Understanding Participatory Policymaking Processes: Discourse Analysis in Psychosociological Action Research

Worldwide participatory policymaking with civil society has become a case in point for new patterns of governance at different levels. The enhancement of public services’ quality compels intertwined challenges to participants, be they citizens, politicians, or civil servants. Given the limited attention that scientific literature has paid to understanding how roles and functions of civil servants are demanded to change through participatory processes, an exploratory action research was run in 2012 with 29 civil servants of the Municipality of Lisbon. Civil servants were all engaged in—at least—one of the four participatory processes run by the administration at that time: Participatory Budget; Bip/Zip; Local Agenda 21; Simplis. The action research was aimed at grasping the psychological change-driven dynamics played between these subjects, with the support of psychosociological theories and methods. Focusing on the analysis of the discourse, as one of the methods employed towards this end, this text focuses on the specific methodological apparatus of the discourse analysis approach. This contribution will hopefully open to further studies on discourse analysis in action research, and enhance the overall debate on the employment of qualitative methods in participatory policymaking studies.