Ladder of Participation

The Ladder of Participation = a typology that can be applied to the interplay of institutions (and corporations), with peer-based communities

Author: Sherry Arnstein

URL = http://www.comminit.com/planningmodels/pmodels/planningmodels-129.html

Graph at http://www.comminit.com/images3/partladder2.gif

Description

Context: " Sociologist Roger Hart wrote a book called Children's Participation: The Theory And Practice Of Involving Young Citizens In Community Development And Environmental Care for UNICEF in 1997. This groundbreaking work put the work of young people and adult allies around the world in the context of a global movement for participation, offering needed guidance and criticism of many efforts. The "Ladder of Children's Participation," also called the "Ladder of Youth Participation," is one of many significant tools from the book." (http://www.freechild.org/ladder.htm)

The different levels are described here:

""The bottom rungs of the ladder are (1) Manipulation and (2) Therapy. These two rungs describe levels of "non-participation" that have been contrived by some to substitute for genuine participation. Their real objective is not to enable people to participate in planning or conducting programs, but to enable powerholders to 'educate' or 'cure' the participants. Rungs 3 and 4 progress to levels of 'tokenism' that allow the have-nots to hear and to have a voice: (3) Informing and (4) Consultation. When they are proffered by powerholders as the total extent of participation, citizens may indeed hear and be heard. But under these conditions they lack the power to insure that their views will be heeded by the powerful. When participation is restricted to these levels, there is no follow-through, no 'muscle,' hence no assurance of changing the status quo. Rung (5) Placation is simply a higher level tokenism because the ground rules allow have-nots to advise, but retain for the powerholders the continued right to decide.

Further up the ladder are levels of citizen power with increasing degrees of decision-making clout. Citizens can enter into a (6) Partnership that enables them to negotiate and engage in trade-offs with traditional power holders. At the topmost rungs, (7) Delegated Power and (8) Citizen Control, have-not citizens obtain the majority of decision-making seats, or full managerial power." (http://www.comminit.com/planningmodels/pmodels/planningmodels-129.html)

Characteristics

Adapted to the community vs. institution situation.

8) Community-initiated and directed

7) Community-initiated, shared decisions with institution

6) Institution-initiated, shared decisions with community

5) Consulted and informed

4) Assigned but informed

3) Tokenism

2) Decoration

1) Manipulation