Catarina Tomás Higher School of Education of Lisbon, Portugal

Transcription

1 Children and Participatory Budgeting in Portugal: Redefinition of Citizenship and of Citizenship Education Catarina Tomás Higher School of Education of Lisbon, Portugal International Conference School and Community Interactions University of Augsburg 16th February, 2011

2 Thinking about democracy Democracy evokes different images and assumptions: It s the image of a group that represents the majority, holding the ability to influence political decisions that are taken within the state (representative democracy). It s the image of an assembly or forum where everyone has the right to participate in the whole of the decisionmaking process (participatory democracy). Citizenship Granted Active Citizenship

3 Participatory Budgeting Participatory democracy promotes dialogue and calls citizens to participate in the exercise of power. It is based on the assumption that citizens should participate directly in political decisions and not only, as representative democracy requires, in the choice and exclusive competency of municipal executives. It is a process that gives meaning to a more democratic e responsible way to administrate public resources.

4 Participatory Budgeting The participatory budgeting or participated budget (PB) is a tool of participatory democracy and takes different shapes. It is a process of shared management of municipalities, through the bodies of elected city councils and citizens, either individually or civil society s associations. The participation of citizens can be consultative (in the Portuguese case 2000 to 2006) and deliberative.

5 PB in Europe A decade ago, in Brazil, and more recently, in Europe, several municipalities started a process of citizen participation. There are currently about 1200 municipalities in Latin America and over 100 in Europe with PB. Political dimension: right and left support. Fonte: Readaptação de G. Allegretti e M. Matias, CES Coimbra da pesquisa Participatory Budgets in a European Comparative Approach, Centro Marc Bloch/Hans-Böckler-Stiftung/Humboldt- Universität, Berlim, 2005 /Coor. Sintomer/Herzberg/Roecke). Heterogeneity of the PB experiences: o ways of participation (internet, meetings, surveys...) o time frame o evaluation process o instruments of regulation o etc.

6 Children s participation in Participatory Budgeting o encourages and institutionalises the participation of this social group in the political and symbolic framework of children s rights; o develops civic participation and recognises the role and importance of children as individuals and as citizens; enables the realisation of urban planning with children, instead of for children. promotes interactions (high intensity) between schools and community.

7 Children and Youth s Participatory Budgeting (CYPB) Even though CYPB are not yet disseminated at the international level, there are several experiences, namely in South Africa, Brazil, Canada, Spain, Portugal,

8 PB Portugal oinnovation in a micro municipality scale. osome of the most innovative experiences in Portugal are promoted by parishes. (Dias, 2009)

9 Contrasting questions regarding participatory budgeting Children s participation in political issues, the State decisions and redistribution of city s resources. A counter-hegemonic perspective of childhood (as competent, as social actors) Respects children s rights (article 12 CRC)

10 Participatory budgeting The experience to be described is based on the counter hegemonic perspective. The urban initiative shall be presented: CYPB adopted by Carnide parish (Lisbon, Portugal)

11 PB Carnide (Lisbon, Portugal) Carnide it s in the north of Lisbon and is the six largest parish of Lisbon inhabitants and almost voters 50% are considered deprived quarters Budget: 2,5 millions of euros

12 Evolution Process of PB in Carnide 2004 It starts in November with decentralized meetings 2006 surveys + thematic meetings 2007 the parish decided to involve children and youngsters

13 Children and Youth s Participatory Budgeting in Carnide (Lisbon, Portugal) children and young people requires different working methodologies (Dias, 2008) The project involves kindergarten, 1st, 2nd and 3rd and a vocational school

14 Process phases of children s participation 1st: Internal training parish staff leading to increase awareness and competences 2 nd : Teachers motivation and commitment how to do the process in schools 3 rd : Work in Class/Institution: 1 st step: Carnide parish president visits each class to present CYPB, explaining what is a parish budgeting. 2 nd step: Presentation of children s proposals (each child wrote a Letter of Wishes at different scales: school, street/neighbour and parish) 3 rd step: election of classroom delegates followed by negotiation of all proposals in order to reach one consensual proposal for each class.

15 Letter of Wishes I m Carnide visit children October - November 2007: 15 children presented their proposal to the municipal assembly ; Nearly 1300 children wrote or designed pictures to expressed their "Letters of Wishes (JF Carnide, 2007).

16 Impact of Children and Youth s Participatory Budgeting in Carnide Promoting active citizenship of young people in such way that become itself a learning process Involving different generations in discussion and decision process Increasing participation of children's parents

17 Relevance of this experience: European surveys suggest that citizens define themselves on the basis of local and regional identities. Only after these, they described themselves in national and transnational terms. This results implies that there are different spheres of belongness: their street, their neighbour, their city and sometimes their regions, their countries and at last European Union (varies per country) A greater responsibility of municipalities to bring citizens to politics - Cities are today the big test to democracy in the world (Boaventura de Sousa Santos, 2009: 22)

18 Children s Participation Participation is not a political campaign that puts children first, as children s liberation. It s a process of developing an inclusive society for and with young citizens. More important for children s experience of childhood is the fact that this exclusion is the basis for a range of other exclusions from decision-making that include not only State but also community, school and family. (Milne,1996)

19 Thank you!