Lost or Found in Translation? Translating Innovative Forms of Participation into Formal Decision Making

The theme of this paper is the impact of new and expressive forms of participation on policy decisions. Over the last 5-10 years, we note that some of the new initiatives in planning participation are characterised by the use of expressive and art based forms, like exhibitions, theatre, music, gatherings and various forms of installations (Nyseth, Ringholm and Agger, 2019). Sometimes these are initiated by the citizens, in order to gain attention to a place or a policy issue. Other times, the local authorities orchestrate them, for much the same reasons. Social innovation and urban transformation are often the core motivations behind these, in many cases, rather informal forms of participation. At the same time the legal and procedural arrangements for decision making – remains unchanged, meaning that the input that is gathered from the various “happenings” needs to be translated into a language that works in the more bureaucratic settings that otherwise characterise the decision making process. We have little knowledge of this translation process in terms of what elements that are being channelled into the decision making and what is left out. Therefore, in this paper, I ask the question of how this process of translation take place. Who are the translators? Does the translation vary with regard to the type of actors that are involved? Are there elements that are in fact impossible to translate? The answers to these questions will both empirically and theoretically contribute to the knowledge on the role that the new forms of participation play in policy making. Theoretically, the paper will be anchored in theory of participative democracy (Fung, 2015; Geissel and Joas, 2013), innovation (Hartley, 2008; Smith, 2009) and translation theory (Czarniawska & Jorges, 1996; Røvik, 2016). Empirically, it is based on combining a Norwegian case study of a city-lab process and survey data from a recent national survey. References Czarniawska, B. and B. Jorges (1996): Travels of Ideas. In B. Czarniawska & G. Sévon (eds.) Translating Organizational Change, pp13-48. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Fung, A. (2015). Putting the public back into governance: The challenges of citizen participation and its future. Public Administration Review, 75 (4), pp513-522. Geissel, B. and M. Joas (eds.) (2013): Participatory Democratic Innovations in Europe. Toronto: Barbara Budrich Publishers