Designing Public Participation: Managing Problem Settings and Social Equity

• Author: Jill K. Clark
• Published date: 01 May 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12872
• Date: 01 May 2018

362 Public Administration Review • May | June 2018

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 78, Iss. 3, pp. 362–374. © 2017 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.12872.

Designing Public Participation:

Managing Problem Settings and Social Equity

Jill K. Clark is assistant professor in the

John Glenn College of Public Affairs at The

Ohio State University. Her research interests

include food policy and practice, centering

on community and state governance of food

systems, the policy process, and community

engagement. Current research topics

include food policy coalitions, food system

planning, and food security.

E-mail: clark.1099@osu.edu

Abstract : Researchers suggest that inequity and disparities in public participation in the policy-making process

will go hand in hand unless public managers and community leaders are attentive to these concerns when they are

designing participation opportunities. Previous research has considered how the design of participatory opportunities

can address inequity, but it has provided few insights into what is behind design choices. This article provides a

theoretical framework that links public managers ’ and community leaders ’ perspectives on their own political efficacy

and sources of their efficacy, yielding four types of “designers.” The research hypothesizes that these types have different

narratives of social equity in participation that affect their design choices. Data from more than 100 public managers

and community leaders provide preliminary support for these relationships. Findings suggest that inequitable public

participation will persist unless designers consider what is behind their choices, focusing first on understanding the

problem setting, or their narrative of equity in public participation.

Evidence for Practice

• Despite innovations in public participation design, social inequity continues to be a problem.

• The designers of public participation opportunities—those who determine who participates, how, and

to what end—are not neutral parties. Their narrative about social equity in public participation, or the

“problem-setting frame,” may impact the strategies they adopt to engage community members.

• To reconcile a designer ’ s narrative with the community members that the designer aims to engage, elected

officials and managers should consider training on cultural humility with community members, followed by

codesign of public participation.

A s the public ’ s mistrust of government increases

and its participation in public affairs declines,

local governments are seeking new ways of

involving community members in public decision

making. Some efforts are specifically focused on

increasing the voices of low-income and marginalized

groups (Griffin, Cramer, and Powers 2014 ). However,

researchers have concluded that inequality and

disparities in participation will go hand in hand

unless public managers and community leaders are

attentive to these concerns when they are designing

participation opportunities (Brady, Schlozman, and

Verba 2012 ; Frederickson 2005 ; Fung 2015 ). Public

participation can bring social justice, but if inequities

in participation are perceived not to exist, then the

design of participation opportunities will never

remedy barriers (Fung 2015 ; John 2009 ).

A rich literature has focused on why community

members participate in public decision making,

both from an individual perspective (e.g., personal

resources) and from a structural perspective (e.g.,

institutional racism). Another body of literature has

examined the institutional design of participation

opportunities and methods of engagement (Bryson

et al. 2013 ; Fung 2015 ; Nabatchi 2012 ). Rarely,

however, has research examined the subconscious

drivers of design choices of the people who design

participation opportunities: the local government

officials such as public managers and community

leaders who make the invitations and set the agenda.

1

This research responds to calls to study designers and

their motivations, including their social construction

of others and the impact of that social construction

on public participation (Gooden and Portillo 2011 ;

Nabatchi and Amsler 2014 ; Nabatchi, Goerdel, and

Peffer 2011 ). The research presents a theoretical

framework that relates public participation designers ’

problem settings (i.e., the problem narrative they

confront regarding social equity and accompanying

design choices). The problem setting is a reflection

of designers ’ perspective on their own positions in

local policy making, operationalized through internal

political efficacy, and their reflexive thinking on those

positions.

Jill K. Clark

The Ohio State University

Research Article