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'Darker side to participation' revealed in Pathways Through Participation report 1

Governance | Niki May Young | 19 Sep 2011

Participation can lead to stress, anxiety and burnout, and ultimately lead to non-participation in the long-term, warns NCVO’s recently released Pathways Through Participation report.

The report found that if people have a poor quality experience, or are faced with a lack of resources, they are likely to suffer ill-effects that lead to their termination of voluntary participation, and the unlikelihood of participating in the future.

Generated as a tool for improved participation experience, the Pathways Through Participation report, researched by NCVO, IVR and Involve over the past two-and-a-half years, warned that “participation can have a dark side”, with factors such as individuals taking on too much responsibility and a culture of cliqueness or exclusivity leading to withdrawal from participation.

Some interviewees expressed a feeling of being bullied or over-burdened in their voluntary participation roles. Power-struggles and conflicts were noted from small to large organizations and tensions were said to have caused problems in participants’ personal lives.

Public participation

Faring worst, however, was the experience of those participating in public consultations which had “almost always been negative”. Interviewees spoke of the process feeling ‘tokenistic’ or repetitious, or that decisions appeared to have been made before the consultation was carried out.

“For many interviewees, negative experiences of consultation reinforced an existing sense of ambivalence and lack of trust in political processes in general,” the report states.

“The design and management of public consultations should be improved, so that participants feel it is worth taking part and that their contribution can make a difference,” it advised.

Sir Stuart Etherington, chief executive of NCVO who wrote the publication’s foreword, said:
“We hope that policy-makers, practitioners and researchers will find this report useful in developing a richer and fuller understanding of how and why people participate, and what makes them start and continue (and stop) participating. Beyond promoting understanding, we hope that this report will help institutions and organisations find ways in which they can support and encourage opportunities for participation that better meet people’s aspirations and expectations.”

Further support is needed both within and for organisations to encourage participation, the report said: 

“Improving participation opportunities requires starting where people are and taking account of their concerns and interests, providing a range of opportunities and levels of involvement so people can feel comfortable with taking part, and using the personal approach to invite and welcome people in.

"Support is needed to enable organisations and groups to learn how to operate more effectively and therefore sustain people’s interest and involvement. It is vital to value people’s experience and what they do, at whatever level of intensity," it added.  

Participants' low self-esteem

The report also highlighted the personal profile of a typical participant, with particularly negative results.

Participants used terms such as ‘busybody’, ‘a bit of a loner’ ‘control freak’, ‘lazy’, ‘bossy’ or ‘shy’ to describe themselves and expressed concerns about the way they were viewed by others, such as ‘naïve’ in their willingness to work for free. Some said their participation was to “fulfill a sense of self-worth”

Participants were also critical of other participants, some claiming that others were ‘selfrighteous’, ‘holier-than-thou’ or ‘selfish and with ulterior motives’.

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Directory: National Council of Voluntary Organisations (NCVO)
Who's Who: Sir Stuart Etherington