Advanced Diploma in Participatory Perspectives and Methodologies for Democratic Deepening

INTRODUCTORY CLASS: CONTRADICTORY DEMOCRACIES AND PARTICIPATORY PROCESSES

Teacher: Tomás Rodríguez Villasante

Conceptual summary of the class:  

This class will be the final session of Module 1, where theoretical and practical aspects of contemporary democracies will be discussed, presenting some avenues for further study. The topics to be covered are as follows: 

A- First, the "why" of democracies will be discussed: Explanation of a scheme with the 4 basic exploitations, which shake us, give us fears and provoke mobilizations (environmental, labor, identity, and with co-creative styles).

B- Next, the question "with whom?" in democratic strategies will be addressed: Examples and explanation from a scheme with the frameworks and networks of communication, relay nodes, and sets of managerial, populist and citizen-oriented actions).

C- From where does a participatory democratic approach come?: Explanation of a table articulated with 15 approaches from authors and popular movements, which underpin democratic processes from everyday life to state and global transformations.

D- Defeats and self-criticisms of participation: Participatory ladders and the deceptions that professionals make politicians and populations fall into with competitions and dilemmas versus examples of co-creative collaborations.

E- Democracies and schemes of where to go?: From Latin America to Kerala, from the commons in the world to mini-publics. Explanation of an integrative scheme, and of a process with deliberation and annual consultation.

F- Mangroves and strategic processes: Explanation of a scheme to build democracies with initiatives (action sets and ROCE, workshops to prioritize critical issues, generate sociocratic proposals, monitor overflows).

CLASS 1: PRODUCING KNOWLEDGE “FROM BELOW” AND OTHER POLICIES FROM LATIN AMERICA 

Teacher: Alfonso Torres Carrillo

Conceptual summary of the class

In Latin America, various knowledge production practices have been developed in conjunction with emancipatory social and cultural struggles, some of which employ participatory methodologies. This session aims to recognize the contributions of some of these research practices to the decolonization of thought and the generation of epistemic and political alternatives to the capitalist, colonial, and patriarchal system of domination. The session's objective is to highlight and evaluate the contributions that have been made.

CLASS 2: THE MANAGEMENT OF ANTAGONISM: BETWEEN DELIBERATION AND AGONISTIC PROTEST

Teacher: Mario Zubiaga

Conceptual summary of the class

The insurmountable tension between conflict and community, the foundation of politics, is managed according to different models: warlike, agonistic, deliberative, and representative. The process of democratization advances in the intermediate space where citizens, individually and collectively, can "be a part" and "take part," even if that "part is not given to them." Or perhaps precisely because of that. And all of this occurs within a permanent state of exception that combines warlike and representative management with the aim of guaranteeing the stability of the systemic foundations.

CLASS 3: PARTICIPATION, DEMOCRATIC ROOTS AND EMERGENCE

Teacher: Igor Ahedo

Conceptual summary of the class

This session aims to present the various typologies of participation, ordered according to their underlying critiques of democracy. After defining mini-publics, referendums, and participatory budgets as respective expressions of deliberative, direct, and participatory critique, we will focus on identifying the characteristics of collaborative governance regimes. Particular attention will be paid to those that emerge from the grassroots to further the reflection on the relationship between, on the one hand, contestation and disruption, and on the other, democratic deepening. The class concludes by differentiating between the processes of institutionalization and the capacity of these mechanisms to become embedded and take root in democratic cultures.

CLASS 1: INSTITUTIONALIZED PARTICIPATION. INTRODUCTION TO SOME MECHANISMS

Teachers: Rosa Alacio, Gisela Signorelli and Mariano Suárez

Conceptual summary of the class 

In 1988, the first participatory budget was implemented in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre. Since then, thousands of institutionalized participatory processes have spread worldwide, not only allowing citizens to influence budgets but also other public policy developments. Numerous instruments of institutionalized participation exist: community plans, participatory planning, citizen councils, citizen juries, innovation labs, and more. These democratic innovation initiatives improve the quality of democracy by assigning a more active role to citizens in both defining social problems and seeking solutions. We speak of institutionalized participation when it involves spaces regulated by public authorities and their administrations, who solicit citizens' opinions to make decisions or undertake actions regarding a specific initiative. Among the most current and recognized examples are those we will explore in this class: Participatory Budgeting (PB) and innovation labs.

