Public Spending, By the People: Participatory Budgeting in the United States and Canada in 2014-15

Author: Public Agenda Abstract: From 2014 to 2015, more than 70,000 residents across the United States and Canada directly decided how their cities and districts should spend nearly $50 million in public funds through a process known as participatory budgeting (PB). PB is among the fastest growing forms of public […]

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The Civics of Community Development: Participatory Budgeting in Chicago

Authors: Rachel Weber, Thea Crum & Eduardo Salinas (2015) Abstract: We investigate the relationship between community organizations and the implementation of a multi-ward participatory budgeting (PB) process in Chicago. Drawing on observations and surveys administered during 2012–2013, we find that participation in PB varied across the four wards, as did […]

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Marketing Diversity and the ‘New’ Politics of Desegregation: Insights from An Urban Education Ethnography GCP-12-1

Situating ethnographic methods within a framework of engaged research we offer a window into the adoption, implementation, and sociopolitical dilemmas of 15 African American males participating in an Initiative designed to maintain diversity at one of Chicago's most successful and elite public high schools.

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From Gray Areas to New Communities: Lessons and Issues from Comprehensive U.S. Neighborhood Initiatives GCP-10-02

This paper examines the issues embedded in both the comprehensive aspirations and neighborhood focus in approaches towards fighting poverty, campaigning for better conditions and providing education and social services to residents; this is done through exploration of a brief history of major initiatives, and the lessons and needs for the future suggested by that history.

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