Participatory co-engineering with citizens of the Drôme River Basin

Abstract

This paper investigates a participatory process set up in the Drôme river basin to get citizens to support the updating of the water management scheme. Some citizens were engaged at an early stage in selecting and structuring their own participatory process. Such co-engineering raised their awareness about the importance of these decisions, fostered social learning and triggered conditions for an efficient regulation. It clarified the links between participation and institutional governance. But co-engineering was abstract for participants. Co-engineering requires clear participation rules and sufficient awareness of the issues and vocabulary of participation. To conclude we propose adjustments to the co-engineering of participation according to the expectations and resources available.