We already have one very good definition of public participation in the archives, but for comparison’s sake, here’s the official IAP2 definition as per their training material:
IAP2 views public participation as any process that involves the public in problem solving or decision making and uses public input to make decisions.
Public participation includes all aspects of identifying problems and opportunities, developing alternatives and making decisions. It uses tools and techniques that are common to a number of dispute resolution and communications fields.
What do you think? Which one suits you better?
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Since Tim is building a public participation engine, I think this question is most interesting in that context – as answers help clarify use cases etc.
Definitions are particularly useful in sets of two or more, so they clarify similarities and distinctions. For instance, per the IAP2 spectrum, “collaboration” and “empowerment” both contain promises to the public, but the promise of the former is much weaker than the promise of the latter. That difference is interesting.
The above definition of p2 suggests that “public participation” is a kind of public involvement that is (a) broad – all aspects – not narrow involvement in (b) problem-solving and decision-making (vs., say, involvement in implementation).
The other definition suggests that “public participation” is a kind of public involvement that is (a) two-way (vs., say, just gathering input) and focused on (b) resolving disputes (vs. simply determining who’s in the majority).
Skiers care about different types of snow because each type affects safety, equipment choice, and level of effort. How do the different types of “public involvement” agencies might request affect your public participation engine?
I actually prefer Jim Creighton’s definition (though as a co-founder of IAP2 he was probably involved in the other, too).
Both definitions state that public participation is a process for involving the public in problem solving and decision making.
Creighton specifies that the public are “interested or affected individuals, organizations, and government entities” (public doesn’t mean “everybody”, some publics may be much smaller than others). His definition also highlights two important goals of public participation: to achieve better and more acceptable decision and to prevent or minimize dispute.
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