4 Participation

4.1 The ladder of Participation

In his "Ladder of Citizen Participation", Arnstein (1969) describes eight levels of participation, whereby participation in the narrower sense only appears from level 6 onwards:

Figure 7: Ladder of Citizen Participation according to S. Arnstein (1969)

At the level of Nonparticipation, the aim is to cure or educate the participants.

At the Level of Tokenism, there are just a few opportunities for the participants to take over responsibility. The range of involvement goes from <participants are informed but cannot give feedback> to< the possibility of making suggestions, but not being given any decision-making or realisation competences>.

Only at the level of Citizen Power real participation is possible:

Step 6 – Partnership: The decision-making power as well as the responsibility for implementation is negotiated between the participants and the power holders. Still, the activity is initiated by the powerholders.

From step 7 onwards, the balance of power is reversed: The participants initiate, the activity. They assume the main responsibility for planning and implementation and are accompanied and supported by mentors.

At step 8, Citizen Control, participants completely take over the leadership and responsibility for the activity they initiated.