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Participatory budget for Lodz – Building human capital, local awareness and spatial change through locally driven projects

Participatory Budget in Łódź was introduced in 2013. Four editions (2014-2017) were completed till the moment of the RELOCAL project research. The Participatory Budget in Łódź is implemented every year as a part of the local budget of the city of Łódź, thus the action is relatively mature. It is continuously monitored and changed (improved) after experiences of each edition. The participatory budget follows up on previous initiative (the project “The Voice of In-habitants Matters”) that was undertaken in 4 (out of 36) housing estate units in 2012.

The idea of Participatory Budget in Łódź was prepared and implemented by local self-government who leads the action today, however, the operationalization of particular activities might involve NGOs, neighbourhoods, local activists, and individuals. All these stakeholders are involved in the action, in its initial phase especially, when submitting project proposals. Participatory budget in Łódź is one of the tools implementing the Development Strategy of Łódź 2020+ within locally driven projects. This is bottom-up, place-based decision-making and development action through small-scale, local projects. The action is focused on building human capital, local awareness and spatial change.

At every level of action (planning, promoting, selecting, and delivering of local projects), Participatory Budget in Łódź ties of local neighbourhoods, and increase people’s place-identities. The people become responsible for identifying places characterized by social injustice. Thus, even if particular project is not accepted through the voting regarding investigated project, this will be well explained suggestion about social inequalities, and the spatial context of inequalities is underlined.

For more information on this Case Study, please contact: Karolina Dmochowska-Dudek – University of Lodz (karolina.dmochowska@geo.uni.lodz.pl)

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