Children’s participatory scenarios.

Opportunities for co-production in municipalities

Abstract

The new governance frameworks require an inclusive citizenship from which to conceptualise and plan local participation. In the case of children and adolescents, citizen participation is developed in scenarios promoted at the institutional level or by themselves as an organised collective. These scenarios favour co-production processes through actions that have an impact on the municipal policy. On the one hand, this paper seeks to explore the density of participation scenarios that exist in municipalities, as well as the variables that define the existence of mono-scenarios and multi-scenarios. On the other hand, it aims to characterise the three scenarios of childhood and adolescent participation for municipal co-production. An exploratory and descriptive study was carried out using two-stage cluster sampling. For the collection of information, a self-administered online survey was carried out with 176 municipal technical personnel. Quantitative data were analysed using SPSS V. 25 statistical software, and textual data were analysed using a combination of two techniques: multidimensional analysis using Iramuteq software and content analysis. The results show that those municipalities with the highest density of participatory scenarios are more densely populated, have a longer history of participatory policies and/or greater technical dedication, the dominant scenario being the municipal body. The predominant form of participation in the three scenarios is consultative, followed by projective, with the actions that characterise each scenario being identified. The conclusions show the need to amplify the number of scenarios that coexist and contribute, and that in these scenarios, five levels of children's co-production are established: awareness-raising and sensitisation; promotion and defence; diagnostic; organisational; and strategic or macro-political.