Participation

This chapter addresses ‘participation’ in a broad sense. Concepts such as participation, involvement and empowerment have been important social policy issues for some time and are likely to remain so. This chapter examines the processes and pitfalls for participation for individuals and groups as well as the mechanisms by which government and social policy agencies attempt to encourage or reduce participation. The modes of participation for users, citizens and groups will be examined, together with their impact upon the processes of policy making and implementation.