Researching public participation

Interest in the practical development of new ways of involving citizens has been accompanied by a wish on the part of those investing in such processes to know if they worked and if they made a difference. This is usually constructed as a need to undertake evaluations of different methods of enabling public participation. However, questions about effectiveness of different methods need to reflect the nature and purpose of different approaches. The exploration of these types of issue may be better understood as a process of researching rather than evaluating. In this context the article offers six criteria for evaluating fora in which deliberation takes place.