EXAMPLE CASE STUDY

STAKEHOLDERS AND PARTICIPATION

Case Background

A  hypothetical  medium-­‐sized  municipality  in  the  north  of  the  Netherlands  has  been  working  on  increasing  participation  of  their  inhabitants  in  policy-­‐making.    They  have  recently  made  some  changes  in  their  policy  and   now   they   wish   to   find   out   whether   the   inhabitants   of   their   municipality   felt   that   there   were  sufficiently  included  in  these  decisions.  To  be  able  to  measure  this  they  use  StoryTeller  suite  and  send  out  an   inquiry   to   500   people   in   their   municipality.     Because   the   municipality   was   aiming   to   conduct   this  inquiry  again  over  a  period  of  time,  they  also  included  a  question  on  when  the  event  described  in  the  story  to  place  to  be  able  to  measure  whether  this  would  change  over  time.    

Inquiry  

Could  you  share  a  story  about  a  time  you  tried  to  influence  the  decisions  made  in  your  municipality?    

1. This  story  relates  to  (please  select  a  maximum  of  two):    • Education    • Safety    • Traffic  • Buildings  • Construction  permits  • Parking    • Elderly  care    • Social  cohesion    • Community  initiative    

 2. The  tone  of  your  story  is:    

   

3. Who  was  affected  or  benefitted  the  most  from  your  influence?      

 

Very  positive   Very  negative

People  who  were  most  involved  with  what  you  influenced

The  whole  community  

Municipal  officials

 2  

4. How  do  you  think  your  input  in  municipality  decision-­‐making  could  be  expanded:    

5. How  did  people  feel  about  your  input  in  the  community?    

6. Your  influence  on  the  decision(s)  was:      

 7. Your  example  of  a  story  with  influence  on  municipality  decision-­‐making:    

 8. Who  can  influence  decisions  in  your  municipality:    

• Owners  of  restaurants,  hotels,  shops  and  businesses    • Youth    • Elderly  people    • International  actors  (such  as  the  EU  or  the  UN)    • National  politicians    • Local  politicians    • Local  celebrities    • Religious  leaders    • Interest  and  advocacy  groups    • Students    

 

 

Resources Platform  

Connections/Network

Indifferent Divided  

United  

Very  positive   Very  negative

Is  an  exception    Happens  frequently  

 3  

 

9. When  did  this  story  take  place?    • Last  month    • More  than  a  month  ago  • More  than  six  month  ago  • More  than  a  year  ago    • More  than  two  years  ago    

 10. In  which  region  of  the  municipality  do  you  live?  Tap  on  the  picture  to  indicate  where  your  house  

is  approximately.    

 

11.  Age  group  of  respondent:    

• <12  years  • 12  –  18  years  • 18  –  29  years  • 30  –  44  years  • 45  –  59  years  • >60  years  

12.  Gender  of  respondent:    

• Male    • Female    

 4  

ANALYSIS

After  gathering  all  the  stories,  the  analysis  can  begin.  From  the  first  question  we  can  see  that  many  of  the  stories  given  related  safety,  social  cohesion  or  community  initiative.    

 

From   the   third   question,   it   appears   that   quite   a   lot   of   people   considered   the   whole   community   to   be  affected  or  benefitted  from  what  the  story  described.    

3.  Who  was  affected  or  benefitted  the  most  from  your  influence?      

The  fourth  question  showed  that  the  input  in  decision-­‐making  could  be  expanded  through  access  through  a  platform  of  influence.  If  the  municipality  is  looking  for  ways  to  increase  input  from  its  inhabitants  into  its  decision-­‐making  this  would  be  a  field  where  that  could  be  improved,  according  to  the  people  that  gave  their  stories  in  this  inquiry.    

 

 

 

1.  The  story  relates  to:  

Education    

Safety    

Trafeic  

Buildings  

Construction  permits  

Parking    

Elderly  care    

Social  cohesion    

Community  initiative    

People  who  were  most  involved  with  what  you  influenced

The  whole  community  

Municipal  officials

 5  

4.  How  do  you  think  your  input  in  municipality  decision-­‐making  could  be  expanded:    

The  cases  described  in  the  stories  appear  to  happen  frequently  and  since  these  results  are  significant  they  provide  information  about  how  often  the  stories  described  in  this  inquiry  appear.    

 

Next,   it   is   possible   to   look   at   some   questions   in   combination  with   classifier   questions   such   as   age   and  location.  Only  the  significant  and  relevant  combinations  of  questions  will  be  provided.    

A  combination  of  question  2  and  classifier  question  10  leads  to  the  following  picture.  From  this  picture  it  can   be   seen   that   the   people   living   in   the   area   that   is   classified   as   ‘Noord’,   were   very   positive   in   their  stories.  Contrary  to  that,  the  people  living  in  the  areas  ‘Centrum’,   ‘Zuidoost’  and  ‘Noordoost’  were  not  as  positive   with   their   stories   and   attached   negative   values   to   theirs.   To   learn   from   where   input   in  municipality  decision-­‐making  was  successful  it  would  be  worth  looking  at  the  individual  stories  of  those  living  in  the  ‘Noord’  area.  On  the  other  hand,  the  individual  stories  of  those  living  in  ‘Centrum’,  ‘Zuidoost’  and  ‘Noordoost’  would  provide  information  on  where  and  how  this  input  could  be  improved.    

 

 

 

 

 

7.  The  case  described  in  your  story:  

Happens  frequently  

Is  an  exception  

Resources Platform  

Connections/Network

 6  

2.  The  tone  of  your  story  is  &  10.  In  which  region  of  the  municipality  do  you  live?    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another  combination  that  yielded  significant  results  was  the  combination  of  positive  or  negative  with  age.  We   can   see  here   that   the   groups   aged  between  18-­‐29  years,   above  60  years   and   the  12  –  18   years   old  group   attached   positive   values   to   their   stories.   On   the   other   hand,   the   group   30   –   44   years   attached  negative   values   to   their   stories   and   indicates   that   this   group   has   many   stories   where   input     into  municipality  decision-­‐making  was  not  valued  or  used.    

6.  Your  influence  on  the  decisions  was  &  11.  Age  group  of  respondents.    

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

Very  positive   Very  negative

Very  positive   Very  negative

z  

Noord  

Zuid  

Oost    

West    

Centrum  

Zuidoost    

Zuidwest    

Noordoost    

Noordwest  

Other  

<12  years  12  –  18  years  

18  –  29  years  

30  –  44  years  

45  –  59  years  

>  60  years