Sixteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

Policy-makers face socially and ethically sensitive problems which demand public participation methods in the policy process, but struggle to employ these effectively. Existing participatory approaches (e.g. town hall meetings or participatory budgeting) suffer from representation issues, high costs or high barriers to participation. On the other hand, traditional evaluation methodologies such as Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) have too a narrow focus to appropriately grasp the societal value of policy options, as they equate public and private valuations. The Participatory Value Evaluation (PVE) method exhibits promising innovations in terms of both participation and evaluation, which could help catalyse sustainable transitions. In a PVE, citizens design their future energy, circular or water system given such constraints as limited budgets or sustainability targets. Their individual choices are included in behavioural choice models that form the basis for policy evaluation. Several experiments have been carried out in different settings, but PVE needs further improvement before it can be applied in a general way by policy-makers. We seek to refine the participatory aspects of the PVE method so that it fulfils the demands of citizens and policy-makers alike. At the same time we hope to provide useful insights for other methods. We review the current limitations (and possible solutions) for top-down participatory methods used in ethically and socially sensitive decision-making. We also look to bottom-up approaches for inspiration with regard to the characteristics citizens might find desirable. In the light of our findings, we define research goals for the further development of PVE.