Abstract :
In the development of participatory approaches, evaluations of the participatory practices have been increasingly discussed due to the different conceptualizations of participation: whether it was a means to an end, or an end in itself. On the other hand, regardless of the conceptualizations of participation, there has been a tendency to evaluate participatory practices using pre-defined criteria of success. However, the present study argues that each participatory practice should be evaluated by all of its participants by developing a shared understanding and agreed-upon criteria of success, since such an evaluation process should take into account the uniqueness of each locality and each participatory practice, and the participation right of the individual in the evaluation process. As such, to reveal the requirements for the individual evaluation of each participatory experience, this study aims to explore the differences between the success definitions of different participant groups from contextually different settings in Turkey: Gazi (Samsun), Kaymaklı (Nevşehir), Odunpazarı (Eskişehir) and Seyrek (İzmir), which have the same project objectives as partners in the Local Government and NGO Cooperation in the Participatory Democracy project. For this exploratory case study, in-depth interviews were conducted with participants from four localities covered in the case project to obtain subjective descriptions of their definitions of success. At the end, the study has revealed that the respondents from each locality defined success in different ways, including, but not confined to attributes of the “process,” “end products,” “personal,” “interpersonal” and “cultural-contextual” content groups. Moreover, success definition of the participant groups revealed that they conceptualized participation either as an end in itself or both as a means to an end and as an end in itself. Additionally, this study explored the relationship between the socio-economic development levels of localities and the definitions of success of the participant groups in these localities.
NaturalLanguageKeyword :
participatory practice , participation as a means to an end , participation as an end in itself , success definition , success attributes.