CLASS 2: THE NEOLIBERAL PARTICIPATORY TURN: THE BUREAUCRATIZATION OF CITIZEN PARTICIPATION AS A THREAT TO BUILDING PARTICIPATION FOR SOCIAL CHANGE

Teacher: Jone Martínez-Palacios

Conceptual summary of the class  

The class begins by questioning the type of participation we are institutionalizing as a response to the crisis of democracy. This question allows for an approach to participatory reality characterized as the neoliberal participatory turn, based on a bureaucratization of participation that becomes a real threat to advancing participatory strategies that guarantee social change. To argue for this turn, three movements will be identified. First, the naturalization of a circular topos regarding the crisis of democracy, such that it starts from the assumption that democracy is in crisis, but participatory strategies do not question its causes.

Secondly and thirdly, we are witnessing a bureaucratization of participation and a privatization of participatory democracy, leading us to the diagnosis of a neoliberal shift. The class concludes with critiques from feminist theories of justice regarding the way in which participation is being institutionalized.

CLASS 3: MECHANISMS OF DIRECT DEMOCRACY

Teacher: Alicia Lissidini

Conceptual summary of the class 

Citizen initiatives and government-sponsored referendums are not new in Latin America or the world. They are practiced by democratic, hybrid, and even authoritarian regimes. However, in recent decades, qualitative and quantitative changes have occurred that explain their greater prevalence, both in law and in practice. Uruguay was a pioneer in Latin America, holding its first referendum in 1917 and its first referendum against a law in 1989. By 2024, a dozen countries included them, and many others regulated mandatory referendums, while most granted the power to call them to the authorities. After reviewing global trends, the class will analyze the different contexts and experiences of recent constitutional reform and the introduction of direct democratic processes in Latin America, focusing on the Uruguayan case, given its enormous relevance.

CLASS 1: COMMUNITY, PARTICIPATION AND COMMUNITY WORK

Teacher: Leonel Del Prado

Conceptual summary of the class 

Community: definitions, uses, and applications from the social sciences; Community work: histories, objectives, and current perspectives; The current context of community work: neoliberalism, social exclusion, and community work. Community work: dimensions (awareness-raising, mobilization, and organization). The difference between community work and other practices. Possible tasks. Classic texts on working with communities. Methodologies: what not to do. Tips for working.

CLASS 2: COMMUNITIES IN MOTION: TOOLS FOR UNDERSTANDING PARTICIPATORY EXPERIENCES

Teacher: Víctor Fernández González

Conceptual summary of the class

An analytical review is made of some specific experiences of community participation, examining how community participation relates to the expansion of democracy and social transformation.

In this sense, and taking into account the time constraints of the course, the aim is to account for a diversity of experiences that encompass participation with institutions and associations (Fung, 2003a; Ganuza & Francés, 2008), the impact of citizen participation on public policies or the political process (Eberhardt, 2015; Espinoza, 2004; Garrido-Vergara et al., 2016), focusing on processes of citizen participation or mechanisms of direct democracy (Lissidini, 2011; Schneider & Welp, 2015), or on the different ways in which groups, movements, collectives, and grassroots groups organize, plan, and make decisions (Red CIMAS, 2015; Svampa, 2010), incorporating, albeit more tangentially, approaches that articulate research, systematization of experiences, and promotion of participatory processes, such as Participatory Action Research or Sociopraxis (Falck & Paño, 2011; Fals Borda, 1999; Fung & Wright, 2003; Jara, 2018; Salazar, 2015; Vargas et al., 1984; Zibechi, 2007).

The way to address this broad range of issues will be by relating the experiences to two axes: on the one hand, to the theoretical discussion on participatory democracy (Balderacchi, 2016; Lissidini, 2015; Schneider & Welp, 2015; Fung & Wright, 2003; Villasante, 2017), and on the other hand, to a scale of participation (CIMAS Network, 2015) that links the types of participation with planning approaches, thereby breaking down the usual distinction between processes where participation can be promoted “from above”—that is, by state powers implementing mechanisms of citizen participation or direct democracy—or “from below”—that is, promoted by the citizens themselves, with social movements, grassroots organizations, and activist networks playing a leading role. What is important, however, is to emphasize how the participation of actors relates to the context of local political institutions.

It is expected, then, that students will learn about experiences and have the tools to understand and improve them.

CLASS 3: COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION: PROCESSES OF POLITICAL SUBJECTIVATION AND TERRITORIAL TRANSFORMATION

Teacher: Mercedes Oraison

Conceptual summary of the class: 

When we talk about community participation, we are referring to those processes of organization, mobilization, and management promoted by grassroots organizations and social leaders located, generally, in working-class neighborhoods. 

