Urban district councils as key actors in city participation: The example of Gdańsk

Abstract

The article presents the issue of the functioning of district councils in the context of participatory processes in the city, using the example of Gdańsk. Neighborhood councils are subsidiary bodies of the municipality, elected by popular vote. However, their competences are limited and usually limited to giving opinions on municipal investments and conducting consultations with residents. District councils can be seen as actors in participatory processes, actively involved in initiating them. Based on a preliminary literature review, the following research questions were formulated:

1) What role do district councils play in organizing and implementing these processes? 2) What is the scope of their competencies? 3) What challenges do they face in the context of local participation? 4) How can the quality of participatory processes in the city be improved? This allowed for the achievement of the goal, which was to identify areas for improving participatory processes in the city, where district councils are the main initiators. Several research methods were used in the study: case study, participant observation, in-depth individual interviews (IDI), and the comparative method. The results indicate that district councils face many problems, including: 1) underfunding, 2) lack of standard communication with the city hall, 3) absence of legal regulations concerning the functioning of district councils, 4) low stakeholder activity. Based on this, three areas of action were identified: public administration reform, reorganization of participatory processes, and education. These changes should be initiated at the national level to standardize the functioning of district councils in Polish cities. Due to the use of qualitative methods and the narrowing of the research area to Gdańsk, the study should be expanded in the future to include the analysis of a larger number of cities and the use of quantitative methods.