Though participatory budgeting was only born in 1989, it has since been manifested over 2000 times in over 45 countries around the world - groundbreaking success for a process that is one of the rare authentic democratic innovations in the past 30 years. Participatory budgeting gives citizens a powerful role in the decision-making and destiny of their cities. It also reaffirms the central place of collective deliberation for direct democracy and participatory democracy, whilst contributing to the transformation of the city into urban commons.
In this book, Yves Cabannes and Cecilia Delgado, seasoned experts in the field, lead us across five continents to the front lines of participatory budgeting, unpacking the successes and challenges of thirteen case studies. As much a Best-Of Guide as a How-To Manual for democratising municipal finances, this book charts the unique trajectory of participatory budgeting, asserting its rich potential for realising radical democratic goals and deepening democracy. Animated throughout with stunning full colour images, it includes an extensive bibliography with up-to-date resources across multiple languages, including films and websites.
The Alternatives to the City as a Commodity Series
This book on participatory budgeting is the first in a series which outlines some of the most significant and potentially transformative ways that people are building livable cities: by developing collective, communal and cooperative forms of land and housing tenure; resisting market-driven evictions; developing both small and large-scale local and complementary currencies; and expanding urban and peri-urban agriculture from a perspective of food sovereignty. These topics are far from an exhaustive account of the multiple fronts of urban citizen struggle. No doubt many more fronts of struggle should, and will, be added as citizens are realising their Right to the City - a concept first articulated half a century ago by the visionary Henri Lefebvre.
Yves Cabannes is an urban specialist, activist and scholar. For the past forty years he has been involved in housing rights issues and people-led initiatives including participatory budgeting, urban agriculture, food sovereignty, land rights, local currencies, and appropriate technologies. Since the mid 1990s, he has been involved with participatory budgeting through research, project implementation, teaching and advocacy in a large number of cities around the world. Mr. Cabannes was the Senior Advisor to the Municipality of Porto Alegre, Brazil, for the International Network on Participatory Budgeting. He became Emeritus Professor of Development Planning at University College London in 2015.
