The Participatory Budgeting Project is a non-profit organization that supports participatory budgeting in North America and hosts an international resource site.
Conference: Learning Democracy by Doing, October 2008
Learning Democracy by Doing:
Alternative Practices in Citizenship Learning and Participatory Democracy
An international conference organized by the Transformative Learning Centre (TLC)
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto (OISE/UT)
October 16-18, 2008
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto
252 Bloor St. West, Toronto, Canada
This conference, which celebrates the 15th anniversary of the Transformative Learning Centre at OISE/UT, will provide a space for mutual learning and critical reflection about innovative and inspiring international initiatives. The conference will take place in Toronto, one of the most diverse cities in the world, and it will build on Canadian experiences in social action learning and participatory democracy, including indigenous models of democratic self-governance, the Antigonish Movement of Nova Scotia, the Citizens Forum, the Citizens Assemblies in British Columbia and Ontario, the Practicing Democracy initiative in Vancouver, and the emerging participatory budgeting initiatives in municipalities, public housing units and schools.
See http://tlc.oise.utoronto.ca/tlc2008/info.html for more information and the call for proposals.
Global spread of PB
According to the Worldwatch Institute, roughly 1,200 cities had developed participatory budgets by 2006. This rapid growth is at least party due to the increasing number of national governments passing (if not always thoroughly implementing) laws that make participatory budgeting obligatory for local governments: Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela, and now the Dominican Republic, amongst others.
The Church Likes Participatory Budgeting
The Church of England recently came out in support of participatory budgeting, following the UK government's white paper "Planning for a Sustainable Future" (which itself calls for PB).
From The Church's Urban Bishops Panel: “We have recently welcomed the Secretary of State’s announcement regarding participatory budgeting at neighbourhood and local authority level and would hope that some consideration can be given to similar participatory processes being in place for community planning."
See the full article in Christian Today.
Seminar in Porto Alegre on the Future of Participatory Democracy
On October 25-27, 2007 there will be an international seminar in Porto Alegre, Brazil, on participatory democracy and participatory budgeting in particular. The seminar is titled "The Future of Participatory Democracy: Technical Fix or Popular Sovereignty" and its aims are:
a. To analyze and debate the place of the state and the urban popular classes in the emerging urban landscape of the 21st century.
b. To evaluate the limits and possibilities of:
(1) participatory budgeting experiences;
(2) community-based organizations’ direct management of social policies; and
(3) sectoral councils for co-management of public policies.
c. To provide a space for analyses and discussion of existing alternatives around the theme of participatory democracy as social emancipation and social transformation.
d. To raise suggestions and guidelines for building an international network of grassroots-based participatory democracy activists.
For more information in Portuguese, Spanish, English, and French see:
http://www.ongcidade.org/site/php/seminario/arquivos/folder.pdf
and
http://www.ongcidade.org/site/php/seminario/seminario.php