According to Maritza Montero (2003, p. 72) within the framework of such processes, the members of a community "jointly develop capacities and resources to control their life situation, acting in a committed, conscious and critical manner, to achieve the transformation of their environment according to their needs and aspirations, transforming themselves at the same time."

What distinguishes community participation from other forms of participation is the involvement of local actors who maintain cooperative relationships in pursuit of a common goal. Discussions surrounding community participation, among other issues, are linked to the capacity of the protagonists to generate real transformations through their influence on local political agendas. Within this framework, we can ask: To what extent are self-managed processes functional to the displacement of the State or can they contribute to building citizenship? Can community participation be understood as a way to consolidate, expand, or deepen a “proximity democracy”? (Annunziata, 2008; Schnapper, 2004). The indefinite use of the concept, which turns it into a kind of umbrella under which multiple forms of social convergence are sheltered, has led to the distinction of different degrees of participation (Arnstein, 1969; Hart, 1992; Novella and Trillas, 2001). The class is therefore oriented towards the discussion of the limits and potentialities of community participation based on the analysis of a participatory management experience in a community center in a popular neighborhood of Argentina. 

CLASS 1: METHODOLOGY AND PHASES OF A PARTICIPATORY PROCESS WITH SOCIOPRAXIS

Teachers: Antonio Álvarez-Benavides, Luis Arnanz and Néstor García.

Conceptual summary of the class:

During these years, the processes in which we have participated from the CIMAS Network have advised us to incorporate diverse approaches, methodologies and techniques in addition to Participatory Action Research, which is why we have selected this title. 

In the social sciences, there is much debate between quantitative and qualitative perspectives, and more recently, also with participatory approaches. A "pluralist" perspective that simply mixes these approaches is insufficient; we must know "what purpose?" (and "for whom?") each of them serves (their "episteme"). 

Although sociopraxis seeks to open up processes through the creativity of citizens, it's not about professionals solely serving the popular sectors, as if these sectors didn't have their own contradictions. Rather, it's about professionals contributing their knowledge precisely to uncover and make these processes more creative. Of course, this should be done without falling into the rigidity of techniques, as sometimes happens with the Logical Framework or some Community Plans, which appear more as corporate justifications than as democratic processes originating from the grassroots. Therefore, it's worth asking where to begin and what order to follow to be effective and bring about transformations through these methodologies.

To consider participatory methodologies as both engaging and transformative, an eight-step methodological design or development is proposed. The integration of participatory methodologies with other techniques (sociograms, flowcharts, multilemmas, weighted voting, etc.) implies the involvement of the participants in the design and implementation of the research itself, as well as in its action-oriented organization. This design plays with the notions of "opening to close" and "closing to open" (Villasante, 2007), which enable diverse processes through different steps, such as: self-reflection, initial negotiation, strategic mapping, active listening, social creativity workshops, prioritization of proposals, self-organizing structure, and overflow.

CLASS 2: PHASES OF A PARTICIPATORY PROCESS WITH SOCIOPRAXIS. STRATEGIC MAPPING WITH ACTOR NETWORKS 

Teacher: Gisela Signorelli and Mariano Suárez

Conceptual summary of the class 

The stages that characterize a participatory process methodologically oriented from a sociopractical perspective will be presented. This will allow for an understanding of the concept of a participatory process, rather than isolated techniques. There is an initial negotiation with the parties involved regarding the content of the stages and the possible timelines, but the framework is flexible, with different phases ranging from self-diagnosis (with creative feedback) to the execution and monitoring of the planned actions. 

In the second part of the class, the sociogram technique, or strategic mapping of actors and networks, is presented, addressing its usefulness in the context of the self-diagnosis phase. Through a practical example, its characteristics and operational conditions for application are explained, emphasizing its strategic nature for the process and the possibilities generated by working with action sets.  

CLASS 3: PARTICIPATORY TECHNIQUES

Teacher: Izaro Gorostidi

Conceptual summary of the class

After understanding and situating participatory methodologies, processes, and their organization, this session proposes exploring and learning about the different techniques that can be implemented in each phase of the participatory process. To this end, we will identify the different dimensions from which the research tools used in developing participatory and community processes are applied. We will then delve into the analysis of various techniques to understand their scope and limitations in each phase of a participatory process. Specifically, we will differentiate between two key moments in any participatory process. On the one hand, the diagnostic phase will be crucial in defining the opening techniques to delineate the discourses, problems, and actors involved in a given phenomenon. On the other hand, the closing phase is structured through the development of the Comprehensive Action Plan. From this perspective, we will present tools for opening the analysis and for closing it in the form of agreements, ranging from techniques such as sociograms, deliberative surveys, flowcharts, future seminars, and so on.

