Roundtable on The role of social movements in reinventing participatory governance

Abstract

One of the most interesting political developments of the past 10 years has been the adoption by social movements of strategies seeking to change political institutions through participatory governance. These strategies have flourished in a variety of contexts, from anti-austerity and pro-social justice protests in Spain to movements demanding climate transition and race equality in the UK and the USA, or constitutional reforms in Belgium and Iceland. The chief ambition and challenge of these new forms of participatory governance is to institutionalise the prefigurative politics and social justice values that inspired them in the first place, by mobilising the bureaucracy to respond to their claims for reforms and rights. The roundtable is an opportunity to explore these themes with the editors and contributors of a new edited volume, Reclaiming Participatory Governance (Routledge). We discuss empirical and theoretical perspectives on how the relationship between social movements and state institutions is emerging and developing through new modes of participatory governance, assessing how the latter is being transformed and the impact of such changes. The roundtable will engage with issues such as: ▪️ the constraints imposed by cultural, economic, and political power relations on these new empowered participatory spaces; ▪️ the potential grassroots and social movement-led participatory democracy to reimagine the relationship between citizens and traditional institutions towards more radical democratic renewal; ▪️ where and how these new democratisation efforts sit within the representative state and how tensions between the different demands of lay citizens, organised civil society, and public officials are being managed.

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