Maria Sjögren will defend her dissertation, A Talking Matter: Discursive enactments of norms and tensions in a public participation process, on October 25 at the Department of Journalism, Media and Communication (JMG), University of Gothenburg. She has followed the process Life Without Violence in Biskopsgården, Gothenburg, from 2016 to 2018, focusing on the conversations held within the framework of the participation process. The citizen dialogue initiated by the then district administration aimed to create a safer environment for children and find ways to reduce exposure to violence in the district. Citizen dialogue was used to capture opinions about the living environment.
Praised – but also criticized
Citizen dialogue is a collective term to describe various ways in which public institutions invite residents to participate. It is a method for dialogue on complex issues, developed by the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SKR). It is a method intended to engage citizens that has become increasingly common over the past 30 years.
Citizen dialogue has been praised for its ideals such as participation and dialogue as it creates meetings and gives voice to those who are rarely heard. However, citizen dialogue as a method has also been criticized, mainly by research circles, for not reaching these ideals. The criticism is that citizens may feel involved in the process, but often do not have influence over actual decisions.
No ready-made solutions
Citizen dialogue is also quite new and not everyone is familiar with it, thus it may not be perceived as something entirely obvious to participate in. This can create uncertainty about what expectations exist for the different people involved in the conversations. Likewise, it is not always clear what norms apply. Maria Sjögren, who studied and analyzed the conversations held during the project, explains:
“There are no ready-made solutions or recipes for this type of conversation. Therefore, it is important to examine what possibilities and limitations exist in different types of conversations, and to reflect on what perspectives civil servants and residents respectively when they enter into various kinds of citizen dialogues.”
Hope and longing
Citizen dialogue is not just talk but also a physical practice, meaning it requires active participation from all involved, from preparations for the conversations and the environment to the implementation of the conversations.
Maria Sjögren suggests another perspective on how to view citizen dialogues, namely as a longing practice. This does not remove the fact that citizen dialogue still contains tensions and challenges, but with such a perspective, it emphasizes that it also contains striving and hope for a strengthened democracy.
“It is not always possible to measure what citizen dialogues result in, but they sow seeds for various changes and involve real and important meetings between people. Everything depends, of course, on what they focus on; there are many kinds of citizen dialogues”, explains Maria Sjögren
Maria Sjögren has in her research followed the work of civil servants and analyzed the conversations that took place during the project, such as planning meetings, interviews, and dialogue meetings. She has focused on the actions of civil servants. They play an important role in presenting norms and frameworks for this type of conversation, as they are the ones who introduce the citizen dialogues.
The three studies she conducted during the work on the dissertation show that there were some recurring patterns in the conversations, both in terms of discursive practices and recurring tensions, that is, how the civil servants communicate and how it affects the interaction with the citizens. Maria Sjögren reports that the project in Biskopsgården led to several proposals that were implemented in the municipality. She says:
“Around Sweden, work continues with this specific method for dialogue on complex societal issues. Hopefully, the results from this dissertation can benefit future processes and how some of their parts are designed.”
Read more about Maria Sjögren’s dissertation here.
Text: Elin Andersson & Annie Rolén