CLASS 1: GENDER, FEMINISMS AND PARTICIPATORY METHODOLOGIES FOR SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION

Teacher: Fernanda Palacios

Conceptual summary of the class  

The leading role of women in community life has a long history and a path of accumulated experience, learning, and knowledge, ranging from self-managed initiatives by social and territorial organizations and grassroots activism within women's and feminist organizations to initiatives developed by organizations, foundations, academic centers, and other civil society organizations and local institutions. This breadth of experiences and contexts presents common challenges that require ongoing conceptual and methodological updates.

The focus of this seminar is to draw on experience working with a gender perspective at the community level, updating conceptual and methodological frameworks to improve the effectiveness and impact of these experiences at the local and community levels. The intersection of a gender perspective, feminist epistemologies, and critical methodological approaches based on participatory methodologies seeks to generate collective knowledge oriented toward transformative praxis and the integration of academic and community knowledge to promote more just, safe, and free territories for the women and girls who live in them.

CLASS 2: DE(LIBERATION): CLIMATE-DEMOCRATIC CRISIS IN CENTRAL AMERICA 

Teacher: Azucena Morán

Conceptual summary of the class: 

This seminar proposes an analysis of citizen participation and the deliberative-participatory shift in Central America in the face of the current democratic-climate crisis. We will focus on the contradictions and ambivalences that emerge, for example, from the institutionalization of the right to prior, free, and informed consultation (ILO Convention 169) and the ecological transition. On the one hand, we will examine the criminalization of environmental defenders and Indigenous leaders, attempts to erode autonomous participatory processes, and the technocratic shift/professionalization of collective governance. On the other hand, we will consider the implications of extracting critical minerals for the energy transition and the generation of renewable energy in Central American sacrifice zones.

While the emphasis will be on the current responses of nation-states to the region's climate-democratic crisis, we will also engage in dialogue with the successes of social movements and collective resistance, such as the ban on metallic mining in Panama. The seminar aims to critically analyze the opportunities, limitations, and challenges involved in implementing and replicating participatory and deliberative processes in the face of the current climate-democratic crisis, drawing on regional experiences and histories. We will delve into the climate-democratic crises in the governments of Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Panama. Based on this analysis, students will develop the skills to situate diverse experiences of deliberative governance across the region within their social, historical, and political contexts.

CLASS 3: FACILITATORS IN TERRITORIAL PROCESSES FOR CAPACITY BUILDING. SUPPORT FROM IADT FOR THE DIALOGICAL TRANSFORMATION OF TERRITORIES

Teachers: Romina Rébola and Pablo Costamagna

Conceptual summary of the class  

From a territorial development perspective, support processes based on action research for territorial development are experiences of dialogue, facilitation, and participation that enable the building of intangible individual and collective capacities for territorial transformation. Through training processes and institutional political dialogue at the territorial level, stakeholders develop capacities for the sustainability of meeting spaces that allow them to address territorial problems and co-create collective solutions, deepening the democratization of territories through dialogue and participation. In this context, the roles of facilitators stimulate and connect the territorial process, generating dynamics of action that empower territorial stakeholders to make decisions. 

From the perspective of Territorial Development, it is vital to facilitate processes that can be carried out by various individuals or teams for the transformation and sustainability of social, political, cultural, and environmental processes in the territory.

This seminar aims to highlight the role of facilitators in local communities, within the methodological framework of our experience in action research-based support for territorial development. It proposes to share local experiences and reflections on these practices.

To participate, it is essential that you register using the online form.

Upon completion of the registration process, you will receive a confirmation in your email.

Classes will begin in June and will conclude in September 2024.

All registered participants will receive the necessary instructions to access the classes, bibliography and discussion forums through the CLACSO Virtual Training Space.

Accessing and navigating the Virtual Learning Environment is very simple and user-friendly. In any case, a technical and academic support team will always be available to you.

Exceptional Criteria: In exceptional cases, and within the first month of the start of the Advanced Diploma program, students may request to withdraw from the cohort and rejoin the following year. In all cases, the reasons for the request must be submitted in writing. After this initial period, no requests will be accepted.

Money paid will only be refunded in cases where the organizing institutions decide to cancel the activity. 

Payment can be made in one installment by credit card, bank deposit, or bank transfer. We also offer the option of paying in 3 installments.

Yes. There will be discounts for students belonging to CLACSO Member Centers and CLACSO Associated Centers, for CLACSO Associate Researchers, and for all those who pay within the discount period.