Towards tailor-made participation: how to involve different types of citizens in participatory governance

Public participation has become an important element of governance in many Western European countries. However, among scholars and practitioners there is a recognition that participatory governance processes tend to produce systematic exclusions. Knowledge about 'who' participates and 'how' they participate can enhance our understanding of participatory processes. This paper presents some characterisations of citizens based on a review of the literature on participation. In addition, examples of how to tailor participation for different type of citizens are provided based on studies of urban regeneration programmes and local environmental initiatives in Denmark. The paper concludes that in order to broaden the inclusion of affected citizens, public authorities need to be tailor participation processes by applying distinct approaches to different types of citizens