Examining the voluntary deployment of people without a disability on behalf of people with disabilities: “Verwenzorg” (“LC”) as an example In the Netherlands, a transformation is taking place from the traditional welfare state to a civil society with active citizens. The aim of this study is to give …

Emerging during the negotiations for the unratified Constitutional Treaty and officially launched with the Treaty of Lisbon, the European Citizens' Initiative allows citizens to invite the European Commission to propose legislation to the European Parliament and the Council based on an idea which gathers …

A dialogue with fieldworkers, managers, researchers and officials centering around livability and civic initiatives

When citizens’ initiatives stop: a case-study in the rural areas of the Netherlands

When citizens’ initiatives stop: a case-study in the rural areas of the Netherlands

In the shift towards the Big Society, it is widely proclaimed that citizen participation and citizens’ initiatives are indispensable to maintaining services that used to be run by local or regional governments. Despite the increased interest in citizens’ initiatives, research has scarcely debated what …

Since the 1980s, many initiatives have attempted to tackle the deprivation currently experienced in South Rotterdam. Efforts have been made to attract creative workers and, in a counter-reaction, other initiatives have aimed to encourage the creative talents of poorer residents to strengthen their …

In our recently started multiple case study - funded by the Netherlands Scientific Board (NWO) - on these processes of collaboration, we focused on the dynamics in growing partnerships between citizens, community social workers and civil servants. Three cases of social neighbourhood initiatives are presented …

A year later, in 2013, the Westerkwartier Area Cooperative was established – a new form of cooperation at the regional level, involving hundreds of dairy farmers, other SMEs, Terra MBO as the representative of the knowledge institutions in the region, the National Forest Service in the Netherlands (‘Staatsbosbeheer’), …

Citizen participation is booming, especially the number of urban bottom-up initiatives where information and communication technologies (ICT) are deployed is increasing rapidly. This growth is good news for society as recent historical research shows that the more citizens actively and persistently interfere …