PB Research Series: A Moment with Stephanie McNulty
Stephanie McNulty is a recently tenured Associate Professor of Government at Franklin and Marshall College, a member of the North American PB Research Board, and an all-round amazing person who does fascinating research on the gender dynamics of PB in Peru. We caught up with Stephanie as part of our PB researcher blog series to learn more […]
PB Buzz: Improving Participatory Democracy with New Technology
PBP Director Josh Lerner recently said, ”democracy has become the political version of kale; almost everyone says it’s good, but few want to eat it.” Following that notion, there’s been a lot of buzz recently about the potential for new technology to make participatory democracy more palatable–something more like kale chips, one might […]
Carolina Johnson Awarded National Science Foundation Funding For PB Research
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is the holy grail of research funding for social science graduate students and professors in the United States–and they support research on PB! PB researcher Carolina Johnson, a doctoral candidate studying political science at the University of Washington, has secured NSF funding for her innovative dissertation research on PB, and […]
PB Research Series: An Interview with Daniel Schugurensky
PBP is proud to be working closely with such an incredible network of PB researchers and research teams in North America. We’ve decided to launch a PB Research blog series that will throw the spotlight on these researchers, so that our readers and supporters can learn more about what’s happening in the world of PB […]
MIT students roadmap 2 new PB tools
We would like to send a big thank you to the students from the Crowdsourced City class at MIT who have been working with their professor Sarah Williams to develop 2 new tools to make PB easier to implement. The “Live Assembly,” developed by Luxi Lin and Hayrettin Gunc helps manage data at in-person assemblies. The “Idea Factory,” […]
Researcher blog series with Thea Crum from PB Chicago!
We are lucky to work closely with an incredible network of PB researchers and research teams in North America. We’ve decided to launch a PB Research blog series, so that our readers and supporters can learn more about what’s happening in the world of PB research! First up – Thea Crum, Director of the Neighborhoods Initiative at […]
PBNYC and PB Vallejo in Top 10 for Public Engagement in Government Award
Cambridge, Mass. – May 5, 2015 – The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, recognized today Participatory Budgeting in New York City and Participatory Budgeting in Vallejo, two programs launched and supported by the Participatory Budgeting Project (PBP), as top 10 finalists for the Roy […]
All for Data, Data for All: Supporting PB with Community Data
Participatory budgeting (PB) puts decision-making power into the hands of community members, and all decision-makers need access to good data. PB participants increasingly use data about their cities and neighborhoods to research needs, develop projects, and make informed, equitable spending decisions. Maps, for example. Through PB, volunteers, often called budget delegates, meet in small committees […]
Well done, PB Chicago! Evaluation report for cycle 2
PB Chicago is going from strength to strength. Researchers from the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois-Chicago have found strong reasons to support the continued expansion of PB in the city. Three wards participated in the second year of the process (2013-2014), and residents worked hard to ensure that their PB process realized three […]
The challenging terrain of PB evaluation
Imagine you are assigned the task of evaluating a new PB process in North America. What questions would you want to answer? What tools and instruments would you need? What challenges would you expect to face in the field? Luckily for you, you don’t have to completely reinvent the wheel. While new challenges and questions […]