Between Democratisation and Co-Optation: a Social Field Analysis of Participatory Budgeting

This paper uses Bourdieusian field theory to examine the global diffusion of participatory budgeting (PB). Originating from a political project to develop non-vanguardist socialist strategy in Porto Alegre, Brazil, PB has spread across the world, shifting from a focus on distributive justice to fiscal responsibility and good governance. Applying Bourdieuisian sociology, this study explores how capitalist political economy shaped the evolution of PB. The analysis develops a theoretical synthesis of Marxist and Bourdieusian perspectives (e.g. Roger, 2020), positing that economic capital exerts a "field force" that draws emergent participatory practices toward systemic conformity. This force intensifies as practices scale up and come into closer contact with the "field of power", for example entering global institutions like the World Bank. Despite these constraints, the paper highlights that “field struggles”, where agents with diverse habitus negotiate the terms of implementation, maintains possibilities for change and the insertion of new practices. It emphasizes the role of local fields as incubators for counter-hegemonic practices, demonstrating the potential for contestation and change. The paper develops the concept of "participatory capital," illustrating how struggles over the terms of its accumulation reflect ongoing tensions between democratising and co-optative processes. The paper analyses literature on the global spread of PB and reconstructs its history using this lens, providing insights into the coexistence of democratisation and assimilation. The findings offer an account of participatory governance's dual role as a site of democratic renewal and neoliberal co-optation, contributing to broader debates on the potential for transformative agency within capitalism. References Roger, A. (2020). Bourdieu and the Analysis of Capitalism, European Journal of Social Theory, Vol 12, (2).