Burgerinitiatieven aan het woord: Naar een betere samenwerking tussen overheid en burgers

Abstract

With the welfare state gone, we are currently shaping a new kind of society: the participation society. The social arrangements granted by the local government will gradually diminish and citizens will be asked to step forward and fill this gap themselves. This gap is currently mostly filled by active citizens getting together and form initiatives in order to arrange their own lives and those of others. Since citizens’ initiatives are now taking over tasks of local government, a collaboration between the two is inevitable. A lot of research has been done to map out the conditions and consequences of this private and public collaboration. However, little research has focused on the perceptions of citizens and their point of view on how local government can improve their role as collaborator. In this qualitative study, 15 citizens’ initiatives have been presented with that very question. Initiatives point out the need of local government to take the role of facilitator: giving initiatives enough possibilities to be responsible and on the other hand, giving a helping hand when needed. One other finding suggest that local government has to rethink their profiling towards society.