Highlights from "By the People" – Democracy Conference, ASU
Where better to talk about democracy in December than under the sunny, blue skies of Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe, AZ? Researchers and practitioners from around the world converged on ASU for the “By the People” Democracy conference. The PBP staff in attendance were treated to three days of discussion about the current state and future of […]
Urban Justice Center Releases New PB Findings
We’re excited to read “A People’s Budget,” the Community Development Project (CDP) at the Urban Justice Center’s new report on the fourth cycle of Participatory Budgeting in New York City! CDP presents findings from PBNYC research and thousands of surveys that provide a comprehensive analysis of New York City’s 2014-2015 PB cycle. Compared to Cycle […]
15 Key Metrics for Evaluating PB
There are many ways to measure the impact of PB, but researchers in North America now have a shared language to evaluate and compare PB processes. Our friends at Public Agenda – the lead organizer for the North American PB Research Board – have worked with the board and PBP to develop a toolkit for […]
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 […]
Learning Democracy by Doing – Participatory Budgeting in Schools
With the amount of time students spend in school, nearly 1000 hours per year, it’s surprising how little say they have in their schools’ priorities. What if a school gave its students more choice in their education? What if it gave young people the ability to make collective decisions, while promoting youth leadership and teamwork? […]
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 […]
7 tips for making an impact with your research
Communication tips from the 2014 PB Conference. At Sharing and Communicating PB Research, three experts shared seven key ideas. It was standing room only as dozens of people wedged into a room at the Unitarian Church in Oakland, CA for this final session on day one of the 3rd International Conference on Participatory Budgeting in […]
Three Ways Deeper Engagement Improves the Relationship Between Officials and Residents
This post was written by Allison Rizzolo and originally appeared in On the Agenda, the Public Agenda Blog on December 4, 2014. Our local public officials are thirsty for better and deeper ways to engage the people they serve. This is a sentiment I heard again and again during last month’s National League of […]
New Research Board to Evaluate PB
PBP and Public Agenda are facilitating the launch of the North American Participatory Budgeting Research Board with various participatory budgeting (PB) evaluators, academics, and researchers. Shortly after the 3rd International Conference on PB in North America, we came together in Oakland for our first meeting. The goal of the board is to support the evaluation […]
4 ways to make PB bigger and better
From September 25th-27th, more than 230 practitioners, researchers, organizers, and experts came together in Oakland and Vallejo to learn from each other about how to start more – and improve existing – PB processes as part of the 3rd International Conference on Participatory Budgeting in North America (#PBConf). We believe that we can get to […]
