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Difference between Participation and Engagement

If someone asked you what is the difference between participation and engagement, would you be able to answer? Many people confuse the terms, so CitizenLab prepared an article on the topic.

So, what is the difference between participation and engagement?

We decided to put things simply in case you do not have time to read the full article.

Citizen engagement is a top-down initiative of a formal nature.

Citizen participation is a bottom-up initiative that comes from the citizens themselves.

They both share the same goal which is improving public service deliveries and policy projects by involving more people in the dialogue with the government. The main difference is that both are not initiated by the same actors.

Educational articles series "what's the difference?"

The blog post about the difference between participation and engagement was prepared by CitizenLab as a part of the educational series titled "What's the difference?" Other topics discussed are as follows:

What’s the difference between deliberative and participatory democracy?

What is the difference between artificial and collective intelligence?

What’s the difference between “Civic Tech” and “GovTech”?

You are more than welcome to proceed to read them all or share with someone who might be interested in the topic!

One more thing to add is that whether you belong to the local government and want to engage more community members, or you are in fact a community member who wants to improve the dialogue with your local government, you can always learn what CitizenLab has to offer!

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Citizen Assembly

What is the future of citizen participation? Some say that citizen assembly is the answer.

Assemblies have received increasing attention in recent years as they proved to be helpful when dealing with the most troublesome policies while also preserving our democratic ideals. Members of citizen assemblies are chosen randomly and they are not necessarily experts in a given field, but what matters is that this selection is representative of the wider populations in terms of age, gender, education level, etc.

The benefits of citizen assemblies come as follows: - citizen deliberation helps citizens to understand the complexity of policy dilemmas; - they help local governments to tap into the collective intelligence; - people can take unpopular decisions if needed; - they restore the trust in democratic institutions.

If you want to learn more, CitizenLab has prepared an article about opportunities that citizen assembly might provide the local community with.

Moreover, if you are interested in launching a citizen assembly, CitizenLab platform offers an online workshop feature that proves well with deliberations.

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Online Community Engagement Ideas

There is no need to explain why community engagement matters. The problem is to actually engage the community in the decision-making process. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for online community engagement is as critical as ever. While communication shifts from its traditional form to the Internet, the dialogue between local government and the community has to transform, too. Some things the local government can do online to facilitate such a dialogue include: - Collect ideas and proposals from citizens; - Conduct surveys; - Organize online workshops; and many more.

CitizenLab - Citizen Engagement Tool

CitizenLab is a citizen engagement tool where local governments can gather and manage citizen data efficiently, facilitating decision-making based on the wants and needs of the citizens. It is a platform that aims to digitalize governance and help build dialogue between the local government and community members. CitizenLab's citizen engagement tool facilitates online community engagement in two ways. Not only it empowers citizens to take part in the decision-making process, but it also allows governments to collect data and opinions in an easier and more organized manner - all in one place. If you want to learn more about this citizen engagement tool, please visit CitizenLab website.