This chapter discusses both citizen and stakeholder participation as an instrument in urban governance. Citizens and other non-state actors can be involved in local decision-making in many different ways. Privatization of previously public entities such as municipal water companies, port authorities or educational institutes has created new local actors, adding new challenges to urban governance. Communication technologies both facilitate and complicate interaction between actors in the governance process. Where governance outcomes are contested, ordinary citizens increasingly take recourse to legal action or mobilise on ‘the streets’ to hold their governments to account. This chapter discusses these general trends while highlighting how issues of scale and local context shape participatory practices locally.