Medborgardialog – för vem? En kritisk fallstudie om konkurrerande mål och ambitioner i Göteborgs Stad

Abstract

This report takes its departure in deliberation as an ideal, and the idea that dialogue can be a means to decrease segregation, increase democratic participation and to contribute to higher trust in politicians. In 2014 seven principles for participatory dialogue was adopted by the city of Gothenburg. The aim with this report is to investigate how the theory of governmentality can increase an understanding of citizen participation and the seven principles for dialogues. The aim is also to generate an understanding of what unpredictable effects that follow participatory dialogue as a method to reach deliberative effects. The report poses the following questions: What actors and ideas contribute to different perspectives of participatory dialogue in Gothenburg? What objectives and problems of practical implementation do actors involved in the participatory dialogue in the city of Gothenburg express? What view of citizens emerges? The analysis is based on eight interviews with officials and citizens that participated in consultations. Documents from the city of Gothenburg and Älvstaden and three observations are also part of the material. The conclusion of the report emphasises that competing programs are at work in the city of Gothenburg and Vision Älvstaden, as a deliberative rationality concurs with a rationality of neoliberal urbanism. By this follows problems when implementing dialogue, i.e. problems in formulating a common language and understanding for the work with participatory dialogue. The report hence stresses the importance of actors being aware of contradictory and conflicting programs and rationalities to be able to use dialogue as a tool that, at best, generate deliberative values.