Website changes

We are currently going through a redesign of this website, and the new site should be up shortly. This site will soon be the home to both the international resource center on participatory budgeting and the North American organization The Participatory Budgeting Project. Thank you for your patience as we redesign!

Update on Participatory Budgeting in Chicago

The Watson Institute published an update on the participatory budgeting process that Gianpaolo and I are helping to plan in Chicago:

On April 29, Watson Institute Associate Professor Gianpaolo Baiocchi traveled to Chicago to help kick-start an experiment in democracy, along with Josh Lerner, from The New School for Social Research, and Karen Dolan, from the Institute for Policy Studies’ Cities for Progress project. Chicago’s 49th Ward is vying to become the first community in the US to use participatory budgeting to allocate its municipal budget funds. Alderman Joe Moore of the 49th Ward asked Baiocchi and his colleagues to train the community in participatory budgeting, a process in which residents directly decide how to spend public money.

Radio Update on Porto Alegre

Mike Fox produced a 5-minute radio segment on this year's Participatory Budgeting process in Porto Alegre. This year marks the 20th anniversary of PB in Porto Alegre. This year’s round of budgeting began over the last month with two dozen regional assemblies, but while participation has been high, many residents say the process is in trouble. Listen to the report.

PB Summer School in Portugal

There will be a one-day focus on PB at this summer school in Portugal in July:

Summer School
eNEWed WAYS OF DOING POLITICS
http://www.ces.uc.pt/cessummerschool/pages/en/home.php

Date: 15-17 July, 2009
Hours: 10:00 am – 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm, daily
Course language: English