The research study builds on the findings of the 2005 Citizenship Survey on involvement in citizenship governance roles.

It provides an insight into people's awareness and knowledge of citizen governance, the barriers and motivations to involvement and the types of people who get involved in these roles.

The findings show that the concept of citizen governance is not well understood, and the report considers what more needs to be done to promote the concept.

The research was commissioned to support the government’s “Together We Can” action plan which aims to empower citizens to work with public bodies to set and achieve common goals.

The key objective of the research was to provide information which would inform policies aimed at supporting and sustaining more effective citizen governance.

The research comprised 13 focus group discussions which were held in towns and cities in the North, Midlands and the South of England. A mix of younger (age 16-40) and older (age 41+) respondents was used to ensure that the focus groups covered all ages.

Respondents included people who currently were participating in their community either in a governance role or with some involvement of a decision making committee, and people who had a lower level of involvement.

It was found that the concept of citizen governance is not well understood and there is little distinction in people’s minds between volunteering and citizen governance.

There is a widespread misconception that citizen governance roles are not open to ‘ordinary people’ therefore there is a need for them to be promoted to the general public as accessible and feasible options, together with the building up of skills and confidence.

Motivations for getting involved can be positive, eg wanting to contribute to the local community, or negative, eg protesting about proposed changes to local services. There was some suspicion about people’s motivations for getting involved in governance roles, eg in gaining a degree of power, whereas volunteering was seen to be largely philanthropic.

The most common barrier to involvement was time or the lack of it, and so the report recommends that governance roles should be presented on a sliding scale of time and commitment. Acknowledgement and support measures need to be in place to sustain those who have made a commitment to their community.

Department for Communities and Local Government
Phone: +44 20 7944 4400
contactus@communities.gsi.gov.uk

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01/01/2007

TNS Social

research

Urban Policy > Social inclusion & integration > Community development

Citizens' participation