A community garden, robotics classes for children, or cooking for local residents. Citizens' initiatives come in all shapes and sizes. But how do citizens arrive at this 'collective action'? And what is the relationship, including in terms of grants, between citizens' initiatives and the government? Steven Blok of Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences (ESSB) went to see numerous citizens' initiatives for his dissertation and asked mayors and students to maintain virtual community gardens.
For your research, you played a game with mayors that involved their having to maintain a virtual community garden. Later, you did the same with students. How does that work?
“A community garden is perhaps one of the best-known examples of citizens’ initiatives. During the game, participants have to maintain a virtual community garden together. They can indicate how many hours they are prepared to invest. The mayors played a physical game involving maps and manual calculations, and later we developed this into an app so that we could also play the game with students in an accessible way. In some rounds, no talking is allowed, but there are also rounds where consultations are permitted. Fines are also handed out if the garden is in poor shape.”
What did you deduce from this?
“Fines turn out to have different effects. Students started behaving better and investing more time in the community garden. Mayors, however, showed reduced commitment. My explanation is that they factored in the fact that they were not being fined. In addition, consultation proves to be very important. When participants are able to consult each other, they are more likely to take the lead and show willingness to invest time in the garden. Students invested about five hours a week, which was more than I expected. That said, at some point, students do start trying to see how little they can get away with. They want to find out what will happen if they invest only two hours."
Can you recall any funny situations?
"I laughed a lot reading the chats. The students often took each other to task over bad behaviour. This often came with a lot of humour. For example, someone threatened to call Frank Visser (presenter of the Rijdende Rechter TV programme). Among the mayors, there was a female participant who was working the system. She encouraged everyone to invest many hours and was manipulative towards the other participants. In the end, it turned out that she herself had spent no time at all maintaining the garden - but nonetheless gained the maximum advantage."
You also looked at the role played by grants. What are your findings?
"I did some fieldwork and went to see a number of citizens’ initiatives, from a butterfly garden to robotics classes for children, and looked at what the grant relationship did to the motivation of initiators. The 'crowding-out' theory holds that motivation can be crowded out by a financial incentive. That proved not always to be true. At the same time, the grant relationship is relatively central. Those involved assume there will be a pot somewhere if they come up with a good plan. In other words, there is a kind of belief in market forces. Having said that, this can also make citizens’ initiatives something exclusive. Only the group that knows where to find the pots and has the mental space can navigate their way to grants."
You also write in your dissertation that the relationship with the government is changing. Does that also pose a risk?
"The government is increasingly relaxing its hold and expects society itself to come up with solutions. However, my research shows that this doesn’t always work this way. Policy texts often use lofty words about how citizens’ initiatives empower vulnerable residents. Reality is often a lot harsher, though. It is usually specific citizens who take the lead and certain groups do not benefit at all. Even within citizens’ initiatives, you see a certain hierarchy and some stakeholders have much more influence than others."
The Senate will shortly discuss a bill explicitly mentioning the role of citizens' initiatives. What do you make of that?
"I think it’s good that residents' rights are being broadened, but there is one aspect I still find problematic. That is the right to challenge the government. If you think you can do something cheaper or better, you can challenge the government. Consider, for example, maintenance of green spaces in the neighbourhood. I find that a troublesome form of control. This way, you don’t have initiatives that aim to do something good for your neighbourhood or fellow human beings, but rather find yourself pressed into the mould of an implementing organisation. You also have to produce financial accounts and start signing contracts."
What would you recommend?
"Start by asking: Why do you want to encourage citizens’ initiatives? What do we value? Otherwise, you end up taking a scatter-gun approach. What I also saw was that many stakeholders value appreciation, from the neighbourhood or the municipality. This is very different from having to comply with a check list (based on the right to challenge). Officials showing their commitment and paying visits, neighbourhood brokers, for example, that worked really well. You have to keep giving people space to come up with something on their own. Government putting constraints on everything deprives society of the energy to take initiative."
- PhD student
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