At the Intersection of Gender and Language: Why do Francophone Women have Lower Levels of Political Participation?

In Canada, research has found few differences in levels of political participation between Francophones and Anglophones despite traditional differences in resources leading to participation. This study argues that it is when gender is considered alongside language that differences emerge. Differences in conditions between Francophone and Anglophone women may mean that the explanations for the gender gaps differ. Findings show that Francophone women in Québec have lower levels of political participation than Anglophone women and men across Canada. These gender gaps are small but significant. Differences in resources and involvement in voluntary associations help account for Québec Francophone women’s lower participation. Additionally, these results indicate that the different political context and the different political influence of the women’s movement in Québec matter in determining explanations for gender gaps in political participation.     

Paradigms of participation in the National Council for Culture and Arts: challenges on representation,recognition, access to creation and reception in post-dictatorship Chilean public cultural policy

The National Council for Culture and Arts (NCCA) is the public agency responsible for the implementation of cultural policies in Chile. It was created in 2003 as part of a group of public organisms designed to promote democracy in post-dictatorship Chile, and its objectives include the encouragement of citizen participation in the national culture. This paper aims to call into question the scope and limits of citizen participation in the Chilean cultural field, through a systematisation of paradigms implicitly developed by the NCCA. Those paradigms include participation on the political level, the creation of symbols, recognition of cultural manifestations and access to reception and symbolic appropriation. It identifies challenges of these paradigms regarding representation, recognition, access to creation and reception of cultural manifestations.     

The legitimisation of clicktivism

Is clicking ‘Like’ on Facebook a legitimate form of political participation? Is changing your profile picture or sharing an online article politically meaningful? It is undeniable that such actions can be politically-themed, but whether they amount to what we term ‘political participation’ remains contentious. This article explores the legitimacy of clicktivism as a political act, arguing that legitimacy be understood as multifaceted. To this end, the paper develops a series of lenses by which to explore the theoretical boundaries of these emerging actions. These are: the adherence of the action to tradition avenues; the acceptance of the action, and belief in that action; and, the intentionality of the action, and the context in which it is situated.     

Endangerment-driven heritage volunteering: democratisation or ‘Changeless Change’

This article is the product of prolonged wrestling with the question of how heritage professionals and researchers can facilitate and sustain public agency in caring for heritage in the UK during austerity without exploiting volunteers or devaluing professionals. It offers critical perspectives on efforts made to democratise heritage in the UK by increasing public participation through a critique of neoliberalism and the rise of neoliberal approaches in the heritage sector. It argues that the adoption of neoliberal approaches, such as crowdsourcing, that profess to democratise yet reinforce existing power structures, is the inevitable result of insisting on protecting material culture from harm, despite the continuing accumulation of more ‘heritage’. Drawing on critical perspectives on participation from a number of disciplines, it is suggested that efforts to increase public participation in heritage cannot hope to avoid exploiting volunteers, devaluing professionals and marginalising traditionally underrepresented demographics unless they also let go of the perceived need to protect the materiality of the past. Drawing on Sarah May’s archaeology of contemporary tigers, this article argues that the application of endangerment narratives to heritage reinforces uncritical understandings of both heritage and volunteering that preclude heritage from fulfilling its potential function as a contemporary social process.     

Planning the post‐political city: exploring public participation in the contemporary Australian city

This special section examines the possibility of meaningful debate and contestation over urban decisions and futures in politically constrained contexts. In doing so, it moves with the post‐political times: critically examining the proliferation of deliberative mechanisms; identifying the informal assemblages of diverse actors taking on new roles in urban socio‐spatial justice; and illuminating the spaces where informal and formal planning processes meet. These questions are particularly pertinent for understanding the processes shaping Australian cities and public participation today.     

Citizen and government co-production of data: Analyzing the challenges to government adoption of VGI

With the recent rise of open government and open data initiatives, governments are increasingly adopting new approaches of citizen participation to support a more democratic, transparent, and inclusive government system. Among other forms of citizen participation, Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) is one approach to connecting citizens and government. Accepting VGI as a way to update government data or collect near-real-time information from citizens can create a partner-like relationship where citizens voluntarily contribute time and effort to support government actions. However, as a relatively new approach to citizen participation and data collection, VGI requires evaluation from the perspective of governments. This research investigates the challenges and opportunities that governments have found through the implementation of VGI projects. Results are drawn from interviews conducted with 19 government organizations, revealing organizational and technical challenges that limit the adoption of VGI. Organizational challenges are associated with government mindset, implementation, and project management, while technical challenges involve development of the system and quality of data. Given these challenges, we derive recommendations within the phases of project initiation, implementation, and expansion that can foster VGI adoption in government.     

信息时代的地理学研究——NCGIA对若干理论问题的探索

本文以美国国家基金委员会资助美国国家地理信息与分析中心(NCGIA)进行的瓦伦纽斯(Varenius)研究项目有关信息时代地理学研究的一系列中期研究报告与论文为基础,介绍了中心一些著名学者以地理学家独特的地理哲学思维,对信息时代的地理学研究若干理论问题所作的新探索与阐述,旨在为国内学者了解、追踪地理信息科学的新发展,开展地理信息科学的跨世纪研究提供借鉴。     

旅游规划公众参与的核心内容初步研究

本文从旅游规划的公众参与角度入手,系统地梳理了国内外旅游规划公众参与研究进展;围绕谁参与、为什么参与、参与方式、参与行为及参与时间等问题,初步探讨了旅游规划公众参与核心内容,即包括识别利益主体、分析参与决策行为、明确公众参与模式、确定主体参与阶段、选择合意参与方式等。通过这些问题的研究,以加强和推动公众参与旅游规划的深入研究。     

From Preamble to Post‐project Frustrations: The Shaping of a Slum Upgrading Project in Recife,Brazil

Abstract: This article presents an ethnography of the evolution of Prometrópole, a slum upgrading project in the Brazilian city of Recife. The project aims to improve the urban infrastructure, eradicate slums and resettle the population. We focus on the project's first area of intervention, Jacarezinho. We analyze how, from lead‐up through implementation, the project gained shape and gradually became real. Participatory procedures were very important in shaping the project that for a long time did not materialize. We argue that the project manifested itself as a vehicle of modernity that evoked a dream of progress. The population, which never asked for the project, was attracted to this dream, but remained critical. We contend that, although the project partly delivered on its promises, for many slum dwellers it failed to entail a better life. We portray the project's genealogy, the compromise between different aims, and an echelon of post‐project frustrations.