PB Training Course in Portugal
There will be an advanced training course on participatory budgeting in Europe June 22-23 in Coimbra, Portugal. For more info (in spanish or portuguese), see:http://www.ces.uc.pt/curso-op/indexesp.php
Reportback on International Participatory Budgeting Conference in Spain
From March 28 – April 1, 2007 the city of Málaga, Spain hosted an international conference on participatory budgeting. I’m posting the conference program and most of the powerpoint presentations below, as well as some of the most interesting bits of information. This is all based on my understanding of the speakers’ presentations of course, […]
Update on Porto Alegre
Aaron Schneider published an update on participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre yesterday: Crisis in the Home of Participatory Budgeting: Technical Accuracy and HierarchyCidade11/04/2007 Excerpt: "My high hopes are based on ideas and practices that are core to participatory budgeting,even if not always present. The ideas of which I speak include deliberation, which is theconstruction of […]
International PB Conference in Spain
There will be an international conference on participatory budgeting in Málaga, Spain, March 28-31. See details at http://redfal.org/en/node/98
Report on the latest WSF
We have a guest post from Marc Becker, who has attended the latest WSF. These and other writings are available at www.yachana.org The World Social Forum comes to Africa Marc Becker marc@yachana.org January 28, 2007 The last week of January, 50,000 activists from around the world gathered under the theme “People’s Struggles, People’s Alternatives” in […]
PB in Porto Alegre Continues to Disappoint Under New Administration
We are fortunate to have a guest posting below by Corinne Tatcher, who has been observing the PB process in Porto Alegre. “Fogaça: A Cara da Cidade.” I still remember José Fogaça’s campaign slogan for his mayoral bid in 2004. Fogaça: The Face of the City. Unfortunately, Fogaça has indeed been promoting his own image […]
Experiments in Democracy on Open Source Radio Show
On October 25th, the NPR radio Show Open Source featured a special show on “Experiments in Democracy,” with participation from Launi Guinier, Shoni Field (of the BC Citizen’s Asembly), Daniel Kemmis (former mayor of Mizzoula, Montana), and Gianpaolo Baiocchi. According to the Show’s producers, Back in September we introduced the idea of doing a show […]
New Thesis on PB in Porto Alegre and Belo Horizonte
Terence Woods has recently defended his masters’ thesis on participatory democracy in Belo Horizonte and Porto Alegre. It is a very accessible and clear piece that many readers will find useful. The thesis is available here.
PB in Berlin
Some news about PB in Berlin, from http://www.zebralog.de/en/000191.html Track your budget proposal – Berlin-Lichtenberg 2008 Berlin, the capital of Germany with 3.4 million inhabitants, has to cope with debts of 61 billion Euro. Therefore it’s interesting to note, how the citizens of Berlin-Lichtenberg have their say in budget decisions. Okay, it’s not about billions, but […]
New PB paper: Embedded Public Finance in Porto Alegre
The Institute of Development Studies just published a new paper on PB. See the abstract copied below, or the full article at: http://www.ongcidade.org/site/arquivos/artigos/buku%20sumber%20IDS%20Aaron%20Scheneider%20Wp26645819f48b1433.pdf IDS WORKING PAPER 266 Get What You Want, Give What You Can: Embedded Public Finance in Porto Alegre Aaron Schneider and Marcelo Baquero Abstract The problem of public finance in Latin America […]