Inclusion through participation: approaches, strategies and methods

Making space for the inclusion of individuals is the foundation of any participatory process. What is required is a willingness to give up some power of control over situations, understood in political, scientific or technical terms, and a recognition of the “access rights” of all stakeholders to decision-making. Accordingly, in participation processes, inclusion and exclusion assume special importance. In a debate that is essentially structured around possibilities, but also the critical issues that are closely related to participation experiences, analysis reflects on the merits of initiatives put in place to identify impact and evaluate outcomes. Seeking a correlation between inclusion and participation means trying to analyse the processes whereby participation possibilities are closely linked to the key questions of inclusion: What are the reasons and the opportunities for participation? Who are the subjects involved? Which relationships can be established? How and what should be assessed for similar patterns? In our paper, we will deepen this issue in a theoretical way and with an analysis of a project of participatory planning which highlight several categories of inclusive participation, the ways of promotion of educational alliances and some model risks identified in a specific context.